My thumb is turning Green

I decided that this year, I will work very hard on our gardens.  When we moved in, the yard and gardens were beautiful.  Then it got hot and didn't rain for a really long time and I let it die.  There was no way to keep everything alive.  It has been a learning experience that is for sure.  I have learned that I am good at taking care of small sections at a time.  I tried to have a big vegetable garden the first year, but it was hard to keep going.  Last year, we created a small raised bed.  It started out great, but didn't produce due to a drought and watering restrictions.  This year, I added 2 more raised vegetable bed, (making 3 total).  There is going to be so many vegetables that I won't be able to keep up!  The front bed is what I call my salsa garden.  It has tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, basil, parsley, spearmint and rosemary.  The herbs are some of my favorite things that I planted so far.  I love to go pick a leaf and smell it!  I also added some flowers.  I bought plants that were already started for the front garden.  The back yard is my salad garden.  I bought a seed packets for these beds.  It has cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and yellow squash.  My husband got 2 thorn-less blackberry bushes for his birthday and we planted them too.  I am so excited that it is going so well this year!  I feel like I got the hang of it.  I don't think that I can go back to just having a big garden in the middle of the yard ever again.  The raised beds are much easier to weed than the other type of garden was.  I was having to get out the rototiller several times a week and I couldn't keep the weeds and grass out of it.



The other thing that I accomplished is getting my flower beds in shape.  They were just terrible!  Weeds kept coming and the flowers dried up.  I have mulched almost everything and I use miracle grow all the time!  So far they are doing great, but we have also had a lot of rain this year, thank goodness.  90% of all the flowers and perennials that I have bought have been clearance.  I was really proud of that.  I could walk into Lowes and buy 2.5qt size perennials that look dead for $1 or less and take them home and they are doing great!  I bought about $70 worth of plants and one big bag of potting soil and only spent $20.  I have bought a few things that were not on sale though, like the vegetables and a few annuals, but I couldn't get those cheaper.  Since it looks good, it's fun to go out and maintain!

Moving In:

Well, this is us moving in. We had to paint the bedrooms and lay new carpet, hang fans, tile a closet, clean up and cut some trees down. Oh yea, and take the shower out of the masterbath because it was leaking into the bedroom. We all slept on mattress' in the livingroom for 3weeks because we couldn't put in the carpet right away. We also discovered that we can't wash clothes here until we fix something with the laundry plumbing!!!! I am starting to miss the old house already, haha!

Bedroom, bath, laundry

Well, these rooms speak for themselves. The boys room had to be de-cluttered, so did the laundry room. Kathy came over after church and helped in the boys room by dusting, picking up toys, and arranging the shelves. Now they look great!

Living, Dining, Office, & Sewing Room

In these areas, we just had to clean up and remove stuff. Aaron cleaned the office all by himself. Kristen came over one day and helped clean the sewing room.(Thank you so much) I could not have done it alone. Then we had to vaccum and dust everything. And it looks great!

master bedroom & bath

In this room, we put in new carpet, sanded and painted all the wood, painted the walls, put up crown moulding. I scrubbed the shower with acidic cleaner. And of course we got all of our junk out :) I LOVE IT. I am going to do the exact same thing in our new house. Hanging crown moulding wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be either (especially with a nail gun, haha). I am very proud of Aaron and myself!!! Way to go

Kitchen

This is it. Our finished kitchen. We put in a backsplash, new countertops, appliances, moved a cabinet, textured and painted. I love it. Now we are moving :( But, I know that we did a good job and we can do it again!

Getting our house ready

Ok, I know what you are thinking "How in the World can this house be ready to sell in a few days?" Believe me I am wondering the same thing. But we do not have a choice. If we don't want to make 2 house payments then we have too! I know it can be done. Thank goodness that Labor day is Monday. I decided to take a few pictures of the mess here, to remember later. Today our bedroom carpet is being installed and the handyman came to fix my ceiling in the kitchen all at the same time. But it is none too soon, let me tell you. I need to get all of this done as quickly as possible. Hopefully it will go smoothly?!

House projects

Here is a list of all the improvements we have done since June 2nd

• Fix 2 windows
• tile backsplash in kitchen
• paint kitchen
• replace missing trim in bathrom
• caulk trim in bathroom and kitchen
• attach back porch post to patio
• fix plumbing leaks in bath and laundry room
• have insulation blown in attic
• new porch light
• paint mailbox
• drywall behind washer and freezer in laundry room
• texture walls in laundry & kitchen
• replace plug-ins & light switches to match
• install light in living room

I am sure that I forgot something. It really feels good to get things crossed off the to-do list! We have a few more things to do before we are finally done with everything, but right now I am a happy girl!

Kitchen is Done

Before

Before

New tile, paint, countertops, sink, faucet, stove, dishwasher, switches, plug-ins........It is finally done. And it feels really good. Don't get me wrong though, putting in the tile was really, really hard! But it looks really good!

We have done more this summer to our house than we have in years, and everything is almost done. We just had insulation blown in the attic yesterday and it has helped out tremendously! Aaron and I both were surprised by how cool our house became. We are dumb for not doing it years ago, we probably spent thousands on our utilities because our attic was not insulated. Oh well lesson learned the expensive way, I guess. Our goal was to sell this house and find an acreage, but so far only one house was available we could afford and fit our needs but I don't think that it is the one. So we may have run out of time to move to another. It looks like the economy is going to get real bad soon, so we may have to just hunker down where we are for a while longer.

After

I have got to go take a better picture soon!

Before & After

Before

I put the drywall up after 3 years of having a hole in the wall. We were just lazy after we switched the plumbing and never got to it until now. It is nice having it done!