Randoms and chat

[mrs.jacinthe]

Good morning!  It's been a while since we've done one of these.  What's up with you?

We're in the process of doing a refi on our home (to get rid of PMI among other reasons) and the appraisal is this week.  I am panicking trying to get everything clean and ready for a stranger to take photos.  (We have at least two rooms right now that look like a hoarder lives here).

We're also mid-process on landscaping.  We've changed our landscape plans a bit to include the "grassy" area for the dog and I still can't figure out what to put there.  Buffalo grass looks nice, but I really don't want to mow at all and it looks like it might require mowing as per our HOA requirements (hello, 5" lawn maximum).  What I really want is a carpet-like plant like moss, but it's just not going to work for the location.  Ugh.

And finally, because of the rain we had this winter, we are having a positive plague of black widows.  And they're not like Francis (our "pet" BW that lived on our porch last year) in that these ladies are GINORMOUS.  OMG, I've seen several where the body was bigger than my thumbnail, and I do not have small thumbnails.  I hate to kill them b/c spiders are beneficial and all and I know they're not super aggressive, but I'm worried that when I take the dog out, she's going to get bitten because she brushes up against one or (hork) picks one up from a web somewhere.  Also, they're kind of pretty in a scary sort of way, which makes it even harder to spray them (note: never ever squish a spider around here, she might be carrying a billion babies around).

[mrsukyankee]

mrs.jacinthe, I hate, hate, hate spiders, though I try to keep them alive if possible, so you have my sympathies.

I've done more planting of roses and waiting on some other herbs to arrive. Once I get it all planted I'll post more pics on my blog and on here. I'm really enjoying gardening and working with my MIL to make our back garden look nice. It's been a LOT of weeding and digging up of stumps, but it's worth it!

[dottyblue]

Black widows?! No thank you.

I'm in a complete H&G slump. It's too humid outside to garden and I am not in the mood to remove wallpaper inside (1 bathroom, front hallway and master bedroom still to complete. UGH). I'm also stumped by paint colors. I have been choosing what I love (yay!) but now I feel like it doesn't flow.

My living room is SW Really Teal:


Dining room is next to the living room and is SW Let It Rain (it's much more blue than grey on the walls):


and my kitchen, right off the dining room is Faded Flaxflower.  I really don't really like this color and will probably change it at some point.:


I need to figure out the front hall and 1/2 bath.  blah.
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[2curlydogs]

I finally re-did our garage workbench this weekend. It makes me happy.

Before:


After

[emoflamingo]

My new job is good and I'm finally wanting to do some stuff. I'm still trying to get everyone's crap out of my garage. My h's bff had stuff in there for 3 years and then we had a combo garage sale and my SIL's stuff is still there. I am pinning tons of organization tips and I can't do anything until they get it out.

I'm dreaming of repairing half my house too. But I am lazy so it's not happened yet.

[TBM]

We ordered a huge pergola from Wayfair that arrives tomorrow. Today a freight company called to make sure that tomorrow would be okay and said that they will call me later to give me a delivery time window. They (I sure hope it is more than one guy) are delivering it to the inside of the courtyard. That is a lot more than I expected for free delivery. I think we should have nice tips ready for whoever has to make the trek up our nonexistent sandy driveway with exposed roots. I'm glad that it isn't DH and I doing it. lol It would have been worth a big delivery charge to me...especially since the price of the pergola was around half of what we had seen it for elsewhere.

I am hoping that this will push me to finally get the layout figured out for the courtyard. I would love to have that and our driveway designed and finished by the end of the year. I think DH would be thrilled if I could just decide on what I want used for the hardscape surfaces once and for all, so that we could just get it done.

I hadn't mentioned it, but my mother passed away in June. We had gone to AZ to see her in February, and then again in the week before she passed, and it was not at all unexpected, since she had kind of given up and really declined since my dad died 9 yrs ago. The last year she had really declined, and it really was her time. It was very peaceful and all of us are very grateful for that, and happy knowing that she is where she wanted to be, with my dad once again.

We went back to AZ for the memorial service, and it sounds weird/awful, but it was a really fun week with my siblings, some of our kids, my grandkids and other relatives for part of the time....sort of a love fest celebrating my mom and family. And food and drink. I can't think of a better way to honor her, (she would have loved the food and drink part, but not so much the being the center of attention), although it might have been better if it hadn't been 112 degrees outside. She wouldn't have liked that part of it either.

Contrary to what people say, dry heat (aka my kryptonite) sucks just as much as the heat and humidity that we have here in FL. I normally don't go outside in either place during the summer if I don't absolutely have to. lol It did rain/thunder the last night we were there, which kind of made me feel like I was back home in FL, but the desert smells very different than FL when it rains...sort of a dusty smell from the creosote. It brought back a lot of memories of rainstorms when I was growing up. I can't believe that I had forgotten the smell, since that is one of my 'things'.

[mrs.jacinthe]

TBM - I'm sorry about your loss.

[Deleted]

I lurk on this board since buying our first house six months ago, so I you don't mind me jumping in!

Our massive undertaking this past weekend was cleaning and organizing the basement. It had become a catch-all storage space for all sorts of random things, and now it's CLEAN and actually a nice space for us to use!

I'm also gardening for the first time ever. I have three containers of vegetables and several flower pots that are all doing well so I'm thrilled with that!

