Drying in the Breeze: My Easy on the Eyes Clothesline

I love the smell of lined dry clothes, and you can't beat the savings of a clothesline. When we purchased our home last year I immediately looked into setting up a clothesline so we could dry outdoors. Growing up, we had a pole like this in our backyard, only ours was much more rusty.

:-)

I had misgivings about setting up a similar set of poles in our yard, mainly because I would have to look at them year round in all their ugliness. Our area doesn't have great weather, so we spend a large amount of time sitting indoors looking outdoors. So, I put my little mind to work coming up with a better solution than metal poles.

Lo, and behold, Walmart had the perfect piece missing from my puzzle. I found retractable clotheslines that can be mounted on the wall, attached to hooks to form a line, or retracted and folded to stay out of the way. And the price was perfect.

Lover sunk two wooden posts into the ground across from the garage, and mounted the clotheslines for me. Here's what the clothesline looks like on the days I use it.

The clothesline part has a little doohickey (actual technical term) underneath that you wrap the line around to secure it and keep it taut.

When not in use, you simply unhook the line (the eye of the line goes over a hook on the posts) and allow it to retract, folding the device against the wall.

Genius! When I'm not using the line, you hardly notice the posts, especially because of the beautiful Morning Glories climbing all over them.

In case you are as inspired as I was, and want to copy my setup, here's a link to a similar model on Amazon.com, although the ones I got at Walmart were about $5.00 cheaper. Sorry! Enjoy your lovely line dried clothes, and the extra money in your pocket.

Drying in the Breeze: My Easy on the Eyes Clothesline

I love the smell of lined dry clothes, and you can't beat the savings of a clothesline. When we purchased our home last year I immediately looked into setting up a clothesline so we could dry outdoors. Growing up, we had a pole like this in our backyard, only ours was much more rusty.

:-)

I had misgivings about setting up a similar set of poles in our yard, mainly because I would have to look at them year round in all their ugliness. Our area doesn't have great weather, so we spend a large amount of time sitting indoors looking outdoors. So, I put my little mind to work coming up with a better solution than metal poles.

Lo, and behold, Walmart had the perfect piece missing from my puzzle. I found retractable clotheslines that can be mounted on the wall, attached to hooks to form a line, or retracted and folded to stay out of the way. And the price was perfect.

Lover sunk two wooden posts into the ground across from the garage, and mounted the clotheslines for me. Here's what the clothesline looks like on the days I use it.

The clothesline part has a little doohickey (actual technical term) underneath that you wrap the line around to secure it and keep it taut.

When not in use, you simply unhook the line (the eye of the line goes over a hook on the posts) and allow it to retract, folding the device against the wall.

Genius! When I'm not using the line, you hardly notice the posts, especially because of the beautiful Morning Glories climbing all over them.

In case you are as inspired as I was, and want to copy my setup, here's a link to a similar model on Amazon.com, although the ones I got at Walmart were about $5.00 cheaper. Sorry! Enjoy your lovely line dried clothes, and the extra money in your pocket.

July 2009 Recap

July was a very busy month, with something going on every weekend, and lots of projects during the week. Lover spent three days in NJ, which allowed me to finish up some projects we've been working on. We also threw our yearly Culoare Zi party and took a week long vacation to Wisconsin. Here's how we did on our year's goals this month:

• Go camping We went once this month, and it was a blast. Camping is so relaxing and stress-free. Wish we could go more often!
• Go to the Renaissance Festival We went and had a great time, as seen in the post below.
• Throw 2-3 good parties this year. Culoare Zi: The Year of Yellow was a smashing success, despite copious amounts of rain. Pictures to come soon.
• Plant a vegetable garden. The peas were yummy, as were the blackberries. The cukes are growing quickly, we have baby peppers and little cherry tomatoes. The canteloupe are still flowering, no sign of fruit yet. Hopefully we'll get to taste the fruit of all our labor, before the bunnies and groundhogs get to them.
• Go to Wisconsin We spent four days with Lover's grandparents in Wisconsin, and had a great time. It was nice to catch up with them, and some other friends along the way home.
• Read 12 non-fiction books. I finished a Chance to Die in Wisconsin last week. Definitely an interesting read on the life of Amy Carmichael. Non fiction books read year to date: 3

In addition to these goals, we also:

• Made freezer jam
• Painted the front door
• Refinished a dresser
• Replaced the bushes in the front of the house
• Saw lots of family and friends

Can't believe more than half of 2009 is over!

