PS
Happy first-third of 2009!
April 30, 2009
What'd You Call It
If it were a crayon, what'd you call it? Is it flat purple? We think, gun metal. Last pic is the actual color. At the bottom, you can see the color against the primer.
PS
Happy first-third of 2009!
PS
Happy first-third of 2009!
April 29, 2009
ProPil Pop Quiz #8
DAY ZERO
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
It's sort of hard to tell, but they primed the upstairs window frames and the second-story gutter as well. They finished priming that little, still-yellowy part in the middle of the gutter before they left. These guys work fast, smart and clean.
It was almost 90 degrees yesterday. Thankfully for them, it's back down to 60s today.
This weekend, I used a cool soil-blocking contraption to make soil blocks for germinating seeds for the garden. I put all the starter seeds on a plank so we could easily move them all inside and out at once.
The pic below is so we remember where everything is planted.
We had more space on the plank, so I planted a couple more things.
The biggest potential problem with this experiment is, I didn't have the recommended soil (which is a rather particular mix of specialized stuff), so I used some moo doo mixed with potting soil. It might be too thick for a new seed's roots. The little pots I used have pure potting soil in them, which is light and fluffy. We'll see.
The moss we planted at the end of March is now starting to crawl.
PS
ProPil Pop Quiz #8
I promised a Pop Quiz, but then, in the meantime, we figured it out. The little bag of seeds (pictured above the moss) was found in a trash can in Dupont Circle. We wanted to know what the seeds were, and it turns out the label tells us. Four O'clocks. Apologies for the Pop Quiz false alarm. We didn't know there was a flower named for an hour in the day.
DAY ONE
DAY TWO
It's sort of hard to tell, but they primed the upstairs window frames and the second-story gutter as well. They finished priming that little, still-yellowy part in the middle of the gutter before they left. These guys work fast, smart and clean.
It was almost 90 degrees yesterday. Thankfully for them, it's back down to 60s today.
This weekend, I used a cool soil-blocking contraption to make soil blocks for germinating seeds for the garden. I put all the starter seeds on a plank so we could easily move them all inside and out at once.
The pic below is so we remember where everything is planted.
We had more space on the plank, so I planted a couple more things.
The biggest potential problem with this experiment is, I didn't have the recommended soil (which is a rather particular mix of specialized stuff), so I used some moo doo mixed with potting soil. It might be too thick for a new seed's roots. The little pots I used have pure potting soil in them, which is light and fluffy. We'll see.
The moss we planted at the end of March is now starting to crawl.
PS
ProPil Pop Quiz #8
I promised a Pop Quiz, but then, in the meantime, we figured it out. The little bag of seeds (pictured above the moss) was found in a trash can in Dupont Circle. We wanted to know what the seeds were, and it turns out the label tells us. Four O'clocks. Apologies for the Pop Quiz false alarm. We didn't know there was a flower named for an hour in the day.
April 28, 2009
Lots of Ps
Okay, so as promised yesterday, below you'll find some painting progress pics, some attic pulldown progress pics, and progress for Planty the Plant. Lots of Ps today.
BEFORE
AFTER
That's not the paint color, it's tinted oil based primer. They scrape and prime first, then later, they'll do all the finish painting.
It's great to see they are getting down to the wood. Drew came over and said he's never seen a scraper that gets off as much paint. They showed me this thing. They have two of them actually. Three diamond bits whirl in a circle at high speed, chewing up the paint as they go, all connected to a vacuum, so there's very little lead dust spread about. Can't get in close to window sills and stuff like that, but in the open, it's pretty amazing.
They're coming back today at 7:30 they say.
Now onto the attic pulldown. I reported yesterday, we had to put up some replacement drywall, then apply mud, then sand it all down to flat. See in the upper left of the picture, we actually sanded down some of the popcorn ceiling? It's sanded flat all the way around the pulldown.
Well, as a result of all the sanding, we had to patch it. This patching stuff is sort of a nightmare. Popcorn spray. Spraying a can of white junk over your head onto the ceiling? It gets pretty much everywhere - dripping from the ceiling on to the floor and walls, onto your head. It also doesn't dry pure white, so we'll have to prime it white later.
