The Blower

I was gonna write about the front door transformation today, but that will have to wait because today I used the blower for the first time! To clear off the driveway. My family knows there must have been some extenuating circumstance to drive me to do this. I was driven to pick it up myself because a photographer was coming to take photos of the house today and I wanted it to be extra shiny. 

NOW, this was such a foreign concept to my own Mother, that when I texted her that I used the blower for the first time today, she texted back to ask me how it went....DRYING MY HAIR. Seriously.

However I can't be too hard on her. First, I was looking for a chain to pull to crank it up. Then I found the ON switch! So, ok, no gas required. But why wouldn't it come on when I flipped the switch? 

Oooohhhh, there's an empty spot at the bottom. Hmmm, I've seen Thing 1 (15 years old) use this, it must run on one of the orange boxes on the floor in the garage.

Now we're in business.

Wow, props to Thing 1 (my 15 year old son). I didn't realize how hard these floaty leaves are to corral into one spot.

So, ultimately they ended up right at the edge of the road, probably 30 minutes from the wind carrying them back down....BUT THEY'RE OUT OF THE WAY FOR THE PICTURE.

The driveway was clear. I was surprised I even thought to go find the blower. And that's all that counted.

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How a PhD Can Pull The Bumper Off His Car With a Hedge Stump

In this chapter of "The Hedges: A DIY Story" let's first reminisce on where we started:

When the idea was broached to hire a landscaper to take out 9 foot x 7 foot, 30 year old hedges, the rapid response of "Are you kidding? Why would I pay someone else to do that?" came quite quickly from You Know Who. Far be it for me to argue. Forget the saying Do it for the Vine! and Do It for The Blog! I gotta see THIS. So, as previous posts chronicled, progress has been made. Credit given. 

Now, we need a way to get the rest of the line of hedges out of the ground. What comes next is, according to my husband, in the category of bright ideas. Of course the idea came from a YouTube series called something like Fix or Fail where people see if they can pull something out of the ground before they pull the bumper off their car. And this man has a PhD.

10 feet of chain cut by the little machine in the background at the big box store.

Oh no. Really?

1, 2, 3, pedal to the metal.

Ok, so he's feelin' mighty fine that the first three came out...pop, pop, pop. HOWEVER. DIY 101 tells you to look out - when you open that wall, or pull up that floor. SO, once all the brush was cleared, we could see just how close the hedges are not only to the original road, but where it's been repaved. Guess what? The hedges grew their roots UNDER the road. The last tug on hedge #4 (below) seriously almost DID tear off the bumper. 

Only 9 more to go. He's thinking: I better at least pretend to use this chain saw I told my wife I needed. 

Especially because we already had the NEW bushes, thinking the old ones would keep coming out. How many holly bushes did we buy? ALL of them, of course!

Don't worry little bushes, Dr. DIY will figure it all out and come to the rescue. Your kin will be there with you soon. I hope. Can't WAIT to see what strategy next weekend brings.

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Night Landscaping

DIY Strategy in Development.

Made some headway cutting down the 9 x 7 monstrosities, but the challenge will be getting them out from the roots.

Wrapping it up for the night. But I can't wait to see how this goes. Why do I feel like the road, the stone wall, and everything else is in a perilous position?

A Day in the Life of The Unexpected Home-Maker

A Day in the Life....Preparing for the new paint splash with other front door embellishments.

First, supporting the vendors at the Farmer's Market.

Then on to the seed & feed place. I LOVE ornamental trees. I used to have these blue spruce and I miss them. But alas, they stayed with that house, being that their roots were all comfy and what not.

So I was extremely happy to find these, especially at the end of the gardening season. I got wise though, and put them in pots so I WOULD be able to move them around. 

The running joke in our family is how well I can pack a compact car. Much to my husband's chagrin with how much of just about anything - artwork, trees, stuff for the farmhouse, you name it, that I can fit into one trip.

Oops, didn't realize the pots needed drainage holes. Good thing for handy guys.

Recommended gravel base for drainage.

Et Voila! I had to laugh when the farm and garden store sold me top soil, sent me to the warehouse to pick it up, informed me they were OUT of top soil (REALLY? At a FARM & LANDSCAPING place?), tried to give me a substitute to plant my ornamental trees in - that was actually fertilizer only designed to be used sparingly, then finally I got my refund.

Don't Laugh At My Lack of Design Knowledge

Got hip to the game and printed some graph paper to draw out the kitchen dimensions - well for my Husband to measure and stuff, I can make the little cut out pieces to move around the board - and found some helpful resources. But scroll down to see where my old school velcro board idea had me start. And did you know people at Michael's look at you funny if you ask them for a velcro board?

Pop of Color X 2

Finding an economical way to add more color to the entryway. Especially at the END of the season when there are all of about 5 planters left in the store. Glad to find 2 of these to match the upcoming door color change. Now for something impressively green to go in them.

What to Feed Thing 1 and Thing 2?

Considering all the effort they put into the yard work, I can at least feed my two teenage sons something that tries to reach that trifecta of hearty, fun and nutritious. 

Latest idea: Pretzel Chicken. Plus a dose of my Garlic Zucchini.

(Quick and Easy) 3 Ingredient Chicken + 2 Teenagers = Happy Mom

There's A Wall Behind The Ivy

Who knew?

One hedge down, and we find out there's a pretty attractive wall underneath all that foliage. Definitely good for enhancing curb appeal. Go to it Thing 1 and Thing 2. 

Thing 1 and Thing 2 brought me outside for the big reveal. TA-DA!

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A Pop of Color

Me:  Would we possibly paint the front door yellow? 

Husband:  Then your house will look like a big bumble bee.

Me:  Hmmm. True. Well, have you warmed up to the bright green color we were talking about yesterday.

Husband:  Yeah, I guess so.

Well, didn't I happen to have a quart of that color in the garage! One thing that came from the Home Depot trip for ME, was buying these clear stick-ons to paint and then put up on the door to test the color. So while the guys were playing with the hedge root ball (see below), I was playing with paint. Whew, tough paining a little square but somebody's got to do it.

Consensus: Buy more, and paint the door!