homey

the worky kind of weekend

On Friday, my Dad hopped up from the cooler coast and headed to our hot little house (then again, what part of CA wasn’t burning up this weekend? or today?) to help with lots of crazy projects we had on the “to-do” list. And with his generous help (and extra set of hands and muscle) we got a crazy amount done.

The main reason for the trip: landscaping.

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

First thing on Saturday, we headed into the backyard. We have LOTS of planting room, but the previous owners had placed black plastic lining over the clay soil and covered it with black mulch. The liner was almost impossible to cut through, and it wasn’t well positioned, so weeds were still growing throughout the yard. So, we raked up as much of the mulch as we could, pulled out the plastic & threw it away, leveled off the soil, and rolled & cut & secured new landscaping fabric to fit the 220 linear feet of planting beds that we have.

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

Needless to say, we have quite a few bags of mulch for the next garbage day!

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

With the ease of having a pick-up truck around to visit Lowe’s, Mr. M used his power tools and fashioned a cover to hide the a/c unit.

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

We also got the chance to put up one of our 16′ triangle Coolaroo sun shades in the back of the house. We had a second smaller shade (that’s terracotta orange), but didn’t like the way it was looking, so we ordered another one online and will put it up in a crazy geometric pattern later on.

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

We also planted a weeping cherry tree out in the front yard (next to our neighbor’s lovely roses).

Dad also got super handy and repaired a broken sprinkler head (by the looks of befuddled neighbors, our development’s sprinkler installer was quite low on glue when he put things together) in the lawn, and also rewired our drip system so the backyard drip will actually work on the timer.

So if that wasn’t enough to do on a 90+ degree April weekend… then we headed indoors…

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

… to make the “most used” cabinet in our house actually open the right way…

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

… install a new ceiling fan in the loft to match our brown decor…

April 2009 - Handy Weekend w/Dad by you.

… and move the old white one (which, while not so pretty is still quite utilitarian) into the office so we won’t wilt in the summer heat.

IMG_1287-Edit by you.

And finally we installed a new modern chandelier in the craft room that we had picked up at one of the EXPO Design Center store closing sales.

I’m sure I’m leaving something else off the list, but let’s just say that Dad and Mr. M had quite the weekend and will be sleeping well for awhile. I’ll be spending my days researching garden designs and trying my best to fill up the blank white canvas that we now have to grow in!

Did anyone else have a home-improvement weekend? Or maybe you just spent some extra time in the garden?

11 Comments

  • talda

    wow, the improvements look nice! i especially love that chandelier. the closest i got to doing anything in the garden was think about picking a lemon so i could make cinnamon rolls. neither of which i ended up doing.

  • Stacy

    Wow, good job on the house ” to do” list. We have plenty on our lists, main one being the backyard too! Do you have any websites that you can refer me to for some landscaping designing?

    • kimberly michelle

      I’ll share a blog tomorrow about some of the places I found! I actually just went shopping today with one of the garden lists I made… only got a couple of the things on the list, but it helped tremendously!

  • TikiBird

    We had a home improvement weekend, too! We bought a fountain…actually, TWO fountains (one has water, the other I am using as a big planter). :) Your yard looks lovely…and I absolutely LOVE weeping cherry trees (but I also love black mulch!).

  • Mr M

    @ Kelli, the new ceiling fan was a “special order” from Lowe’s. Basically, they just didn’t sell enough of those to keep it in stock.

    What Kim also left out is that not only does that cover serve an aesthetic purpose, but a few local crickets have decided that its their version of the Plaza Hotel.

  • TikiBird

    Two fountains, indeed! I was way too excited about it. I’ve been seeking a fountain for years. My little yard’s slowly becoming my own little faux-New Orleans Square-inspired courtyard. :) (We got ours at Silverado [http://www.silveradoonline.com/]…it’s a nice nursery with lots of neat rock and hardscaping stuff, too.)