So you have to put plastic everywhere to speed clean-up.
Planty the Plant seems to be doing great - reaching reaching reaching up - but the guide wires I put up for her were hard to grip. So on a walk in the neighborhood after dinner on Sunday night, I came across some lattice someone was throwing out. I snagged it, cut it in half, and gave Planty a new gift.
PS
Here's our front lawn. For a New Englander, it's funny to have a painting contractor with this name.
BEFORE
AFTER
That's not the paint color, it's tinted oil based primer. They scrape and prime first, then later, they'll do all the finish painting.
It's great to see they are getting down to the wood. Drew came over and said he's never seen a scraper that gets off as much paint. They showed me this thing. They have two of them actually. Three diamond bits whirl in a circle at high speed, chewing up the paint as they go, all connected to a vacuum, so there's very little lead dust spread about. Can't get in close to window sills and stuff like that, but in the open, it's pretty amazing.
They're coming back today at 7:30 they say.
Now onto the attic pulldown. I reported yesterday, we had to put up some replacement drywall, then apply mud, then sand it all down to flat. See in the upper left of the picture, we actually sanded down some of the popcorn ceiling? It's sanded flat all the way around the pulldown.
Well, as a result of all the sanding, we had to patch it. This patching stuff is sort of a nightmare. Popcorn spray. Spraying a can of white junk over your head onto the ceiling? It gets pretty much everywhere - dripping from the ceiling on to the floor and walls, onto your head. It also doesn't dry pure white, so we'll have to prime it white later.
So you have to put plastic everywhere to speed clean-up.
Planty the Plant seems to be doing great - reaching reaching reaching up - but the guide wires I put up for her were hard to grip. So on a walk in the neighborhood after dinner on Sunday night, I came across some lattice someone was throwing out. I snagged it, cut it in half, and gave Planty a new gift.
PS
Here's our front lawn. For a New Englander, it's funny to have a painting contractor with this name.
April 27, 2009
AKA Mud
Oh glorious day of days! Today is the day that this pink-orange house begins to disappear forever! That's right, people, no more jokes about not needing directions to get to the house, "We'll just follow the glow." No more comments like, "Wow, I didn't know they made a color like that." Snicker yourself all to pieces for the last time! The weather is good, so the painters are starting today! I've taken a bunch of BEFORE pictures, eagerly awaiting AFTER shots.
This weekend the weather was great. I got a lot done around the house. First, Chris and I worked on the garage gutter. We lowered the downspout side a smidge by hacksawing the downspout and then rehanging the gutter. We tested with buckets of water, and that adjustment seemed to do the trick.
In preparation for the painters, I cleaned out the garage (so they can store their ladders in there at night), and I had to do something I was sort of dreading - moving the compost bin away from the house. It wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, but I thought it was going to be terrible.
There's some pretty good compost in there.
On top of that, Chris and I made a massive mess upstairs by sanding down the joint compound (AKA mud) we had put up to cover the ceiling/drywall damage caused by installing the attic pulldown. I'm still mopping and dusting this morning to try to get the last of the white dust up before Sue gets back tonight. After sanding, we tacked up the woodwork.
There's lots more to show with respect to the attic pulldown progress and backyard farming preparations, but this post would be too long, so we'll save it for tomorrow. I think another Pop Quiz is in the works as well - mystery seed identification!
Have great Mondays, everyone!
This weekend the weather was great. I got a lot done around the house. First, Chris and I worked on the garage gutter. We lowered the downspout side a smidge by hacksawing the downspout and then rehanging the gutter. We tested with buckets of water, and that adjustment seemed to do the trick.
In preparation for the painters, I cleaned out the garage (so they can store their ladders in there at night), and I had to do something I was sort of dreading - moving the compost bin away from the house. It wasn't as tough as I thought it would be, but I thought it was going to be terrible.
There's some pretty good compost in there.
