Feels like we’re spending all our time in the yard, with not much to show for it. We’re tidying before the winter, and removing way more than we’re adding. This means plenty of action for my new toy –a reciprocating saw. There used to be a bush here… …but I got rid. And we stringed-off …
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Monthly Archives: October 2013
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front yard
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the bush
This bush (or whatever it is) spans a 40-foot section of our rear exterior wall, and hugs it too tightly for our liking. With termites and other pests posing a big threat to homes like ours, this sucker could potentially conceal any problems. It had to go. So I ripped it out. It took some …
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orange peel
Remember I told you we repainted our large orange living room wall white? Well, that was only half the story. The orange paint-job extended around the corner, into our all-purpose room/office, so we tackled that too. Actually, I had the pleasure of doing this bit. And I quickly discovered some differences with this section of …
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tree city
Sacramento is nicknamed city of trees, so we were prepared. We just didn’t bank on so many being in our yard. We removed the only real problem tree, as I mentioned, but there are more on our hit-list. And things could have been far worse. This 2011 Google Streetview pic clearly shows the trees had …
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project orange
I like orange as much as the next guy. More, actually, but Karen’s not so keen. So the huge wall of orange painted paneling that dominates our living space had to go…the orange paint, not the wall itself. It was painted pretty shoddily anyway, so I’m fully in favor. So, what to do with the …
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our mini
When we rented in Boston, we didn’t need a car. We lived in the city, right on public transit, so we never got round to buying one. It’s a good job really; we’d have had to drive it 3,000 miles or pay to ship it here. But we’ve coped car-less in Sacto for long enough… …
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retail therapy
With a pretty small contingency, and a rather large (committed) purchase coming up, we could do without unexpected costs. So the leak was poorly timed. But we’re not totally broke so, to cheer ourselves up, we turned to the obvious cure. Shopping. With a very limited budget, and the dual purpose of getting to know …
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the leak
The weekend started out in familiar fashion –with a checklist of jobs, and plenty of enthusiasm. Then I spotted a small puddle of water on our courtyard path. We dug down a little to discover a leaky sprinkler pipe…and it got worse from there. First step, stop the water. The shutoff valves (one mains, one …
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picking paint
This shade of brown doesn’t do it for us. That’s unfortunate, as it covers our entire house. We’d love to repaint it right now, but we lack the funds. What we do have is time. Time to pore over color samples. Time to figure out exactly how we’d like the house to look. So, we …
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