flower show, crummy weather, and the start of a great collection

The big event this week was the seattle flower show. Love, love, love the flower show. It always gives me the WORST case of spring fever, and then you come home, and it snows a week later......

This one was no exception, and a raging spring fever has taken over. I'm starting to collect, dig, beg, borrow, buy, all kinds of plants for my acre of dirt.

This is my collection so far......most of the pots you see there are my tree peonies, moved and replanted from the other house. I go over there every once in a while, just to see what's coming up. There's some pretty cool stuff over there that I've collected over the years, and for the most part, it's coming with me. Just gotta find it. I've already collected most of the bush peonies, some of the oriental poppies, and the daylillies will be next. Before you think that I'm totally ruining the yard over there, I paid for it, and mostly, I'm dividing what is a bit overgrown, and leaving some behind. After all, most of those started from small root cuttings anyway......

The garbage cans are not for garbage, they're for potatoes!!! If you've never grown potatoes in a garbage can, I highly recommend it. Ours are started now,  and by the end of summer, there could be up to 100 lbs in each of those 3 cans.....gotta love that.

This week, dirt guy has PROMISED that he'll stop by to get the scoop. We SO need to get the dirt thing going. I can't even make a temporary holding bed for plants until the dirt is done. ARGH~~

So. following me home from the flower show.....2 deep red peonies (*bush), a cool green primrose, a gentian (think giant blue flowers), a green envy coneflower, and a serious case of spring fever.

Fingers crossed we can get our dirt thing done this week and get the greenhouse up!!

it was a wrestling match

See that bottom leaf there? It weighs about 600 lbs. No kidding. The cast iron bath tub in our new house was lighter. We had a heck of a time getting that bad boy out of the truck a year ago, and we were dreading moving it from its "landing" place to its final home.

A couple of weeks ago, we were at a local nursery and they had the exact same fountain set up. It inspired me to want mine in its rightful place. So, saturday, was the day......

We got out the furniture dollies and the plywood. There was NO lifting that guy...we had to "rock" it onto the dollies and then roll it onto the plywood (it would have sank in the mud). We'd roll it to the end of one sheet and then move another sheet of ply forward. Once it got wheels, it wasn't too bad, except that little hill we had to roll up. We managed to push it to it's rightful place and get it set down. The other pieces were much more manageable, and, after a brief break for lunch and to catch our breaths, we finished stacking it.

We still need to add a pump, and obviously some landscaping around it. The plan calls for river rocks, But I'm also thinking a hardy banana would be cool behind it, and some black mondo grass would look really good in front of it. The good news is, it's there. I think anyone would be hard pressed to steal it, it weighs a TON.

We also have two matching benches that will go out around the labyrinth. Dirt guy SHOULD be here this week. That will finally finish us up with the city. We can get our bond back and move on with our landscaping.

Just in time for the flower show......I can hardly wait!

settling in

This week marks two months of being in the new house. Doggies are settling in nicely....

Their kennel is being finished as we speak. I can hear the pounding outside right now.

Today we made an early trip to home depot for lumber to finish the kennel and do the foundation of the greenhouse. We're digging out the panels so that I can clean them this week. Bulldozer guy has reconciled the dirt problem (finally), and he'll be here either the end of this week or the first part of next. Either time would be perfect, because we're supposed to be on vacation the following week, so they'll be some time to put up the greenhouse, call the landscapers, and start building the deer fence and raised beds for the garden. (that'll involve MUCH more dirt).

We've not heard a word from our MIA contractors. (thanks for sending those kennel quotes, NOT!!)
I emailed the flooring company and they told me that they had issued credit to our contractors for the returned flooring. We're pretty sure that's money we'll never see. Not enough to sue, just enough to be frustrated.

Next week, we're off to the seattle flower show.I look forward to it every year, but this one is going to be especially fun. Imagine having a blank slate.......I've been pinning some pretty cool plants on pinterest, with heavy emphasis on the black. If my garden turns out half as cool as my pin boards look, it's going to be pretty darned cool.

Yogi agrees....

the doggies will like their new house!!

This week, we made an early saturday morning trp to the hardware store to pick up the rest of our chain link stuff. After some planning and gathering of stuff, we came home and DH started to work on the fencing for the kennel. This is really all we have left of the "building" of the house. The next phase wil be landscaping. See all that dirt there? It's just a tiny, tiny patch of the giant acre of mud that currently surrounds us.

I'm starting to really get the itch to landscape and start working on it. We're stuck, though, waiting for the "special dirt" so that we can waste spend a whole bunch of money to do pretty much nothing.
I really want to have topsoil and mushroom compost delivered so that I can build a holding bed for plants that I purchase now, but there's no good place to put it. ARGH!!!

On a happy note, the old house has been showing nicely, probably about 20 serious folks have looked at it, and we had one friday, three yesterday,  and one appointment scheduled for this morning.
Fingers and toes crossed that our plastic jesus-saint guy does his job. (a gift from the in-laws - why not?)  I'm not terribly superstious, but hey, whatever works!!
We know that it's the same group of people looking at the same price range/type of house, and it just takes one to say "hey, I love the corian, clawfoot  tub, yard, location........." or D, all of the above.
We'll get it.