On top of that, Chris and I made a massive mess upstairs by sanding down the joint compound (AKA mud) we had put up to cover the ceiling/drywall damage caused by installing the attic pulldown. I'm still mopping and dusting this morning to try to get the last of the white dust up before Sue gets back tonight. After sanding, we tacked up the woodwork.
There's lots more to show with respect to the attic pulldown progress and backyard farming preparations, but this post would be too long, so we'll save it for tomorrow. I think another Pop Quiz is in the works as well - mystery seed identification!
Have great Mondays, everyone!
April 24, 2009
Hip Hip Hooray
Happy Friday, Team!
Sue's packing up now to head down to Charlottesville and DC for the weekend. Should be fun for her to see all her cool grad school friends. I'll be here all by my lonesome soaking up tears with stale bread. Just kidding. I've got a busy weekend planned, with continued house stuff, some lawn mowing, loam purchasing, and some artwork.
Let's all give a big, "Hip hip hooray!" for my diligent sister, Sarah, who completed this week an executive MBA program at GWU! Hip hip hooray!
Sue's packing up now to head down to Charlottesville and DC for the weekend. Should be fun for her to see all her cool grad school friends. I'll be here all by my lonesome soaking up tears with stale bread. Just kidding. I've got a busy weekend planned, with continued house stuff, some lawn mowing, loam purchasing, and some artwork.
Let's all give a big, "Hip hip hooray!" for my diligent sister, Sarah, who completed this week an executive MBA program at GWU! Hip hip hooray!
Let's also give a "Hip hip hooray!" for the weather in Providence. In the coming days, the forecast suggests we'll have highs of 66, 75, 83, 76 and 74. Hopefully those mumble-mumble painters will show up and start scraping.
PS
For all the Facebookers out there, Sarah passed this along last week: World Leaders Facebooking. Enjoy!
April 22, 2009
Little Dishes
On Sunday, we planted our first round of seeds. We put the rows in the stone garden bed in the back and in one section of the front hell-strip. It was great that it rained and rained yesterday.
The seeds in the little dishes are Anaheims, Habeneros and Jalepenos. Fingers crossed!
PS
Here's Susan Boyle's competition. (Thanks, Pob!) If you don't know who Susan Boyle is, well, you're a wee bet behind the times... look at the PS in Spray Paint.
The seeds in the little dishes are Anaheims, Habeneros and Jalepenos. Fingers crossed!
PS
Here's Susan Boyle's competition. (Thanks, Pob!) If you don't know who Susan Boyle is, well, you're a wee bet behind the times... look at the PS in Spray Paint.
April 21, 2009
Planty the Plant
As I said, we did lots of stuff this weekend.
I dunno why the iPhone didn't work well with the available light in these shots, but we put up some new pull-string shades in the living room this weekend. We replaced the white wooden shutter thingies, for purely aesthetic reasons.
They look like dark but mottled, thin bamboos all tied together. Pretty neat. Though it's a darker overall feel, some light can come through.
And we moved some stuff around to make room for a new plant out back. When we put in all those little plants last week around the clothes-drying pole, we were told at Lowe's that peonies climb - we want a plant to crawl up the pole to the bird's nest - so we planted one right next to the pole. But having looked into it more, that's not true at all. Peonies are bushes!
So we moved the peony over near the garage, which should give it ample space, and we found a real climber. This plant is awesome! Clematis terniflora. We have dubbed her Planty the Plant.
They tell me in the spring we can cut her to the ground, and in the summer she'll be 30 feet tall. I love it! Hyper-aggressive growth. When we picked her up at the store, we had to remove her tenacious tentacles from a crevice into which she had clawed, on the underside of a nearby window sill. And on top of it, she'll be covered in white, fragrant flowers (if all goes well) at harvest time.
That's old Planty to the left of the pole. If you zoom on the pic, you can see we put some guide wires up for her to climb.
The light green guy on the far left is wormwood - soft like a cashmere sweater.
I dunno why the iPhone didn't work well with the available light in these shots, but we put up some new pull-string shades in the living room this weekend. We replaced the white wooden shutter thingies, for purely aesthetic reasons.
