Tag: Exterior

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"Press" the Buzzer

Christine

Jack also did some touch-ups around the doorbell plate. Three years ago, when we replaced the modern, cheap plastic, oval-shaped doorbell with my new round PRESS, we realized that the new one didn’t quite cover the where the old one had been. So, I figured we’d fix it eventually, and last week Jack did just that when he was putting the finishing touches on the rest of the front door.

I had originally wanted a twist style doorbell. You know, the ones that make the sound like an old-fashioned bicycle bell? Only I didn’t know what to call it. So, I tried to describe it to Jeff, my fabulous and patient electrician. He came back with this buzzer-sounding thing. It kind of reminds me of a doorbell you’d hear on a British television show. It wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind, but dear Jeff had tried very hard to find this and he was so pleased with himself that I didn’t have the heart to tell him that wasn’t what I wanted.

Jeff and me, at the birthday party.

Now, this doorbell buzzer thing is kind of cool, it still had an old-fashioned sound to it. But I seem to be the only one around here who thinks so. Mom and Lewis definitely don’t like it.

Even once I figured out what to call it, I couldn’t find a twist doorbell a couple years ago, and even now, I can’t seem to find one in the black powder-coat finish that all the other outdoor accessories have. Maybe someday. I’m definately willing to replace the buzzer if I ever find a nice twist in black. But for now, I’m rather fond of the one we have. And I love the PRESS, which was very inexpensive. Only $5.99 at VanDykes. And worlds better than that horrible plastic thing that made the ding-dong sound.

The library where I work was built around the same time at Oliver’s bungalow, and the service elevators still have most of their original details intact, including the alarm button, which makes that same bell twist sound I’m after. Of course, I’d hate to be stuck in one of those elevators from 1930 with only that little bicycle-bell sound in hopes of getting someone’s attention! But, it would make for a great doorbell.

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Jack was Back

Christine

Jack delivered something today. Do you know what it was? A couple of somethings, really. And I’ve been waiting since February. Can you remember back that far?

That’s right! Doors!
The storm door/screen door frame, along with the screen inset and the storm inset, and the actual new old front door.

I called Bill as soon as Jack left this morning, and asked him when he might be able to get them hung. He said he’d try to squeeze it in this week, but he wasn’t sure. Next week he’s on vacation. But I think Bill knows how excited I am to see this finished, so I think he’ll get here as soon as he can.

Jack is not happy with the way the rest of the frame around the front door is weathering, so he said he will come back after Bill has hung the new doors. This way Jack can finish anything Bill needs to trim, and give the whole thing a new coat of finish. Something more durable. I honestly think this is really terriffic of Jack, I mean I know we are paying him for this project, and I think his price is quite reasonable, but I’m impressed he’s willing to fix a problem that was made by someone else.

The door trim seems to be getting lighter and the wood is looking awfully dry. I’m not sure why, because it is under the porch, mostly protected from the elements. It gets the sun only early in the morning, and is in shadow by 10 AM. I suspect it didn’t recieve the proper finish coat for an exterior. I mean, it has only been like three years. Seriously.

But don’t worry, Jack is going to fix it.

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Behind the Forsythia Mass

Christine

We are looking at the small area beside the house, on the factory side. This picture was taken from the sidewalk, facing the front of the house.

The massive shrub is my forsythia. I like it because it is large, established, and has pretty yellow blooms for a brief time in the spring. But. It is also massively overgrown. Again with the neglect of the outdoor things.*

There is a semi shady little spot next to the porch, where I’ve been meaning to plant some things.

Since there is also a small pine-y shrub there, the soil is acidic and that makes it a good spot for lily-of-the-valley. I love lily-of-the-valley. My grandmother had planted it at the cabin, and like many other things there, it has outgrown its original boundries. But that’s okay, ’cause it’s pretty. And is smells nice.

Who’s that peeking through the branches? After a couple months of smothering the weeds with plastic and heavy objects, I pulled all that off last week, turned the soil over, placed the pavers to form a mini-walkway, and planted some plants.

At the back, on the left is a coleus from last year, that I tried to overwinter on the kitchen porch sill. It didn’t do too well, got kinda wood-y, but it was still alive, so I figured I’d stick it in the ground somwhere. After I gave up on it, of course, it has decided to get all bushy, healthy looking and thrive. Go figure.

On the right, at the back, is some lavender from my mom’s yard. She dug it up, just to see if it could be divided successfully. We’ll see. It looked rather dead when I put it in the ground, but has since perked up a bit.

All along the front are some hostas that mom’s friend Janie dug up and divided for me (to replace the ones I killed last year on the other side of the house), only she gave me far more than I knew what to do with. So I stuck the smallest ones in here, all in a row.

The soft, fluffy stuff on the far right front corner is artemesia silver mound. I love this stuff. It is so wonderful to touch. Nothing else quite like it.

And the small green plants in between the front and back rows are my lovely pink lily-of-the-valley that mom bought for me. Last summer. Which I never planted. But they’ve hung in there, so they should be lovely next spring. I also have some beautiful yellow hyacinth bulbs I want to plant here in the fall. I know it looks a bit rough right now, but it should be pretty in the spring.