July 2009 Recap

July was a very busy month, with something going on every weekend, and lots of projects during the week. Lover spent three days in NJ, which allowed me to finish up some projects we've been working on. We also threw our yearly Culoare Zi party and took a week long vacation to Wisconsin. Here's how we did on our year's goals this month:

• Go camping We went once this month, and it was a blast. Camping is so relaxing and stress-free. Wish we could go more often!
• Go to the Renaissance Festival We went and had a great time, as seen in the post below.
• Throw 2-3 good parties this year. Culoare Zi: The Year of Yellow was a smashing success, despite copious amounts of rain. Pictures to come soon.
• Plant a vegetable garden. The peas were yummy, as were the blackberries. The cukes are growing quickly, we have baby peppers and little cherry tomatoes. The canteloupe are still flowering, no sign of fruit yet. Hopefully we'll get to taste the fruit of all our labor, before the bunnies and groundhogs get to them.
• Go to Wisconsin We spent four days with Lover's grandparents in Wisconsin, and had a great time. It was nice to catch up with them, and some other friends along the way home.
• Read 12 non-fiction books. I finished a Chance to Die in Wisconsin last week. Definitely an interesting read on the life of Amy Carmichael. Non fiction books read year to date: 3

In addition to these goals, we also:

• Made freezer jam
• Painted the front door
• Refinished a dresser
• Replaced the bushes in the front of the house
• Saw lots of family and friends

Can't believe more than half of 2009 is over!

Project Curb Appeal: Part 1

Part one of our curbside renovation is complete! If you recall, the plan is multifaceted and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Have the stucco professionally powerwashed to get rid of muck, dirt and mold. Eww!
• Paint the door, windowsills and gables in a soft forest-y green to coordinate with the yellow stucco. (No more orange, hurrah!) Paint the front porch floor too.
• Replace the porch light fixture
• Replace the old, broken down, mostly dead evergreen bushes.
• Repair the concrete stairs.
• Add some nice landscaping to the front.

Part one was replacing the bushes with fresh pretty ones.

Here's the before:

And the after:

Updating the bushes meant tearing out the mostly dead evergreen bushes, which my very strong lover accomplished in about an hour. Seriously people, this would have taken me a few days if I had tried to tackle this part of the project. He attacked those bushes with vigor, and one hour later there were no bushes to be seen, and the only casualty was an old shovel. :-)

Next up was some fresh dirt mixed in with the old stuff, to give the new bushes a head start. We have a planter in the backyard that we're working on removing, so we simply transplanted the dirt from back to front.

Then we laid out our new bushes to ensure proper placement. Five in the back, two in the front, clematis by the trees, and some daylilies for color and interest.

You may be wondering how we decided on these particular bushes, and where we purchased them.

We actually ordered the boxwoods off of ebay. This was my first time sending away for plants, so needless to say I was a little worried about the results. But, this reno was on a strict budget, and there was no way we could afford $30 a bush when we had to purchase 7 bushes. Do the math people, that's like a lot of money. :-) For bushes. Enter Ebay.

I scored 10 Wintergem Boxwood plants for $20.00 plus shipping. A week later, a box was on my porch with not ten but 12! plants inside, all carefully packed and healthy and green looking. :-) We selected the five biggest and healthiest to put in the front. The extras will replace some other scraggly bushes we have around the yard. And, they were all cheaper than one big plant from a garden center! Now, obviously, they are much smaller, but I specifically chose these bushes for their fast growth rate so it shouldn't be a problem.

I also ordered the Elegantissima Boxwoods from Ebay. These were a little more expensive at $5 each, but we only needed two, and they were still $30 a piece everywhere else.

Both the Wintergem and the Elegantissima keep their happy green color year round, with lighter green leaves showing up in the spring. The Wintergem will grow to be about 3 ft high and across, while the Elegantissima will be a little smaller. We placed the Eleg. slightly in front of the Wintergem as they have pretty little ivory and light green leaves and are slightly more interesting than the Wintergem.

