Low Maintenance Landscaping

    I've discovered that as much as I really love a good garden, I'm not so great at keeping plants alive. This realization is pretty disheartening for me because I would love to be able to plant all kinds of wonderful things and have them flourish around me, but that is not going to happen - at least not until I take some sort of gardening class or something. Everything I've tried so far has failed pretty hard, so I decided to try a new approach.
    Our backyard has two flowerbeds outlined with pavers right next to the patio. This area was overgrown with grass and ferns when we moved in, so we removed those and just had empty flowerbeds until about a week ago. I knew I needed to plant something that required little to no care, especially in the backyard where I don't spend a lot of time. I saw a post on Pinterest recently about using newspaper as weed block instead of buying the annoying sheets of that stuff, so I figured I'd give that a whirl and then top it with rocks instead of dirt and mulch.

 First we sucked up the existing mulch with the Shop Vac to be used in the front landscaping later. Waste not, want not. :)

Here are the two beds with newspaper.

    In case you're wondering, the stairs were taken down because we wanted to remove one step in the hopes that it would keep the chickens off the patio for good. I'll keep you posted on how that works out for us.

    After the newspaper was put down, we placed a one foot square paver in the middle of each flower bed. This is where the planter will sit on each side. We borrowed pieces of the monstrous, never-dies-no-matter-what-they-do-to-it aloe plant that has been growing at my in-laws house forever. I really hope these don't die on me. Then I would know for sure that I've got the black thumb of death. Anyway, we put one aloe in each planter and we were done! How's that for low-maintenance?

Let There Be Light

So about a week ago, we went to Home Depot for some landscaping items. We popped by the lighting section just for funsies and came home with three ceiling fans and a vanity light. I swear home improvement stores are the only place we impulse buy, but when you impulse buy there it's a bit more pricey than a candy bar or whatever other unnecessary item we might decide to spring for. I can't say I regret the decision at all. Upgrading the lighting in the house was definitely next on my list. (Well, painting was next, but getting Alton to paint is like pulling teeth, so that will be a drawn-out process I'm sure.) Anyway, here's the good part. 

Before and After: Living Room

Before and After: Craft Room

I don't have a before of the office because Alton took it down while I was at work, but it was essentially the same as the old one in the craft room. The after is the fan that used to reside in the master bedroom, so this next photo is both a before (master) and an after (office).

 And here's the new master bedroom fan. I'm thinking we will probably go with a sort of modern zen feel in there. Inspiration board to come.

There's also no before photo of the vanity light in the hall bathroom due to Alton's eagerness, but you can see it in some previous posts if you've forgotten about its golden-hued horribleness. Here is the new one:

The new vanity light needed to be placed higher than the old one, so there is currently a hole in the wall above the mirror filled with wires that needs to be patched:

I'm really hoping the hall bath will be the next thing to be painted. I'm sure we could knock the whole room out in a weekend if we would just get to it already.

Our Newest Addition

Remember a while back when we pulled up the plants and pavers that formed a jellybean shape in the corner of our front yard?

Well, we decided to plant some sort of fruit tree in the hopes of balancing that corner out with the rest of the yard, which has two Bradford Pear trees on each side, and hopefully producing some fruit as well. I really wanted a Granny Smith apple tree, but after checking online we were iffy on whether it would thrive in our climate. The choice then became either pear or peach. Peach trees get gorgeous pink blossoms reminiscent of cherry blossoms in the spring, so we went with a little peach tree. It will probably be a few years before it actually starts to produce any fruit, but hopefully it will at least grow and flower in the meantime.

Bringing home baby.

Harley has to check out the new guy.

No, we didn't fill the hole with kitty litter. Our compost is in there! This is the first project we've used it for.

Harley supervises Alton as he puts in a layer of compost.

All done!

It's already taller than me! Not that that's saying much...

Hall Bathroom Inspiration, Revisited

A while back I mentioned that we decided not to go with the beachy feeling for our hall bathroom, but instead decided to go modern. I showed you our new bath accessories, but I thought I would go ahead and share our new inspiration for that room. We are painting the living room, dining room, and hallway a neutral grey and we want to bring that into the bathroom as well. Since it is a pretty small space, I figured we could do a fun wall treatment in there without all the taping and measuring being too much of a pain. So, I saw this photo of a shower curtain on Pinterest and decided that it would look great as a paint treatment for the walls:

Photo from here: http://cupcakesandcashmere.com/updated-guest-room/

Those are pretty much the exact colors that will be used for our bathroom walls and probably about the same size stripes. Everything in the room will be either white or grey, with the exception of the black tissue cover and soap pump, plus I would like to bring in a punch of bright color through either a bath rug or some art on the wall. I haven't decided if I want to hang anything over the stripes or let them be the centerpiece and bring the color in with a rug. I think I will have to wait and see the stripes before I know if I can bring myself to cover them up with art.

This is what our vanity currently looks like:

We are going to eventually paint it white and get a new countertop, sink, and faucet. We also need to replace the vanity light. It is a brassy gold fixture that really needs to go. We were thinking something like this light would work nicely:

Photo from here: http://www.quoruminternational.com/index.cfm?do=app.productDetails&product=5084-2-65

We are also thinking that a white porcelain vessel sink would look great in there. Not sure what shape we like best, but here are a few ideas:

All three images found at www.modernbathroom.com

I'm also thinking that since there isn't a lot of floor space maybe we could splurge on a fun mosaic tile of some sort. As for the countertops, I am definitely thinking either quartz or recycled glass. Quartz especially has a really nice, clean, modern look to it. Here are a couple of examples of quartz in both grey and white:

http://www.caesarstoneus.com/gallery/modern/

http://www.cambriausa.com/our-collection/photos-and-videos/

So those are our lofty goals for the front bathroom. Aside from perhaps painting and getting a new light, I doubt any of this will be done any time soon, but I will certainly keep you posted.

One Advantage of Living in South Louisiana

While it may be snowing and cold in other parts of the country, here in south Louisiana it has been in the 70's and 80's for the past couple of weeks. Alton and I took advantage of this and he began organizing the storage room/workshop under the carport and I planted some spring bulbs in our biggest flower bed under the dining room window. I don't have any before photos of the workshop, so I'll just explain what was done in each after photo.

 Alton created a shelf out of some scrap wood and a couple of brackets we removed from inside the house when we first moved in.

 The pegboard and workbench were actually already in there. I just didn't post it when it was done way long ago. My bad.

 General organizing on this side of the room. Created another shelf too.

 He fashioned that wall hook into an over-the-door hook to hold his gear for his newest hobby:

He actually did some more organizing in there since I took these photos. The work bench is a lot less cluttered.

There's not much to see as far as the bulb planting goes, but in the couple of weeks since I first planted them, a few daffodils have begun to shoot up. (As well as a few weeds, unfortunately.)

We also recently received more free stuff (!) from my aunt. Now we have both a sitting and dining area for the patio.

And this is obviously not a DIY project, but we had our roof replaced about a month ago for almost nothing. Yay insurance! Here is the roof before:

And after:

We opted for grey architectural shingles. I think it looks good. And you can see the shade in the door, which was mentioned in the last post. I think that looks good too. :)