Guilty Pleasure: Craiglist

I have finally "discovered" the joy of Craigslist. I can't help myself! Almost daily, for a few weeks, I've been browsing the furniture, free, garden and materials sections. I keep thinking I'm going to find that diamond in the rough.

Thanks to Craigslist, I'm well on my way to furnishing the future office. So far, we scored a very simple writing desk for $10 and a 5'6" long, 30" tall bookcase for $25.

Now I'm looking for one more bookcase, a bench or pew, and headboard. After that, a media cabinet/TV stand should wrap it up.

I don't see myself ever wheeling-and-dealing for used mattresses or a second-hand La-Z-Boy. But right now, it's hard to imagine paying full price for a bookcase or table ever again.

Blogger's Guilt

For a while now, I have been feeling some Blogger's Guilt. I love catching up on other folks' house blogs, and and learning from their stories, or stealing inspiration from their pictures. And my blog sits silent, making no contributions to the house blogging community. Shame, shame, shame!

You see, we haven't touched the house in months. Towards the end of the summer, we made significant progress on the yard, but once Fall settled in, and the busy season arrived for work, home improvement came to a grinding halt.

"Why," you ask.

Well, the biggest issue is I cannot get the plaster smooth. You may remember last spring, I started the office/guest room make over. That included removing an unnecessary doorway (thus adding some very valuable wall space). Unfortunately, repairing such a large section of plaster has proved to be beyond my skill set.

Now, I'm working on figuring out how to fix it. Should I just keep adding plaster, working further and further out? Should I hire help? Ugh. What to do...

And of course, we have a party planned in a few weeks, so I now have a deadline. Naturally, I have moved the furniture back into the room, and started using it. Frequently. Ugh.

Sneaking in a project

Have you ever snuck a small organizing/rearranging project when someone wasn't looking? Did you ever do that in someone else's house?

Is that the kind of thing people appreciate? I know one of the people in the home will really appreciate it, and is excited. But no one else knows. Except for you. And you wouldn't tell anybody, right?

We're still here

October. Really? Whoa.

There has been progress on our home improvement projects. Namely, the yard. Daffodils are planted, garden boxes are full of compost and ready for topsoil. But between guests, work, and the extended vacation our sander took (at the repair shop) there has been little time focus on projects or update the blog.

I'm really hoping to get our focus back, soon, and get back on track. The rain is back, so it's time to sow grass seed. Unfortunately, I probably won't get around to building the shed until the rain stops, next year. We'll also have to wait until spring to see if the Japanese Maple survived being moved.

More soon (I really, really, really hope!!)

Garden Boxes

You might remember from older posts that we've found quite a bit of garbage buried in our yard.

Exhibits A, B, C and D:

The cement in the top picture was almost 4' long. The white disc in the second picture is the top of a prescription drug bottle. We found maybe 100+ of the clear, compostable cups, and other picnicware that the previous owners had left in the yard. Some buried, some strewn about, most cracked all to pieces. Love it. Also from another post, you may remember that the rusty barrel was not only full of garbage, but it was buried, up to the rim.

Garden boxes will help ensure we're gardening with cleaner soil, and make garden maintenance a little easier. Box design and construction is another project that I surrendered control of, and, once again, it was for the best.

My mock up of his design:

We purchased: two 4x4x12 and two 2x4x12 sticks for the vertical pieces, eight 1x6x16 yellow cedar boards for the sides, landscaping fabric, 2 1/2" screw (should have gone with 2 1/4") and 3" screws. The 4x4s were cut to 12" lengths. The 2x4s were cut to 24" lengths. The cedar was cut to 4' and 8' lengths.

The 4x4s were attached inside the corners and along the 8' section on the interior side. The 2x4s were placed along the midpoints on all 4 sides, on the exterior, and were sunk into the ground for stability. Landscaping fabric was stapled around the interior sides of the boxes to help keep soil from squeezing out between the boards.

Cost of materials was $138 and change. The project required about 9 hours of labor for one person. That one person was not me.

Now we just need to get some good, clean soil and wait for next spring to start our garden!