Fixing up Your Home.
 

Just got done staining window sills, well at least part of them!

Still many to do.

Next will be doors.

Anyone else do home projects?

completed project: painted the living room.

current project: attempting to put together some crap from IKEA.

ongoing project: trying not to kill the flowers outside (cant do anything inside, because i have a greedy cat that will eat everything).


that's pretty much the extent of my expertise. :) I wish i was REALLY handy though, i'd like to re-do the ceiling fans and the fixtures in my bathroom. oh well!

Seeking hardy plants
 

It's not a "home" project, but outdoor.
For the first time in years, I have a patio. Apparently in the pages of forms I was handed when renting, it says the tenant maintains the patio. It seems tall weeds were the vegetation of choice by the prior tenant.
I asked management to remove the weeds, as in a big patch of them. I was told, no, it's not their responsibility. Fine, I'll hire someone to do it.
Then I'll plant something. Plants and I don't have a good history.
It's hot, the CA central valley, but I don't want cactus.
I'll look for flowers or green plants that are hard to kill.

We've done quite a bit since the hubby and I got our townhouse almost 3 years ago:

- put up a small "retaining wall" out front, filled in with soil, and planted new snapdragons each season
-new carpet and paint throughout the house
-new ceiling in the basement
-new cherry-stained wood trim around the fireplace, with matching trim around the room at the top of the walls (I know there's a better way to phrase that...)
-new bathtub
-new copper pipes throughout the house

Hubby just got done redoing the half-bath in the basement, it was FUGLY with dark dark wood accessories, a vanity from the 80s, and peel-and-stick yellow tiles. It now has beautiful ceramic tiles, a new vanity, and brushed nickel accents. We're going to refinish the upstairs full bath next (when we get more money to do it ;) ).

I'm guessing crown molding???

We redid our half bath (paint, pedestal sink, new mirror, new flooring), painted the kitchen and living room, and the hubby surprised me with new hardwood floors one weekend. All of that is in addition to the outdoor work we did at our house in CO... complete new landscaping and staining of the backyard deck.

question on the landscaping. I don't have a large area to plant, but don't want the weeds. Any recommedation on some hardy non cactus green plants/flowers in a sunny spot? Or I may just go to OSH, or home depot, and ask for fearless plants.

hehe, sounds like when i went to Lowes and asked for "green stuff i cant kill easy" lmao! i swear, i can kill WEEDS without trying!

i have an apartment but my parents are redoing their bedroom and ive been helping. they repainted, put down wood laminate, got one of those fancy closet units, redid the molding. the laminate was the most fun to do. i hated the color they were painting. (seriously, who still picks BEIGE???)

I personally am big on flowers, so I had a lot of lavender (very easy to grow, pretty and fragrant!) and a butterfly bush. If you want bushes or other hardy green plants, I'd go with an apache plume or mojave native. There are some good pics and information here: http://www.turtlestuff.com/shop/?shop=1&cat=41

thanks. the ghosts of my dead plants thank you. the lavendar sounds nice.

Would you visit my yard? I have a hillside I want to denude prior to planting anything, and our borough won't allow me to napalm it.

Current projects: minor kitchen remodel (ripped up the carpet, refinishing the hardwood floors underneath, and repainting), upstairs reorganization, and dealing with the roof replacements from the hail damage 2 months ago (softball size at 60 mph can be fun!!)

Starting soon: repaint the exterior

Wishlist: redoing the yard (taking up the current grass and starting over among other things!) and a fence for the backyard so I can actually use the yard and not just the neighbors' dogs and kids!!

We just finished replacing the lanolium (sp?) and mauve-pink carpet in our kitchen & family room with wood laminate. Painted the kitchen and the downstairs half bath. new light fixtures and drawer pulls in kitchen and half bath.
Next we will put the leftover laminate in the half-bath. Also, getting a new backyard playset for the kids- so assembling that and replacing the sod underneath with mulch and weed barrier.
Next spring, the kitchen will get new countertops and a new sink. At that point, my husband will probably decide it's time to move!

Oh, and assembling the bunk beds for the boys and moving the 2 year old in with the 5 yr old.

Plus having baby #3 in the midst of all of this (not exactly home improvement though).

Yep, that's the phrase I was looking for! :p

I love home projects! Has anyone ever painted kitchen cabinets? Mine are currently wood stained so I was going to clean them thoroughly, sand, prime and paint. It's going to be a huge project but I know it will be worth it.

I also want to add recessed lighting to the kitchen and family room and maybe other rooms (hire someone that is, I know I can't tackle that). I have no idea how much it will cost but I am sure it will make a huge difference as well.

We've done some projects getting the house ready for sale. Unfortunately, the builder beige on the wall is an obscure color that is very hard to match...cheap watered-down beige so we've bought 3 colors trying to match it. So there is a patch on the foyer wall leading down the stairs that is off-colored.:mad:

I am trying desperately to get my lawns to be born again. The grass( front and back) has been dying and all the water inthe world isn't saving them.....

