Thursday, July 29, 2010
Psst! Over Here!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The Fence
Monday, November 2, 2009
Super Sunday
Friday, October 30, 2009
Meet Rex
After looking on and off for the right one (and the right price!) I got not just one, but two for my birthday!
My parents happened to drive past a place in Indiana that sells unfinished concrete yard art. In August, we road tripped there with high expectations. And came home with a pair of grotesques.
Since they're unfinished, the prices were much more reasonable. The work itself was pretty easy. I just needed to sand them down a bit, fill in the seams with a bit of concrete (the woman running the store? No, that's not the right word – yard? Truckstop? - even gave me a dixie cup full of the powder to mix up), sand again, and then apply a sealant. The biggest time suck was waiting for the sealant to dry.
And now I've got a gargoyle, at last.
The place also had an awesome fountain with a real (live?) gargoyle, perched on a little tower, spouting water. But really, where would I put it?
Maybe once I get around to rebuillding the garage and enlarging the backyard, I can create a little area in the backyard.
But yes, I am now one of those people with yard art.
Don named the smaller, sadder looking one "Pokey." He reminds me of Gollum.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Rain on My Parade
Until it started raining Friday afternoon. When I got home from work, it was really coming down. "Meh, too humid to effectively stain," I thought, planning instead to stain Saturday morning and again mid-day.
But Saturday was so oppressively humid that the saturated air wouldn't absorb any more moisture. I waited until the overnight rain dried up (ha!), then applied my first coat late Saturday morning, around 11. I figured it should be dry by mid-afternoon, plenty of time to apply a second coat, and then install first thing Sunday morning.
Every time I checked on my little staining set up - a couple old sheets on the garage floor - things were still wet. The mid-afternoon shower didn't help, either. I kept the garage door open while I was home, hoping that some non-existent breeze would help the process. And since I was working on the outsides of the boards - the pieces I'll have to look at every time I come or go - I wanted to make sure things were good and dry before applying a second coat to guard against smudges.
The last time I checked on my litany of lumber, about 10:30 PM, nearly twelve hours post-application, everything was still tacky. Sunday morning, first thing, before I even read made coffee (too hot for it, anyway), I went out to apply a second coat. Things were even more humid than Saturday, so I wrote off any chance of weekend installation.
And when I went to bed about 11 PM, some of the boards were still damp.
It's been a year since I started this project; what's another week?
Now excuse me while I go move the boards out of the garage. There's more rain forecast tonight.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Year Without a Garden
I started off okay. I planted dozens of seeds into seed trays. Some of them took right away – I'm looking at you, nasturtiums – but others, not so much. I got a couple marigolds to sprout, and the lettuce took off nicely. But few of my brave little seedlings survived the transplanting, nor the neglect. I tried to make a deal with Mother Nature to water my new plants, but she had other ideas.
The smaller bed has done pretty well – apparently nasturtiums thrive under neglect, and one random bachelor button reappeared from last year. (Not a fan, especially when it's one chalky green stem towering over the lily pad-style nasturtiums.) But the big bed looks pretty bare, and would look even worse if not for the lily that keeps multiplying. (The first summer in this house, it didn't exist. The next summer, it was a single shoot. By this summer, it's starting to take over. I have no clue where it came from. But I'll take it!) A couple brave marigolds survived the transplant, but for the first time, it's a year without zinnias. I've had luck with the zinnias before – my first summer, I planted seedlings and they thrived. Last year, I actually grew a bunch from seeds planted straight in the ground. But this year, after carefully selecting a wide variety and starting some in trays and others directly in the dirt, none of them took.
I think I'll blame the weather.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Crysta the Carpenter
Yes, folks, Saturday was finally Sawdust Day. Still trying to finish the trim for the new door we installed over a year ago, my dad arrived bright and early with his miter saw, wood and numerous other tools to put up the trim. He had come over last Saturday, too, and left when we realized it was far more complicated than we had anticipated.
But this past Saturday, everything went to plan with no real complications. I made all the miter cuts myself, and we set up a makeshift workbench (empty driveway asphalt barrels with a heavy board across the top) to make the necessary traditional saw cuts. After starting my day with a kettlebell workout, my arms were jelly by the time Dad left. My knee has a nice bruise, too, from pressing against the boards as I cut them.
We had to cut some trapezoids (seriously, my house is FAR from square!), and some of the more interesting cuts left the boards looking like skyscrapers, due to fitting around the concrete slab of the foundation, existing trim and tight angles. In fact, the right side looks like the Sears Tower and the left like the Hancock Center.
But everything fits. We put the puzzle together at least three or four times, finding the right sequence and angles, drawing arrows on the backs so we knew which side had been cut an 1/8 of an inch smaller than the other end to appease the house. And, dagnabit, it FIT.
So Dad left, leaving me with everything I need to finally finish the job. I did the first two coats of stain Sunday and will finish the staining process this week. I went to the Depot this evening and bought one more board – a 1x4 would fit above the door, but to mesh with the existing trim, a 1x6 is in order – and some fresh wood putty, but other than that, I am all set.
I'm almost excited about next weekend when I'll have the time to install it all. Of course, fingers crossed!