Barb’s Personal Notes, 4/30/09
April House and Yard Projects
I haven’t been on the computer much this month, preferring instead to spend some time on house and yard projects. Now that I’ve decided to stay in my home for another ten years (or longer if I’m still able to maintain it then), I decided to give myself a few days off each week from writing and website work so I could devote some quality time to projects I’ve been wanting to do in the house and back yard this spring and summer.
For most of April, I’ve been working with my friend Kirk, a professional landscaper and painter who God put in my life a couple of years ago. At that time, I thought I was just hiring a self-employed fellow to paint the window trim on the house, but what I got was a sweet young man of Czech descent (like my late husband) who also happened to be a great landscaper. We soon became friends, and he is now like a son to me.
After telling Kirk I wanted to make a pleasant getaway for myself in the back yard, he made some suggestions for inexpensive things that could be done and said he could help me with anything I wanted to do. Before long I was drawing all kinds of plans for things I wanted to do in both the back and front yards. We worked together the whole summer of 2007, literally transforming an empty and very dull front and back yard into something that amazed friends and family. Later this summer, I’ll share the before and after pictures of my front and back yards to give you an idea of what can be done with a lot of physical labor but very little money.
Getting the Garage Ready for a Sale
I have previously discussed my plans for a mega garage sale which I’m now planning for June. I decided a nice clean garage would be conducive to sales and, while I was at it, might as well get it painted. It took most of a week to clean the garage, wash down the walls, prime them, and then give them a couple coats of paint, but wow, what a difference some paint can do for one’s spirits! Now three unfinished walls are a light creamy color, and the one finished wall is a beautiful burgundy.
Since I’m now very involved in flower gardening, I then decided I needed to have my old arts and crafts workbench on the lower level moved into the garage so I’d have a place to repot plants and do minor repair work (not to mention have another place to display items for sale). Perfect timing, too, as I needed a place to work on my planter box.
Lesson Learned. Never put wood out in your yard without giving it a coat of polyurethane or similar waterproofing finish coat. I bought a beautiful maple planter two years ago that said all I needed to do was give it a coat of oil every spring. That might work if you live in California, but it doesn’t work in Illinois. After the snow was gone this winter, I was disheartened to find that my beautiful planter had literally split apart and was now looking VERY weathered and ugly. Since this planter was perfect for my needs, I decided to try to restore and refinish it, figuring I could replant the Clematis somewhere else and get a new plant for it when I was done.
When the whole front panel with its individual pieces came apart, however, the job began to look almost hopeless. Yet I persisted because I come from frugal parents and grandparents who always believed we needed to “use it up, make it do, wear it out, or do without.”
After all the mud had been washed away, and the various pieces dried, I sanded them and then applied a coat of maple stain. Putting the front section back together was a job that required four hands, but I’m about ready now to put the whole thing back together again and give it a couple coats of polyurethane before buying a new Clematis plant for it. I hope it will be as pretty this summer as it was last year.
Landscaping on a Dime
In between times when it wasn’t raining this month or too cold to work outdoors, Kirk and I have been working on some new landscaping projects in the back yard. I’ve been having a wonderful time planning new things for different areas of the yard, and then straw-bossing Kirk as he does all the manual labor. I haven’t had this much fresh air and physical exercise in months, and it has been very invigorating.
I have literally dozens of writing and website projects planned or already in progress, but right now I’m finding it very difficult to pull myself from the “great outdoors” and all the satisfying work I’m now engaged in. After I finish the new book manuscript editing job that just came in, I will be back in the yard again to finish current landscaping projects or down on the lower level of the house getting “stuff” sorted to put on the garage sale, so forgive me if I don’t make more than one post a week for awhile.
The older I get, the more I realize how important it is to grab happiness whenever and wherever we can find it, and right now, I’m happy being away from the computer for a few days a week. Summer always seems so fleeting, and I plan to enjoy this one to the fullest. I hope you have a happy summer too.
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Comments
Such good advice! Get outside and enjoy creation….the original kind of creation. There is nothing more worthwhile than seeing flowers bloom and hearing the birds sings. But then I’m only speculating because I’m sitting at this computer and it’s raining.
Barbara,
Thank you for sharing how important it is to get our environment decluttered and pleasant. It is stressful to create under less than orderly workspace where things are buried.
I can only imagine your beautiful hideaway and its refreshing effects.
I’m inspired to take the time to do the same.
Your yard sounds like a great idea!
How about helping Kirk put together a small e-book or PDF to sell so the rest of us can do our yards?
Or you sell it, tell your “yard” story?
We’ve been in our house 25 years and while we’ve added plants and flowers, our yard still looks kind of bare and messy.
I’d be first in line for any help!
I’m looking forward to your before and after photos…
You give me hope that I will be able to restore the teak table and chairs that, like your planter, were supposed to need only annual oiling. They currently look pretty bad, though they haven’t split — yet! By the way, I don’t know that leaving wood outside unprotected would work even in California. My teak furniture spent the winter indoors; the damage was done right away, by the dry, sunny Seattle summer. Now I have moved to Portland, but I hear the summer is even hotter, drier, and sunnier here. I too want to spend less time on the computer and more time outside, so I say bravo to you. I look forward to seeing the before-and-after pictures of your yard; gardening success is always so inspiring.
Good for you, Barbara. Life has a way of passing by too quickly, and we all need to take time to enjoy the simple things in life. Thanks for the reminder.
You’ve been an inspiration to me for twenty seven years, almost from the first day that I decided to start a craft business! Good luck with your mega garage sale and enjoy that beautiful back yard of yours!
Norma
You go girl…Yes, life is to short not to be happy and enjoying life. Your projects sound wonderful. I will be anxious to read the book for Autism. My pastor’s son is autistic. I think food does play an important part in the illnesses we get in life, and how we react to stress and problems that come our way.
Each person in this current economy needs to find a way to
get creative and do one step at a time to survive. It goes
back to no one looks out for you better than yourself.
I am creative and I’m always looking for ways to do things different. Currently I am working to get some websites online in multiple areas. I have always believed having a backup plan is best, so you have something to fall back on if you need it.
I wish you the best in all your new adventures, and endeavors. Yes, I have missed your emails. You have so much to share and give to us out here. It is your schedule that matters, and I will look forward to your next one.
Have a wonderful, fun, and fulfilling summer.
I’m so glad to hear you are away from the computer, getting some space and some new projects! It’s so easy to spend too much time sucked into the computer and it really diminishes a person physically and mentally, without the balance of nature and the real world! I have been controlling my computer time lately for that very reason.
Can’t wait to see more photos and to hear how the sale goes!