So, on to finish the kennel, replant the tree peonies,  and clean up the greenhouse panels.....
The flower show is in 3 weeks, and I can hardly wait to use those tickets I won!


Oh, and PS, our contractor sent us their "final" bill. Not a credit in sight. I guess we'll just be glad to be done with them. They did a good job, and there was nothing unscrupulous, but toward the end there it all started to fall apart like a house of cards. Promises that weren't true (we've ordered your kennel materials), NO communication, (we're still waiting for you to mail us those kennel quotes you promised us on new year's), and just a general feeling of frustration. I think I might call the flooring place though, and see just what happened to that hardwood flooring we returned, and the nearly 30 sq yards of carpet that the installer left in their warehouse. If we're not going to get credit, I want it back!

spring fever!!

I have a serious case of spring fever. I know, it's too early, but I can't help myself. I think I'll go out in search of some nice spring flowers this morning.......

This weekend, we worked on our kennel.

I know, it's  missing some parts, but one thing at a time. Next weekend we'll finish up the parts and pieces and string the rest of the chain link. This was one of the small things our contractors left us to do when they bailed at the first of the year. It's almost done, and then we can open the doggie door and they can go out and bark at the mailman!!

Next up, we'd really like to start landscaping our acre of mud, but we're stuck. In the mud. Or, on the dirt. Seems our fine city requires that we bring in new dirt to top off our acre of mud. Not much, just 3/4" in the whole property, which works out to 60 yards, and it must be rototilled in to 4" deep. The problem? It has to be SPECIAL dirt, certified dirt, and the only place that currently makes it is about 40 miles away, AND they don't return their phone calls, so our poor bulldozer guy can't even find out if they're making it right now. Does the city care????? Not a bit. Rules are rules, you know.....

We can't do a THING, even though we'll be bringing in more dirt anyway, until this is done. We had to put up a sizeable bond and promise we'd do it, and they won't give us our final occupancy certificate for this house until we do.
Can I just say AAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!

bad news, good news

bad news - it's been way too cold to paint or garden
good news - the 10 day forcast says dry, sunny and warmer. We're calling the bulldozer  guy tomorrow to see if we can finish our dirt thing.

bad news - our contractor has given up. He was supposed to send us quotes on the kennel and we've had no contact at all.
good news - we'll save a bunch of money by just going to home depot and doing it ourselves. It's not that complicated and we've already bought posts and concrete,  just waiting for it to get warmer (see #1)

good news - the old house has been on the market for about a week. We've had 3 showings (no offers yet), and our agents are doing an open house today.

More good news - I won tickets to the NW flower show (twice!!!)
One with the doggies in the Subaru (that one got a $25 subaru gift card too)

and once with a caption contest that was all about votes. (thanks if you voted for me)
The caption contest qualifies me to be in another contest drawing for two MORE tickets and $250 to spend at the show. I don't need any more tickets, and would pass those on, the $, though.........

Bad news - my overwhelming case of spring fever is not being helped by all the gorgeous plant catalogs that are coming in the mail.

More bad news - we currently have an acre of frozen mud, and it's a LONG way from being anything that resembles landscaping. (see #1 about the bulldozer guy - we can't do ANYTHING until he's done)

Gotta end with good news - the dry weather that's coming is also supposed to be warmer. I'll be able to finish painting the columns, work on re-planting my peony trees, and DH will be put to work digging the post holes for the kennel.

Here's hoping we hear from bulldozer guy AND the real estate agents!!!!!

happy new year

I can't say we did too much this week. It's been a crazy weather week, rain, snow, sun, some more rain. Most of what we need to do now is outside, and it's just too cold and wet right now.

I did get the porch columns painted with a first coat. Don't look too close, they really need another go-round, but you get the idea.....

We have a few things still planned. I really wanted to do my craft closet today, but DH had to work. I guess it's OK, because we have one more furniture thing to do. We really need some end tables and a coffee table, and I fell in love with this set from bassett.  They're right up our alley in that they're in the mission style, and I think they'll fit right in. They're a new product at bassett, and they don't have them in stock yet. Our (very) hungry bassett sales gal has agreed to call me when they arrive and we'll probably be looking at them next weekend.


I REALLY want to bring my fountain over and get it set up. The problem is that it weighs about 600 lbs (really). and that's just the bottom of it. I think this cool dragonfly that my sister made me for christmas will look really great with it though. She's quite an artist.

 

The doggies are ready for the weather to get better too. They love to garden!

 

 

 

Hopefully, we'll win tickets to the flower show with that pic.

 

And,  last but not least.......the end of an era. We bought this house in 1989ish. When we bought it, it had ugly brown shag carpeting, orange indoor-outdoor in the dining room, ancient baseboard heaters ,and lovely, colorful, kid car wallpaper in the spare bedroom. Well, many years, and a lot of work later, it goes on the market monday morning. Let's hope for a reasonably quick and painless sale.