Wednesday, July 2, 2008

House projects

If you own a home you know how time consuming house up-keep can be. I am very lucky that I have the summer off to maintain this 130 year old monstrosity. I don't know how people do it with full time, year round jobs. We have next door neighbors that are amazing at caring for their house. In fact, they are so good at it that they own TWO houses and work non-stop on both of them while still maintaining their full time day jobs and two kids...I bow to them in admiration.

The Professor and I do what we can but unfortunately we weren't born with natural house fixing -up skills. The Professor is so named because of what he does best...think, read and write. I am a little more of a hands on learner but there are certain things that I just CAN'T or DON'T want to do. I don't want to build anything, cut or measure wood, replace molding, try to put plumbing together, electrical stuff or reconstruction, like sheet rocking. I'm sure I could do it if I was forced OR I would enjoy doing it if I was helping someone who knew what they were doing and they could teach me.

When I was nine or 10 years old, my mother got tired of my sister and I fighting because we shared a room. The room was very large and used to be two rooms. So, she got a book from the library about how to construct a wall and build a closet. She read that book, built the wall, made a doorway from a linen cabinet and constructed a closet for the room that didn't have one. It all still stands today, some 30 years later! My mom now fixes computers for a living. I somehow did not get that gene.

What I can do is paint. I enjoy painting although what you have to do to prepare to paint is a pain in the ass.

The other thing I do is plant. When we bought our house, there were two bushes in our yard and that was it. Now, we have a variety of gardens, trees, bushes and paths. The Professor looks at me every spring, looks at the garden and says, "when did you do all of this?" (Again, this is where you can insert "absentminded" in front of Professor LOL)

This is what I am doing this summer.


The orange is the new color for the living room with the light green by the bay windows. The front room is going from "stone" to "a turquoise blue" with one white wall.




This is part of the 15 yards of mulch I laid last November. I also planted that tree you see, the circular garden with native plants and then the semi-circle grasses I did this May.


This is the continued outside house painting that I started in 2006. I love the new colors on the porch and can't wait until I finish the whole darn thing.




I was not looking forward to getting up on the roof here to paint though. Fortunately, my dad and step-mom have offered to pay to have a professional come over and do this part for me. Thanks so much!!

7 comments:

Hilary said...

Wow, LLL. I'm impressed! You're daring with colour.. and they're not ALL colours that I love, and yet it looks wonderful. Orange is not a favourite, but it looks great. Turquoise on the other hand IS. I love the colours you've chosen for the exterior as well. It's going to look just amazing when it's done. Please keep us posted.

Latin Lupe Lu said...

Thanks Hilary. I LOVE color! I will keep you updated.

the Bag Lady said...

Looks great! The Bag Lady loves doing home repairs and renovations. Her father was one of those guys who could do almost anything, and he taught her quite a lot!
(She also one wall in her kitchen that is very similar to your 'orange' - terra cotta...)
Looking forward to seeing your 'progress photos'!!

gary rith said...

Oh, such a wonderful house!!!!
Listen, our old place dates to 1865 and I have no energy or creativity to put into it, what with daily cooking, cleaning the litterbox, doing dishes.....hell. BTW, we are available, if you want to invite us over to grill tofu pups and drink beers on your porch.

Latin Lupe Lu said...

GR- But don't you have the coolest restaurant in the US there...Moosewood? I think we need to come by YOUR place - yeah, ours is 1878.

Baggie - you are SO lucky. My other neighbor has a dad like yours and she is so handy. My dad was a vocal music teacher and is a romantic/liberal which doesn't help much with being handy (haha). Oh, and BTW great minds think a like with color, don't we?

steviewren said...

I love the colors you are using. I am a fan of color. It makes me happy. My daughter is one of those people who can fix things. She isn't afraid to tackle any small repair job....she did not get that gene from me...it came from her father...I am glad he was good for something! On the other hand, she tends to be too hesitant when changing stuff like room colors. I received 2 phone calls at work from her today about the yellow color she picked for her kitchen...too bright! Oh well, live and learn I told her. And then I told her about the bright lime green kitchen I had back when lime was not in style. Like I said, live and learn!

Jules said...

I should say something about your apparent love of painting, but as my mother once said, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". So instead I will say the blog looks great! Love the updates ma sewer!