The posts are complete!

Hopefully this weekend we will begin building the fence panels. It looks so good. I can't wait to have a fenced yard to enjoy. Other than that we are still plugging away at patching up a few unfinished small items. The house is really coming together. I love it. I couldn't have found a better hobbie to put my time and energy into.

One Crazy Neighbor

How depressing- It's already May 20th and I've only had one other post. This weekend we are going to finish installing the posts in the yard as well as begin constructing our panels.

This is very interesting... Last Spring was our first in our house. I had met this woman who lives on a different block that was thrilled that we purchased the house/ was happy to see us planting trees and doing work etc. I spoke with this woman about possibly volunteering for random things around NE Minneapolis just to give back to the community. She seemed pretty nice.

A few weeks after meeting her we began getting sited for different things around the exterior of our house from the city. They were dumb things like repairing or tearing down our dumpy old fence, clearing brush out of the back of our garage. We were repairing and doing all of this landscaping work to a house that hadn't been touched in how long, and here they are threatening to fine us for piddly stuff that is going to get taken care of any how. We were under the impression that the city has just been driving around and fining people. Well, I had my suspicions.

Once the fence was removed the woman walked her dog past the house again and was so happy that the fence had been removed. Later that day Quentin began putting the posts in. We are putting 6 foot posts in and cutting them down to 4 feet but need to make sure everything is level. Being a corner lot gives you a lot of restrictions. Around 8:30pm me and some friends are having dinner- literally eating dinner. I have a full plate of food in my hand. Someone starts banging on the back door. I open it- dogs are going nuts- friends are a little freaked out. There she is with her dog in the darkness at my back door. "can I help you". She said she just wanted to make sure that we knew the fence was way too high and we better take care of it before the city comes around. I kindly but firmly told her that we were well aware of the laws and thank you for your concern. I shut the door in her face while she began muttering something else. RUDE! She could see us having dinner through the windows and felt the need to interrupt as well as knock on my back door. WOW!

A few days later I receive a note on my garbage can that is telling me to water the trees in the front boulevard. Somebody (this neighbor) took the time to walk all the way home, write a note and tape it to my garbage can. How malicious. I have put in so much time to my yard and am very knowledgable when it comes to plants, especially on regular watering schedules and keeping them alive. This woman doesn't even live on my friggen block. The best part is that the 2000, and the 2100 block is full of shit hole dumps and this woman is out for me. She better pray that I don't find out where she is living. I will be outside of her home with a clipboard doing preliminary work for the city.

Our progress

Sorry for my lack of posts, yet again. We have been finishing up some projects and I've been a bad blogger. Here are my weekend updates:

I am still working on the front patio. I've been stripping all of the cracked paint off of the windows with a heat gun, sanding, priming and painting with a white gloss. I am almost done. It looks very nice and clean.


I have also added 14 new plants over the weekend to my landscape design. It looks really great! I spent about $200 which is not so great, but it really pays off. I went to Gerten's. The reason I love Gertens is that all of their plants and shrubs are guaranteed for a year. I returned 5 blanket flower and didn't have an issue. Tangle Town only offers a year on their shrubs. It's worth the drive. Here is the right side of my front steps. Just 13 more plants to go before it's complete!


And last but not least- an update on Quentin's project. We've got about half of the posts in the ground. The rest will be in soon we are hoping. At lease you get a good idea of where the fence is going to be.

Let There Be Light!

Quentin re-ran the wires for Laine's room so she has a lovely new ceiling fan and working electrical outlets. Now we just have the office fan to rewire. Or should I say Quentin has it to rewire. I apologize for my lack of posts recently. We have been finishing up alot of unfinished projects. It feels REALLY good! Everyone is so impressed when they come over now. It's so funny how much work goes into every detail- yet noboody knows just how many hours went into the smallest thing that you pass by every day.

This weekend we are going to begin digging all of the holes for the posts by ourselves. Can't wait! (sigh). It will be nice to get the fence up.

Excited for the fence

This weekend we are getting some new electrical run so that Laine has some light in her room. We have had an issue with the lighting in the office and new guest bedroom since last August. We've had to rip open the walls so we've been sort of waiting to open this can of worms do to the mess. It's almost complete though- putting all of the baseboards back together is going to be the Shitty part.

AND... We just might be renting a post hole digger this weekend from Home depot. It'd be much better than doing it by hand. I've heard it's quite labor intensive. They rent for $46 for 4 hours. I'm thinking that should be enough time to get all of the holes dug. I can't wait for the fence!

The fence is down!!!

This weekend we got our eye sore of a fence removed from the back patio. Now we just need to get in contact with City Hall so we can get the new fence process moving along. We were thinking of applying for a variance to make the fence 5 feet rather than 4. Being on a corner lot, and having the fence in our back yard and side yard makes a big difference. We want the new fence to look welcoming, but not so low that our dogs can spring over the fence. (they can jump about 4 feet high!) So that's pretty exciting. Now comes the funds. I'm so relieved that we are going to have some extra money since my friend Laine is moving in. We wouldn't be able to do any of this without her help.

I am dying to begin planting more of the plants on my plans for the yard. The first trip back is going to be pretty expensive. I have about 18-24 more plants to complete the area up by the house. My Salvias and cranberry bushes are already coming back. I LOVE plants! Gardening is so much fun and by far the most rewarding to me. I also seem to go broke everytime I go to Gertens if that says anything. Just 1 more month!!!

My small dilemma.

I pulled down the hinges from the bedroom doors upstairs and stripped them. Stripping paint from hinges and pulls is very easy by the way. All you need to do put the hinges in a pot you don't plan on using again, fill the bottom of the pot with baking soda and simmer them for a half an hour. When you pull them out the paint just comes right off. It's not good to use stripper on metal as it is abrasive.

Ok, so onto my dilemma. The orginal hinges are copper underneath. I think they are pretty charming, however the rest of our hardware is brushed nickel. We are restoring the woodwork, in the house, but that's about it. We are updating almost everything. Do you think it would be weird if we kept the hinges copper and had silver everything else? I am thinking I may just give these guys a coat of metal spray paint.



PS. Our dumpster is being delivered as I type this. Down with the ugly fence this weekend!