Next up were the daylilies. These guys are just a fun flower that are great for filling in bare spots and adding color and interest. We planted two directly in the ground, and two in large metallic looking pots on the sides. We purchased all four plants from Lowes and we are hoping that we won't need the 1 year guarantee!

Bringing up the tail end of this planting frenzy are the clematis. We planted a clematis by each tall tree on the sides, and gave it a bamboo pole and some wire to climb. The plan in for these little vines to grow up into the trees, where their flowers will add some spice to those old evergreens' lives. The flowers are a pale purple, and they look really nice so far.

In other news, my hanging baskets of petunias are doing wonderful. They have the most heavenly scent, and tons of blooms so far. I hope they keep spreading out so they're even more dramatic.

Project Curb Appeal: Part 1

Part one of our curbside renovation is complete! If you recall, the plan is multifaceted and includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Have the stucco professionally powerwashed to get rid of muck, dirt and mold. Eww!


• Paint the door, windowsills and gables in a soft forest-y green to coordinate with the yellow stucco. (No more orange, hurrah!) Paint the front porch floor too.


• Replace the porch light fixture


• Replace the old, broken down, mostly dead evergreen bushes.


• Repair the concrete stairs.


• Add some nice landscaping to the front.

 

Part one was replacing the bushes with fresh pretty ones.

Here's the before:

And the after:

Updating the bushes meant tearing out the mostly dead evergreen bushes, which my very strong lover accomplished in about an hour. Seriously people, this would have taken me a few days if I had tried to tackle this part of the project. He attacked those bushes with vigor, and one hour later there were no bushes to be seen, and the only casualty was an old shovel. :-)

Next up was some fresh dirt mixed in with the old stuff, to give the new bushes a head start. We have a planter in the backyard that we're working on removing, so we simply transplanted the dirt from back to front.

Then we laid out our new bushes to ensure proper placement. Five in the back, two in the front, clematis by the trees, and some daylilies for color and interest.

You may be wondering how we decided on these particular bushes, and where we purchased them.

We actually ordered the boxwoods off of ebay. This was my first time sending away for plants, so needless to say I was a little worried about the results. But, this reno was on a strict budget, and there was no way we could afford $30 a bush when we had to purchase 7 bushes. Do the math people, that's like a lot of money. :-) For bushes. Enter Ebay.

I scored 10 Wintergem Boxwood plants for $20.00 plus shipping. A week later, a box was on my porch with not ten but 12! plants inside, all carefully packed and healthy and green looking. :-) We selected the five biggest and healthiest to put in the front. The extras will replace some other scraggly bushes we have around the yard. And, they were all cheaper than one big plant from a garden center! Now, obviously, they are much smaller, but I specifically chose these bushes for their fast growth rate so it shouldn't be a problem.

I also ordered the Elegantissima Boxwoods from Ebay. These were a little more expensive at $5 each, but we only needed two, and they were still $30 a piece everywhere else.

Both the Wintergem and the Elegantissima keep their happy green color year round, with lighter green leaves showing up in the spring. The Wintergem will grow to be about 3 ft high and across, while the Elegantissima will be a little smaller. We placed the Eleg. slightly in front of the Wintergem as they have pretty little ivory and light green leaves and are slightly more interesting than the Wintergem.

Next up were the daylilies. These guys are just a fun flower that are great for filling in bare spots and adding color and interest. We planted two directly in the ground, and two in large metallic looking pots on the sides. We purchased all four plants from Lowes and we are hoping that we won't need the 1 year guarantee!

Bringing up the tail end of this planting frenzy are the clematis. We planted a clematis by each tall tree on the sides, and gave it a bamboo pole and some wire to climb. The plan in for these little vines to grow up into the trees, where their flowers will add some spice to those old evergreens' lives. The flowers are a pale purple, and they look really nice so far.

In other news, my hanging baskets of petunias are doing wonderful. They have the most heavenly scent, and tons of blooms so far. I hope they keep spreading out so they're even more dramatic.