And, since the electric meter is on this side of the house, I have been striving to keep this narrow pathway accessible for the guy who comes once a month to take a reading. I hate when they estimate my bill. I work hard at conserving electricity, and I don’t like being overcharged. Not even for one month, knowing that they will give me a credit the following month. That also helps me to be aware of how much I am using. So, these pavers are for you, meter-reader-guy. Or gal. Whatever.

*Please forgive the Buffy-speak. I’ve been watching the series on dvd since Greg at Petch House posted this a few weeks back.

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Oli and the Hostas and the Pavers

Christine

Last summer I labored many days in the yard to lay this lovely row of pavers. That was my first major attempt to reclaim the yard. We spent the first four years making sure the house didn’t fall apart inside, and the outside was neglected a bit.

So, Mom and I reclaimed these cement paving blocks from the cabin, where they used to surround the swimming pool. This reclaiming is an ongoing process. Basically, I think we had the idea that if we just went down there, cleared the brush, brambles, weeds, and other objects, we would just start hauling these things home. Well. Not quite. It is hard work, and we have realized we must do the work early in the spring before things start to grow. Like the wild raspberry brambles. And poison ivy. Learned that the hard way. Also, it has to be warm enough to work, but still cool enough that we can keep long pants and long sleeves on, and too cold to encounter snakes. Ew. So. Early spring. Temps in the 50s. Not raining. Really narrows down the amount of time we can spend on this project.

This year we had a good rhythm down and I think we put in about three solid weekends of work pulling pavers before it got too warm. Hence the no posting in March. I think we brought enough home for my next project (the back yard, near the apple trees, more on that later). John was nice enough to bring a large load in his truck, so they all arrived at once. Sure beats 12 at a time, which is how we brought them home last year. I don’t think the VW Golf can handle much more weight than that. So many small trips last year. When I ran out at home, Oli and I would hop in the car, drive to the cabin, load up, and come home. Of course, everything takes longer with Ol along. He will insist on being let out at the cabin. So many good smells in the woods.

Anyway, I snapped these last year when I had finished my first long run. The pavers serve a double purpose: the line where the grass ends and the flowers begin, and they make a good mowing strip.
I was very proud of this flower bed. The hostas were from the POs, and I’m told they are impossible to kill.
But leave it to me. There were five last year, but only two came up this year. That’s about all I started with this year. Then we came up with a plan, did the prep work, and planted the seeds. By mid-May, it looked like this.
See, the biggest problem with direct sowing seeds is that it is hard to tell if what is coming up is a plant or a weed. Until it is too late. One of my gardening books has this lovely piece of wisdom:
“If it pulls out easily, it was a valuable plant. If it is tough, it is a weed.”
So true. This bed was almost overtaken with stuff that didn’t belong. Luckily, it was mostly grass. Some crabgrass, and clover. I really have no problem leaving the clover, once the other stuff is established, but it was smothering the nasturtiums, and the liatris never did come up. As far as I can tell. But the cosmos is pretty hearty, and came up in force.

I didn’t take a picture of this bed when it was overtaken with grasses, but trust me, it was, and it looks a lot better now. I promise to try to keep after it now.

Today, it looks like this:

The cosmos are about to bloom. My replacement hosta has perked up.

And the nasturtiums are filling out nicely, with a few blooms aready, too!

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Front Crescent

Christine

We made substantial progress on the front crescent-shaped planting bed last night. And when I say we, I mean I did all the work and Oli supervised. He’s good at that.
This is what the bed has looked like for the last couple of months. The plastic and other weighty objects were my attempt to kill the weeds. I pulled it all off a few weeks ago and found a lot of hearty crab grass. So I scraped the top layer of soil out of the bed, and onto the concrete, and covered it all back up. Not pretty, but effective.
When I pulled the plastic, pots, mats, bricks, and stepping stones off the area tonight, I found that it had worked pretty well, and I only had to pull a couple of weeds, which came out easily because they were not thriving. Please forgive the photos, I snapped these well after the sun went down, but it was still light enough to work.
Oli is still not allowed on the front porch because of the baby robins, and he’s not happy that he has to be so far from the activity. We all know how much he likes to sink his paws into fresh soil.
I broke up the soil a bit with the hoe, and scraped it around with the metal rake, then I added two fresh bags of topsoil, and did my best to level it all with the rake. It was kind of hard to tell because it was getting pretty dark by then, and I was working by the light from the porch and the citronella candles.
I put my potted plants in position, planted two more cucumbers in the ground, and placed the recycled rubber stepping stones. Now I just need to fill in the gaps with plants, or I’ll have the same weed problem I started with.

I have some seeds that will probably work, but I’m going to see what Mom and I find when we visit Noggle’s Sweet Meadow Greenhouse. They are having a buy one, get one sale. I’m thinking that this late in the game, I’d rather not mess around with seeds, grown up plants will be better. Plants: at the far back, against the porch pillar, one cucumber, with twine to climb, next to it, Lewis’ frog belly plant. In the yellow pot, chives. The two plastic terracotta colored pots (16″ and heavy), one each of Better Boy and Sweet Millions tomatoes. Lavender in the white pot at the front, flanked by two more cucumbers. The marigolds came up on their own, and I’ll probably plant more. Marigolds keep the bunnies away.

Now I just need to find something for the two cucumbers in the front to climb…