They look like dark but mottled, thin bamboos all tied together. Pretty neat. Though it's a darker overall feel, some light can come through.
And we moved some stuff around to make room for a new plant out back. When we put in all those little plants last week around the clothes-drying pole, we were told at Lowe's that peonies climb - we want a plant to crawl up the pole to the bird's nest - so we planted one right next to the pole. But having looked into it more, that's not true at all. Peonies are bushes!
So we moved the peony over near the garage, which should give it ample space, and we found a real climber. This plant is awesome! Clematis terniflora. We have dubbed her Planty the Plant.
They tell me in the spring we can cut her to the ground, and in the summer she'll be 30 feet tall. I love it! Hyper-aggressive growth. When we picked her up at the store, we had to remove her tenacious tentacles from a crevice into which she had clawed, on the underside of a nearby window sill. And on top of it, she'll be covered in white, fragrant flowers (if all goes well) at harvest time.
That's old Planty to the left of the pole. If you zoom on the pic, you can see we put some guide wires up for her to climb.
The light green guy on the far left is wormwood - soft like a cashmere sweater.
April 20, 2009
Moo Doo
Wow, so it was a whirlwind of a weekend. Friday night we went to opening night of the Paw Sox. Fun times were had by all, except for the Paw Sox, who left a bunch of guys on base in the eighth, then lost in the ninth.
Saturday morning, Chris and I worked on the garage gutter. Actually, we removed it. (If you don't remember why, see the bottom of Massive Rocks.)
The woodwork behind it is in pretty good shape, but Chris nailed a couple warped pieces back up tighter, and on Sunday afternoon, I painted the fascia with oil-based primer/sealer. Once we rehang the gutter, no one will see the fascia for 20-30 years (hopefully), so all the primer/sealer is supposed to do is deter decay.
On Saturday morning, Jon and Brandon showed up for a 24-hour stay. Fun times! We ate some good food, got to play some hoops against fast, smart college kids who directed us to humility, and on Saturday evening, watched Sue dance at a local restaurant. Sue did so well, that the manager asked her to come back every Saturday. In fact, one older gentleman actually fell backwards out of his chair and banged the back of his head during her performance. Quite a commotion. (Sue chuckled and says here, "You're implying something, that's not true," but I assure you, I'm being pretty accurate.)
Sunday, Sue's mom showed up and she and Sue went to Old Sturbridge Villiage for the day. It's a Colonial Williamsburg-type affair, but more spread out and with more animals. The highlight of the trip for Sue was seeing a two-day-old lamb.
While they were gone, I went out and got 400lbs of composted manure, and I put that on the garden beds. Moo doo!
There's more, but we'll save some for the week. Happy Monday!
Saturday morning, Chris and I worked on the garage gutter. Actually, we removed it. (If you don't remember why, see the bottom of Massive Rocks.)
The woodwork behind it is in pretty good shape, but Chris nailed a couple warped pieces back up tighter, and on Sunday afternoon, I painted the fascia with oil-based primer/sealer. Once we rehang the gutter, no one will see the fascia for 20-30 years (hopefully), so all the primer/sealer is supposed to do is deter decay.
On Saturday morning, Jon and Brandon showed up for a 24-hour stay. Fun times! We ate some good food, got to play some hoops against fast, smart college kids who directed us to humility, and on Saturday evening, watched Sue dance at a local restaurant. Sue did so well, that the manager asked her to come back every Saturday. In fact, one older gentleman actually fell backwards out of his chair and banged the back of his head during her performance. Quite a commotion. (Sue chuckled and says here, "You're implying something, that's not true," but I assure you, I'm being pretty accurate.)
Sunday, Sue's mom showed up and she and Sue went to Old Sturbridge Villiage for the day. It's a Colonial Williamsburg-type affair, but more spread out and with more animals. The highlight of the trip for Sue was seeing a two-day-old lamb.
While they were gone, I went out and got 400lbs of composted manure, and I put that on the garden beds. Moo doo!
There's more, but we'll save some for the week. Happy Monday!
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