June 2009 Recap

I can't believe the first month of summer is over! June absolutely flew by, but we had a blast. We went to graduation parties, a baseball game, threw a party for my brother and sister-in-law, worked on the house and Lover spent a week in NYC. Very, very busy! Here's how we did on our goals this month:

• Increase emergency savings by $500 As of today, we have reached our goal! 100%!
• Have one month's worth of expenses saved up (besides the savings we already have) We're up to about 27% of this goal
• Have garage sale-ing fund up to >$100 I'm all set for the garage saleing season. Unfortunately I've been too busy to hit up a lot of sales.
• Have stocked food supply We have a month's plus worth of meat in the freezer, I am working on having a backup for our pantry items.
• Go camping Barring a torrential rain, we'll be going camping next weekend. Yay!
• Throw 2-3 good parties The invites for Culoare Zi 2009 will be going out this week, and Lover has his yellow shirt. I'm still searching for the right outfit
• Plant a vegetable garden We ate our first peas this week. They were so yummy! The tomatoes are growing nice and big, as are the cucumbers. The blackberries are ripening up quickly. Parsley was a dud, and the sunflowers got eaten by bunnies. :-(
• Learn canning My sisters and I tried to make strawberry jam, it was a bust. We're going to try again when peaches are ripe. :-)
• Go to California to visit Paul and Mandy I may actually be going out twice this year, once when baby Danko is born, then again around Christmas time, with Lover.
• Get together with family more often Still seeing Lover's family once a week or so, and seeing my brothers one or twice a week as well. They are so much fun and so crazy!
• Continue learning piano I have set myself the goal of being able to play every song in the beginner's piano book that I have. Then I'll move on to the minuets.

In addition to these goals, here's what we accomplished around the house:

• We began the basement demolition, tearing out some of the headers, paneling, carpet on walls, mirrors on walls, and we tore up all of the carpet on the floor. It took us three weeks to get rid of that garbage, and now we're ready to do round two.
• We came up with a floorplan for the basement, where we will be moving some things around, installing a shower in the bathroom, and opening up the glass block windows to let in more light.
• We tore out the yucky bushes in front and replaced with fresh boxwood shrubs and daylilies. Still waiting on the elegantissima boxwoods to arrive, then I'll post pics.

Looks like we are making progress!

June 2009 Recap

I can't believe the first month of summer is over! June absolutely flew by, but we had a blast. We went to graduation parties, a baseball game, threw a party for my brother and sister-in-law, worked on the house and Lover spent a week in NYC. Very, very busy! Here's how we did on our goals this month:

• Increase emergency savings by $500 As of today, we have reached our goal! 100%!
• Have one month's worth of expenses saved up (besides the savings we already have) We're up to about 27% of this goal
• Have garage sale-ing fund up to >$100 I'm all set for the garage saleing season. Unfortunately I've been too busy to hit up a lot of sales.
• Have stocked food supply We have a month's plus worth of meat in the freezer, I am working on having a backup for our pantry items.
• Go camping Barring a torrential rain, we'll be going camping next weekend. Yay!
• Throw 2-3 good parties The invites for Culoare Zi 2009 will be going out this week, and Lover has his yellow shirt. I'm still searching for the right outfit
• Plant a vegetable garden We ate our first peas this week. They were so yummy! The tomatoes are growing nice and big, as are the cucumbers. The blackberries are ripening up quickly. Parsley was a dud, and the sunflowers got eaten by bunnies. :-(
• Learn canning My sisters and I tried to make strawberry jam, it was a bust. We're going to try again when peaches are ripe. :-)
• Go to California to visit Paul and Mandy I may actually be going out twice this year, once when baby Danko is born, then again around Christmas time, with Lover.
• Get together with family more often Still seeing Lover's family once a week or so, and seeing my brothers one or twice a week as well. They are so much fun and so crazy!
• Continue learning piano I have set myself the goal of being able to play every song in the beginner's piano book that I have. Then I'll move on to the minuets.

In addition to these goals, here's what we accomplished around the house:

• We began the basement demolition, tearing out some of the headers, paneling, carpet on walls, mirrors on walls, and we tore up all of the carpet on the floor. It took us three weeks to get rid of that garbage, and now we're ready to do round two.
• We came up with a floorplan for the basement, where we will be moving some things around, installing a shower in the bathroom, and opening up the glass block windows to let in more light.
• We tore out the yucky bushes in front and replaced with fresh boxwood shrubs and daylilies. Still waiting on the elegantissima boxwoods to arrive, then I'll post pics.

