Yard Work & Man Card

The weather was glorious last weekend, so we spent a lot of time in our yard. As we've found out from several sources, the house was a rental for a few years before we bought it, which explains the quickly landscaped back yard and the overgrown shrubs in the front yard. Our camellia, pieris, and vine maple were overgrown and puff-ball-like from several seasons of non-pruning (or pruning with a not-so-delicate hand with the hedge trimmer). 

J and I got out our tools, and equipped with pruning shears, a hack saw, and a bucket, we plucked and chopped away the dead limbs, and got rid of a lot of stuff that should have been cut back years ago. It's hard doing all of that work and still have your shrubs look wanting, but we realize that this is a process that could take years of care to correct. I'm okay with that, because they already look so much better. The bushy thing on the right side of the photo is our vine maple in the process of being trimmed up a bit. We also had a few volunteers here and there, one of which happened to be a tree growing nearly into our fence.  As you can see, J ripped out the tree with his bare hands and rightfully earned his "man card" for the weekend.

Little was thoroughly impressed with the feat of strength and despite his cast, proceeded to walk around the yard trying to lift things 10 times his size while saying "heeeaaavy" "heeeeavvvy" and grunting. The testosterone was palpable that Saturday afternoon. The green waste can was filled to the brim and we were all dirty and incredibly tired. 

I also tackled the side yard next to our driveway, which warrants an entire post to itself. It seems like it was just a trash pile for the various residents both recent and past. I turned up lots of glass, some bike parts, a bit of clothing, and two separate layers of landscaping plastic. I guess whenever things got too shitty, they just covered it in plastic and a bit of dirt to cultivate some moss and dandelions.

Next up? A lawnmower!

Home Repairs: Bathroom Tile

While my parents were in town, I put them to work. Dad installed a cable jack upstairs for our modem, changed out a dimmer switch that I hated, and read for hours and hours with Little while he convalesced from his slide accident. 

I swear some days the renovations to this house are held together merely with chewing gum -- a sort of booby trap that the previous owners rigged to get them through inspections, but would spring as soon as we used the appliances/plumbing/electricity in any meaningful way.

Anyway, whoever reworked the bathroom upstairs installed the shower liner (which is not my favorite, but hey, it works) without putting some sort of water proof material surrounding it -- no hardback board, no caulk, no tile, just drywall up against the shower head and top of shower liner. Brilliant. Since the liner is just 6 feet tall, we found out just a day or two after living in the house that the fine sprays and splashes would do some major damage to the surrounding drywall. After the first use, the outer layer of the drywall was starting to peel. 

I consulted with my tiling expert (mom) who assured me it would be a simple weekend project. We set out to get the supplies, and as planned, put her right to work. We found the tiles at a local place called the Rebuilding Center, which ended up costing $10 for the whole stack (about 200 tiles). If you're not familiar with the cost of ceramic tile, that was a fantastic deal (practically free). I failed to take "before" photos of our ugly shower, so you'll just have to trust me on this one. My mom got right to work putting up the tiles while I ran around trying to keep up with Little and actually get some work done. It took her about a day to put the tile up on the wall (there were quite a few little cuts to fit into the sloped ceiling). We ran out of time, so she left the grouting up to me (although with a guilty conscience, since I'd never done it before). 

After watching her do the basic motions, and reading the back of the grouting tub, I got to work. It took a couple of hours, I think, and the grout was complete. Not a terribly complex task, but draining nonetheless. I can't imagine doing a much larger space, but I guess if the work didn't involve reaching over my head for hours at a time, it wouldn't be nearly as bad. The shower actually looks pretty respectable now and we can rest assured that we won't be doing any further damage to the walls. The next step will be to find a more suitable shower head (one that actually enables you to adjust the settings) and we'll be set. 

A more spendy project down the road would be to actually replace the shower doors with more attractive frameless glass, but there are so many more projects around the house that take priority, like insulating the attic, adding soffit vents, extending the gas line to the kitchen so we can get rid of our sucky electric range, and oh yeah, paying the mortgage. 

I'm not complaining though, the house is fantastic in spite of its former owners, and I'm looking forward to a summer full of projects, both inside and out.  

Cost: About $100 with tile, grout, the menagerie of tools needed to apply adhesive, grout, and cut the tiles.
Time: About 2 1/2 days of working hours to place tile, grout, and caulk the seams. And another week of curing. Pretty simple and cheap compared to hiring a professional.