Home Improvement Projects

When we first moved in, we tackled the cosmetic emergency repairs like having our flooring downstairs installed and Rex hacking the jungle down in the front and especially the back yards. Since then, he has trimmed and thinned even more so that it actually looks nice. With all the overgrown trees, I had a ton of leaves to rake in the fall. I hope it won't be so bad this fall now that all the greenery is under control and 2 big trees are gone.

I've learned a lot with our fixer-upper. I learned how to replace a wax ring on a toilet and the flush valve in the tank. Together, Rex and I installed the baseboards in the living room and family room (playroom). I stripped the black chalkboard paint off the pantry door and repainted it white so the narrow walkway doesn't feel so cramped. I put in wider shelves in an upstairs closet that had shallow shelves so that blankets could be stored there. I installed some wire shelving in a bathroom and our closet. I painted the whole house white so it looked clean (and some day I'll paint the rooms different colors but I'm not ready for home decorating yet). I painted the garage with the tan-colored paint the seller left for the kitchen but we didn't like but didn't want to waste. I changed out the single bulb in our garage for a socket adapter to plug in two sets of florescent lights to brighten the garage. Rex and I felled our neighbors tree (which they sandwiched in between a new fence of theirs and our old fence) which was pushing our fence over, and then I re-boarded the fence again. We also felled the nice shade tree in our front yard when it died of Oak Wilt. I try to do all these projects by myself but when it comes to using the miter saw or chain saw or requires a lot more strength than I have, Rex does the parts I can't do.

Here are some of the bigger projects I've completed since moving in:

I installed new light fixtures on 2 ceiling fans to make the rooms brighter. Finding the fixtures with normal sockets was tricky and pricey; now manufacturers want you to buy those tiny candelabra fixtures which are awfully dim. Note that the ceiling fan was already there; I just took off the globe and put the new fixtures on.
I installed 2 ceiling fans. The one downstairs needed a new bar in the ceiling. Again, I also had a heck of a time finding a ceiling fan with normal sockets. This one was a new fan altogether, not just the light fixture. The first one took me 3 hours to install while the second identical one only took me 1 hour.
I re-bricked around the Crape Myrtle tree in our front yard since it was all uneven and slanted. I learned how to make it level on a sloped yard. I planted what I know as Red Apple Ice Plant (but they call it something else here) surrounding the tree.I surrounded the oak tree in our backyard the same way and planted Blue Shade. The plants are too tiny for you to tell what they are supposed to look like so I am including a picture of what it will look like when it fills out (they had this at the Japanese Tea Garden). I had to make the bricks surround a really large area because I wanted to cover the big roots sticking out of the ground. Again, this was tricky because the yard is sloped, although you can't tell from this angle.I built a huge sandbox for the kids. I went over the top with it, giving it a cement foundation so the fire ants wouldn't bore through and a roof for shade and to keep the leaves from falling into it. I considered screening it in to keep the kids from being bitten by mosquitoes and stung by wasps, but Rex already thought I'd done more than I needed too. And if I did screen it in, it would be even worse if those mosquitoes and wasps flew in when it was open and got trapped inside.... Here are pictures of me finishing the roof, the framing/structure as seen on the underside of the roof, and the finished product. The sandbox has gotten TONS of use. I used the lumber from the demolished deck in our backyard for the structure, but had to buy a lot of cement and wood for the roof. We borrowed a truck from friend to get literally a ton of sand for really cheap.I made an enclosed closet/cabinet in the vacant corner by the fireplace. It was the designated bathroom for the cats and tended to stink up the entire livingroom. It was a waste of space that needed to be remedied quickly. Approximately 2 feet by 2 feet wide and 5 feet tall, I used some 2x4s from the demolished deck for the framing. I used half the cat door installed in our garage door and left the other half on that door so there wouldn't be a big hole there. (In the distant future, I'd like to get a new garage door so that there isn't a hole/cat door on it. We don't want our cats exploring the garage.) From the picture, that doesn't look like it was too hard to build, right? Well, take into account how few studs there are in most walls (and the ones that are there require a 3 inch screw to get to). Walls are usually never completely straight from the bottom to the top nor completely perpendicular to each other. And the side where the closet meets the fireplace has a stepping-mantle. The door looks much better now that there is trim around it so it doesn't look so much like a "make-shift" door.Our yard and garden will be a continual project. Knowing we couldn't till the whole yard and plant a garden and sod the yard in one day, we went ahead and invested in a tiller. That way, we could do it at our own pace, till the garden each year without having to rent it, and lend it to others who need to use a tiller. After killing a huge patch of Bermuda grass in our yard (the sunniest part of the yard where the first owners had an above-ground pool, and unfortunately, one of the only places where grass actually covered the ground), Rex tilled the ground over Spring Break. You can see the clothes line we built after demolishing the deck that was there.

We trucked in a ton of goat manure to add to the clay soil, but it is still too clay-ish. We hope to remedy that with our compost pile next time the garden gets tilled. With the help of Dan and the missionaries, the ground was finally prepared. I tried starting the plants from seed inside before the predicted last-frost date. But I think the plants were too weak having stayed inside so long. So I had to start all over again starting them outside. Some of the plants, particularly herbs and carrots, never did come up or, if they did, they never got past the seedling stage. I'm learning a lot about what I will do differently next year. From the pictures, you will be able to see that I planted things way too close together. I don't know how big things get, how much they produce, and I haven't encountered bugs/disease problems yet but I'm sure they will come. Currently, we are growing tomatoes, grape tomatoes, sweet peppers, jalapeño peppers, corn, green beans (planted bush instead of pole beans by accident), cucumbers, beets, basil, lettuce, green onions, carrot (one still survived), pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon (their growth was stunted for a long time but they seem to be growing again).

Despite that we've been told it gets too cold here (a few days of the year) to grow citrus, I insisted I wanted to try anyway, so we planted a lemon tree, an orange tree, a peach tree, and a 4-in-1 apple tree (which should bear different types of apples at different times of the year). We were too late for the apricot tree so I want to plant that in our front yard next year since our oak tree is gone now. The first owner of our house planted a pecan tree but it didn't produce last fall so we shall see what happens with it this year.

In some of these pictures, you may have noticed the huge bare spots in our lawn. Actually, about half our yard is dirt.
Once school is out, we plan on laying sod. Because we don't have the deck and the above-ground pool that the sprinkler system was built around, I am currently changing out sprinkler heads so that the yard now exposed will get watered too. I have to do it now before we lay the sod because I don't want to dig up the yard after we already laid the grass. I also didn't consider how the sandbox would change the layout either so I am capping the ones in that corner. I will have to splice a pipe and put in a pop-up in front of the sandbox instead. When the guys pulled out some dead bushes in the front yard, they broke a PVC pipe so I learned how to repair that too. Now if only I could locate the valves in the yard so I could fix this leaking rotor.... I think I'll have to buy a $65 chatterbox to help me locate the valves since my poking the yard with a stick has been as useless as looking for a needle in a haystack. (And I refuse to shell out the big bucks for a sprinkler repair man to come and locate it for me. Unless I try and can't do it myself.)

Ah, my never-ending list of projects -- after the sprinkler system, I will work on painting Megan's room and making her curtains. And then curtains for the rest of the house.