Looks like we are making progress!

Glorious Guest Room

After a year and four months in this lovely castle we have called home, I have learned one thing. (Well, actually, I have learned a lot, but I am only going to talk about one today. :-) )

Home renovations never go as quickly as planned.

One year, three months and seven days ago, I blogged about the spa'oom as we liked to call it. I showed you pictures of what it looked like, and the theN current state, and promised the after pictures "real soon." And now, approximately 440 days later, we are finally finished, and I'm back with pictures. Hey, good things come to those who wait, right?

Here's a refresher of what the room used to look like, taken the day after we closed on the house.

Lots and lots of honey toned wood, grass green carpeting on the floor, on the headboard and on either side of the dresser mirror. Black floral wallpaper, black valances and black blinds. Builtin window seat, dresser and desk on one side, built in bunkbeds on the other.

We knew this room would lend itself to one of the most dramatic makeovers in the house.

Here's how the hideousness became the lovely view you see above. We tore out the awful wallpaper the first week, and the bunkbeds came crashing down shortly thereafter.

Then we let it sit for a while as we discussed decorating ideas for the room. It was lover's idea to go with a black and white theme with just a few pops of color. Now it was time for the serious renovations to begin.

We spackled the walls, sanded down the builtins and tore out the carpet. Once this was accomplished we discovered that: the walls were in decent shape and were drywalled, so that saved us the headache of repairing the plaster. The builtins were not cooperating with being sanded so that we could whitewash them, so we had to come up with a plan B. The wood floor was in pretty rough shape, with paint splatters, scratches and a random skinny section of the floor that was simply MIA.

We decided to simply paint the wood builtins a crisp white, along with the newly patched and sanded walls. That gave us a clean, blank slate for the rest of the room. The dresser drawers became a matte black, set off by white handles. Funny story: Apparently there are no drawer handles to be had in white unless you are willing to get yucky plastic ones. However, some pretty silver pulls and my trusty white spray paint saved the day.

And now I will leave you with some beautiful before and afters... so you can admire all of our hard work ;-)

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday. Check out the other transformations!

Glorious Guest Room

After a year and four months in this lovely castle we have called home, I have learned one thing. (Well, actually, I have learned a lot, but I am only going to talk about one today. :-) )

 

Home renovations never go as quickly as planned.

One year, three months and seven days ago, I blogged about the spa'oom as we liked to call it. I showed you pictures of what it looked like, and the theN current state, and promised the after pictures "real soon." And now, approximately 440 days later, we are finally finished, and I'm back with pictures. Hey, good things come to those who wait, right?

Here's a refresher of what the room used to look like, taken the day after we closed on the house.

Lots and lots of honey toned wood, grass green carpeting on the floor, on the headboard and on either side of the dresser mirror. Black floral wallpaper, black valances and black blinds. Builtin window seat, dresser and desk on one side, built in bunkbeds on the other.

We knew this room would lend itself to one of the most dramatic makeovers in the house.

Here's how the hideousness became the lovely view you see above. We tore out the awful wallpaper the first week, and the bunkbeds came crashing down shortly thereafter.

Then we let it sit for a while as we discussed decorating ideas for the room. It was lover's idea to go with a black and white theme with just a few pops of color. Now it was time for the serious renovations to begin.

We spackled the walls, sanded down the builtins and tore out the carpet. Once this was accomplished we discovered that: the walls were in decent shape and were drywalled, so that saved us the headache of repairing the plaster. The builtins were not cooperating with being sanded so that we could whitewash them, so we had to come up with a plan B. The wood floor was in pretty rough shape, with paint splatters, scratches and a random skinny section of the floor that was simply MIA.

We decided to simply paint the wood builtins a crisp white, along with the newly patched and sanded walls. That gave us a clean, blank slate for the rest of the room. The dresser drawers became a matte black, set off by white handles. Funny story: Apparently there are no drawer handles to be had in white unless you are willing to get yucky plastic ones. However, some pretty silver pulls and my trusty white spray paint saved the day.

And now I will leave you with some beautiful before and afters... so you can admire all of our hard work ;-)

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

 

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday. Check out the other transformations!