In response to OPs - we had black widows in NC and I killed them. They were one spider I couldn't stand the sight of. I feel like now I'm a little older and I could let them live if they weren't in my direct path!

[munkii]

TBM, sorry for your loss.

I hardly ever post any more because by the time I get home, I usually don't want to look at anything online. I hated being unemployed, but working is for the birds! Maybe I'd like my job more if the owner actually understood what designers are trained in. She doesn't assume decorating is design, which is good; however, she assumes all we know how to do is manipulate autocad.

I'll start posting more soon since we're getting ready to have some chairs reupholstered and hang new art. I also need to post bathroom reno pics.

[treedimensional]

Good morning. I'm taking a sick day today while preparing for a 3:30pm colonoscopy. Fun!!!

[bunnymendelbaum]

TBM, - so sorry for you loss.

emoflamingo, Glad you like your new job!

We've done a ton of work lately actually. Got our backyard cleaned up and it is amazing! (removed remnants of carriage house, graded and sodded, got a playset, put in a patio behind the pool.) It's been a great summer hanging out outside.
My DH started a shed before mother's day with the goal of being done before father's day. Yeah, not even close. Of course, he's made it as complicated as it could possibly be. The rest of us are complete over it. Especially me because I get stuck on kid duty all weekend because he "has" to work on the shed. Ugh. I should have just ordered one.

I also redid our guestroom. Did a color scheme of blush on the top, black on the bottom. Dramatic. I love it. I'll have to upload pics.

We are having our upstairs floors refinished next week. I cannot wait! They are sooo crappy. We are getting rid of the dressers in our room and putting in a 9' long IKEA Pax wardrobe. I cannot wait! We have no room for our clothes right now.

[ssmjlm]

I'm sorry for your loss TBM.

My plan this weekend is to finish the table I've had going on for like 4 months. The bottom is primed, so it just needs paint and then stain the top pieces and nail in. Plus I started a bench for our beach house bedroom and want to play with my new saw and finish that.

On a side note, our fridge's speaker broke, again. I called GE because they just replaced in February and the lady was like "all parts expire when your warranty expires." We bought an extended warranty cheap through the builder (some awesome discount), but the part is like $22, so I need to see what the service call fee is. Also the woman gave me the wrong part number anyway. DH is like "we need to escalate, that is ridiculous." So we'll see.

[simpsongal]

I'm sorry TBM, it sounds like you had a wonderful celebration of her life and lineage.


Storing oatmeal in the garage is not a good idea (duh!). Well, I suppose it's good if you're trying to attract mice. I think I saw said mouse outside our garage near our AC unit. Now I'm wondering where all the snakes are that used to frequent our yard.

I'm back to dreaming about a big renovation. In 3 years or so, if things look decent financially, we might start looking for an architect.

[adhdfashion]

TBM (hugs)

I keep throwing parties or BBQs instead of working on house projects. Super productive.

[mrsukyankee]

treedimensional, hope the colonoscopy goes as well as it can!

Hugs TBM. Sounds like you celebrated your mom's life in a really nice way.

[raangoli]

I'm sorry for your loss TBM. Good luck with the colonoscopy treedimensional.

I will probably be hanging around here a bit more since we're toying with the idea of redoing our kitchen. At first we thought maybe tear out the wooden deck we have in favor of a paver patio, but the quote came back higher than we would like, so we wondered if we would rather put that money towards the kitchen. Right now it's just a pipe dream, but I should start researching.

[mrsukyankee]

raangoli,pinterest is good, but I found that Houzz was better for kitchen design research. So I'd suggest starting there (I spent a LOT of time on those two sites).

[raangoli]

Jul 20, 2017 2:27:34 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

raangoli ,pinterest is good, but I found that Houzz was better for kitchen design research. So I'd suggest starting there (I spent a LOT of time on those two sites).

Thanks! We have a relatively small space (11x13 if I remember correctly) so I am going to have to be creative for sure!

[TBM]

Our pergola was delivered yesterday! I had read online that it was 192 pounds, and really felt bad for the delivery guys, but luckily it was in three boxes and wasn't as horrible as it could have been for them.

When I was checking to see how much it weighed and how many boxes it came in (that part wasn't listed anywhere-I thought that was odd), I discovered that the price on Wayfair, where we got it, was much higher than we paid for it. We must have just happened to find it during some freak sale where we got 40% off. I guess it was just meant to be.

We'll see if I still feel that way after we attempt assembly on Saturday. DH is leaving on a business trip on Sunday, so Saturday may be a great or a grumpy day, depending on how difficult it is to get done in one day...because we all know that it is rare for any project to only take one day. lol

[mrsemilys]

TBM I'm so sorry for your loss.

[mrspez07]

Black widows get squished around here. I'm more than happy to let the wolf spiders and others coexist (except if they are in my shower!), but not black widows.

I am mostly done with the guest bathroom update but a few finishing touches. I can't find frames I want, I am looking for a dark wood 3-opening frame for the pictures I got printed instead of 3 separate (dust collecting) frames. Michaels and Target were close but not quite (some in black), any ideas of places to shop in person?
After the pics, I'll take photos.
I also have like 5 things in my car that need to be returned, only 2 are remodel related.

I'm itching to put some money into the back yard but DH keeps bringing up other things we should save or spend money on. <sigh>