Rehabber’s Rehab

This past Sunday was likely part of the last great beautiful weekends for the year here in Chicagoland (if you ignore the Bear’s spirit crushing loss).  Knowing we had better enjoy it while we can, after Thor woke up at noon after working all night, we had an awsome brunch at a place with a beautiful outdoor patio, and then I got to work out in the garage on our bedroom door – more about that later, probably when I finish up on Tuesday (I hope).  Meanwhile Thor took a nap and watched the game.

Once nap time was over we were able to get to work on my real goal for the weekend, which was to start to clear out the pine bushes from the yard, particularly the front.  As you may know, I’ve had my eye on that bush from the very beginning, and this weekend it’s time had finally come.  I want to get the front ready so that come spring I can just go out there and plant, and I am not trying to dig up bushes and rocks in the cold and half-frozen ground.

Thor set about sawizawing the giant bush down while I started picking up the white rocks.  Yes, those white landscaping rocks were basically covering the entire front planting bed underneath the bush.  I am cursed, they seem to follow me everywhere.  I spent about 2 years getting rid of them from the Rice Street house, and now they have found me again.  There is no easy way to scoop them up, they are everywhere, make it hard to dig, and most importantly they are so very very ugly.  If anyone wants some, however, just send us an e-mail.  I have about 8 buckets for you.  Thor is annoyed because it has just created more trash for us to start trying to get rid of.  In the end I created a make-shift sieve using a doormat hung across two buckets to try and shovel out the rocks from the dirt.  It did a pretty good job, but was also more time consuming.  Once it started to get dark out I just gave up, and there is definitely at least 3 buckets worth left in the planting bed still. (more…)

Beautiful Pines in the Northwoods

This week we took a well earned vacation to the Northwoods of Wisconsin.  It was perfect timing because by Tuesday I was competely exhausted from staying up until 1am every night breathing in plaster dust and wielding a hammer.  We made a token attempt at work on Tuesday morning, but after about an hour it was clear that neither of our hearts were in it at the time.  Looking around at the complete mess we had created I just felt tired and overwhelmed.

The timing on our vacation was perfect as we had arranged to get the floors redone while we were gone, and would be unable to work in the house anyway, and couldn’t walk on the floors over the weekend while they dried.  Also it was so much easier to get them done while the house is empty and we didn’t have to deal with the furniture. (more…)

I am going to continue my personal vendetta against pine bushes and begin gardening by ripping up the bush in front of the house immediately.  Although I admit, on occasion pine bushes can be done well, in general they are horrible.  Horrible.  People just seem to plant them and and then let them be, until they get scraggly, have no form, dead branches hanging every where.  Just because you plant a pine bush doesn’t mean you never have to take care of it!! Low maintenance is not no maintenance.

After the pine bush is gone, I think that we are going to kill all the grass over the winter and turn the entire front yard into a planting bed.  The yard itself is only about 20 x 7, so half of it is take up by the current planting bed anyway, and I don’t see any point in lugging the lawn mower up front to mow two strips of grass. (more…)