Any suggestions?????

Have you tried any of that grass food stuff they sell at home depot or Lowe's?

Labor Day weekend we are undertaking a HUGE project. My back yard has not been tended to since before Hurrican Ivan (several years ago). There are weeds back there the size of trees. I can't even see the deck because it's so overgrown. I bought my weed killer stuff last night so it can begin to do it's thing over the next two weeks. Right now the plan is to just go back there and whack everything and hope there is grass underneath. If any one has any suggestions on taming a small jungle, I'd appreciate it...

Check with a lawn company and then check with anotherone to get at least two oppinions.

Depending on how big a yard your have, it may be best to just roto tiller it and put either sod or a zone grass seed.

Have you thought of bermuda or zosia as it is a warmer weather grass and is tuff as nails. Kills or chokes weeds out. If that works in your area, you can plug it and it will spread. Plug every 12 inches, plant on the north side as it follows the sun to the south.

After about 50 trips to the home center I think I am a grass expert. Probably not but my lawn is looking awsome.




In the spring put down a pre emergent. It prevents weeds from coming up and fertilizes the lawn. Late spring/summer use a post emergent. It kills weeds that do come up. Late summer and fall you can aerate the lawn. The box stores rent an aerater that pluggs the lawn which allows the nutriants to get into the soil.

Water your lawn and when you cut the grass cut it high. Tall grass is stronger and healthier. It is less succeptible to drought and weeds.

Plant grass either in the fall or spring. It is tough to get grass to grow in the summer heat. If you are planting grass in the spring you need to get the grass down about 8 weeks before the pre-emergent or put the pre-emergent down 8 weeks before the grass. Most pre-emergents will prevent grass from growing.

Finally found the original wall paint color to finish up the stairs wall. But hubby didn't finish the wall in the "library". Hate to tell him it REALLY should be done.

So my current project is to paint my room. Its been blue for 2 years, and now I wanted a change. So I've decided I want to paint stripes on my wall. I found this great combination of a "pearl" white wall with pink & chocolate brown stripes.

BUT things went wrong after I left Lowes:

--the dude @ lowe's said it wouldn't be a good idea to paint my room white (since my room is a royal blue)...so he suggested a LIGHT gray.

--I agreed to a VERY LIGHT gray and the dude ended up making it a dark gray..so now i have 1 wall of a hideous gray color.

--The chocolate color was suppose to look reddish...ended up looking like a piece of crap brown (literally...it looks like i smeared poop on my wall)

--the pink is toooo cottom candy instead of the darker version on the chart I have.


So one wall of my room looks completely hideous. Now I have to save up a little more money and buy more paints and more supplies!! UGH!!

Welcome to home do it yourself!:D

Giveme white walls, hang color on them!

Basic can be best!;)

Patio Progress
 

Nicely nagging my landlord paid off. On Monday, the apt complex gardners are clearing the weeds engulfing my patio. The former tenant ignored the "must maintain" patio rule. The weeds are almost as tall as the gate and fence around the patio, and they are very dry, an obvious fire hazard.

Bye bye weeds.:)
A few friends, well aware of my history of killing plants -- not intentionally I say -- are going to the store with me next weekend to pick out and then plant plants/flowers. My role: to stay out of the way, provide beer and make a food run to Sonic.
And the plant protective league, which I think is a fitting name for my friends, have vowed to keep a watchful eye over anything planted.

We (husband, myself, and our soon to be 16 year old) are in the long slow process of redoing the following in our house:

Repainting the living room, upstairs hall, and all four bedrooms
Reflooring the downstairs bathroom and master bathroom
Taking up all carpet and putting in some kind of hard wood floor
Tear out the old back porch and rebuild it with good wood and expand it a little bit
Replanting our grape vines (hopefull this time we wont have a late freeze)
Planting a patio peach tree
Planting a weeping cherry tree
Put in trelis for roses and morning glory vines
Rewallpaper or strip the wallpaper and paint the dining room (we are still deciding what to do).


In the past couple of years we have repainted and refinished the kitchen, repainted and refloored the upstairs bathroom in addition to replacing the toilet, repainted the downstairs bathroom, new roof, and repainted the shutters and gutters outside.

Does anyone know much about the grass called Canada Green? I was completely sold on Zoysia (sp?), but I heard it was really a weed that grew much too fast for my liking.

Our house is only five years old, and one of the big selling points Mrs. DA used on me when we bought it (we paid off the mortgage on our last home the month we moved to this one) is that all exterior maintenance, including lawn, plants, bushes, etc. -- as well as snow removable -- is done by the home owners association.

The house was recently painted -- after five years.

I like this a lot.