While owning a home can be a really, really great thing - you're not sharing a common wall (or two) with anyone, you've got more privacy and less parking issues than with an apartment, not to mention the freedom to have a pet or decorate as you wish without losing an expensive security deposit when you move out - it does have its drawbacks: replacing the hot water heater (which I've already mentioned), dealing with the yardwork (which is continuous in the summertime), and painting. This was the year my mom and I decided we'd better get the white trim and contrasting blue trim on the house painted. The light blue colour on the main part of the house still looks really good, but the white trim was dirty and shabby, and the contrasting blue, which started out a dark navy, like in this picture of the shaded little peak over the garage:

had faded severely over the main part of the house where it gets the hot, hot sun almost all day every day:

So, it was time to paint. While I would've been perfectly happy to go with the dark navy accent colour again, my mom disliked it, and since it really is her house (even though my name is on it, too), we went with a lighter colour. We also decided to hire my cousin HAJ3 to do the job because neither of us was confident enough to climb up really really high to get the peaks. HAJ3 was more than happy to do it, and we paid him handsomely for his work. He arrived at 10am Thursday morning, and he and I ran down to Home Depot to pick up the paint - 1 gallon of Behr Luster White exterior flat and a quart of Behr Madras Blue exterior flat. Once we got back, he immediately went to work on the white trim. I spent the day following him around making sure he didn't fall off the ladder, and doing some much-needed weeding around the front of the house, and trimming of trees and shrubs in the backyard. After a while I noticed my cousin was being very cautious - impressive for a 19-year-old kid - so I didn't watch him like a hawk anymore. I did stay out and do yardwork, however, as it was better than the chore that was awaiting me in the house: spring cleaning of the kitchen! (insert dramatic horror movie music here)

Lord Almighty what a dreadful job! We pulled out the refridgerator and cleaned behind it for the first time in several years. Man, that was gross! The stove/oven was pretty horrific as well. We don't use the oven very often, and I didn't think I'd spilled over much when I did use it, but between the few spills I did have and the splattering that naturally comes with baking, the oven was a disaster! I knew the stove top would be bad - I'm the worst cook on the face of the planet and tend to make a mess of things - but it looks awesome now:

please ignore the clock/timer dangling out of its socket on the stove; i broke that a long time ago, and we haven't been able to fix it.

The funnest part of the whole thing - if one can find something fun about cleaning a kitchen - was purging! Mom and I went through each cupboard and drawer, and either threw out or gave to Goodwill a TON of stuff! I feel ten pounds lighter just from doing that! We'd been hanging on to a lot of useless junk as well as useful stuff we never used. We removed everything, wiped down the shelves, applied new shelving paper, organized the contents, then put back what we decided to keep. Our cupboards and drawers look fabulous now! I wish I'd remembered to take "before" pictures, but I didn't, so you'll just have to take my word for it that these "after" pictures show a major improvement!

As for the house, it looks fabulous, too:

HAJ3 finished the painting job in only 14 hours! That kid is a maniac!

Anyway, Mom and I are taking tomorrow off, then starting in on more cleaning, organizing, purging, etc., projects. We really need to hit the den - I start classes in less than four weeks, and will need a nice, organized place to study. I'm looking forward to these classes (Corporate Law and Intellectual Property Law, in case I've forgotten to mention it); not only do they sound interesting, but it'll give me something to do while I take the summer off from working! ;-)

May 17, 2005
Operation: Tame the Wilderness, Part 3

Since becoming unemployed my life has been revolving around three things: job hunting, writing fanfic, and gardening. (It's soon to revolve around a fourth thing - going back to school - but that's a story for another time.)

The job hunt is sucking big time - there's just not many paralegal jobs out there, due in large part I'm sure to the fact that both Cal Poly and Cuesta College have Paralegal Programs. SLO County is pretty small, so the paralegal job market is pretty saturated. The jobs that I do see posted are for horrendous law practices such as family and juvenile law. Blegh!

The fanfic writing is going pretty well. I have an account on Fanfiction.net (under the pseudonym Sennalyn) where I've been posting my previously written Emergency! fanfiction, and my currently written Danny Phantom fanfiction. I've been getting some pretty good reviews, which has been a real boost to my sagging ego. Plus, fanfic is all the joy of writing without the pressure of it having to be perfect!

Onto the gardening! I went out and did some more trimming in the backyard yesterday morning. It was a great day for it: overcast and cool, but the humidity made it uncomfortable at times. I finished trimming and shaping the Yellow Flower Bush (I don't know what it's really called, but it occasionally has yellow flowers on it, hence the Yellow Flower Bush), and started cleaning out the dying Wild Rose Bush. I say dying because it's been looking pretty sad lately, and a close look at the leaves show some sort of disease or something.


the yellow flower bush before

the yellow flower bush after

my sad, sick roses

leaves on my sick rose bush

After dumping Stumpy's remains late last week, the green waste bin was pretty full so I won't be able to do any more trimming until it gets emptied tomorrow. So, today I planted some new flowers mom and I bought yesterday. She also bought some new tomato plants, which she planted while I dealt with my flowers. I used some pots I'd previously used for indoor plants (all of which died due to my black thumb!), and my old strawberry pot for some flowers, because we never did have terribly good luck with our strawberries. Hopefully the flowers will do better.

my strawberry pot filled with purple bacopa and these little white flowers we have spreading all over the yard.

we keep thinking these mums are going to die, but every year they keep coming back!

our new tomato plants: early girls and patio tomatoes.

we lost the plant stake that goes with these flowers, so i don't know what they're called.

pretty pink flowers.

Cheers!

May 12, 2005
Operation: Tame the Wilderness, Part 2

I spent the past couple of days digging out the stump of the dead tree in the back yard. I worked only in the mornings, as the afternoons have been getting hot. I guess summer is on its way at last!

Anyway, I started by digging a hole around the tree, exposing the roots, then started chopping the roots off with my edger (I hoped to break the miserable thing so I can buy a nice new one, but no such luck.). Since they were so dead and dry, it wasn't too difficult; they snapped off like twigs! After cutting off each root, I tried levering the stump out, but there was always another root holding it into the ground. After discovering a particularly thick root, and seeing that it was nearly noon, I gave up for the day.



This morning I went out again, and after only an hour of hacking at the offending root with my edger, then sawing it through with an old hacksaw-type-thing, I was finaly able to get underneath the stump and rip it out of the ground! Just call me She-Ra!



I filled in the hole, but didn't do too good a job, because I have a plan for that space. I'm going to get four more square paving stones to put in there. The hole is about the same size as four square blocks put together, and they will make a nice, sturdy base for the small concrete bench mom and I want to get for that corner.

Once that job was done, I did a little more trimming along the fence:





It still needs some shaping and cleaning out underneath, but it looks much better! After that I went around and watered the flowers and plants in pots, then checked on our little peppers. I was thrilled to see two small buds on each plant, but horrified to see something had been dining on the leaves! I sprayed with a garden-safe soap spray, and put snail pellets around the base of the pot. Hopefully that will take care of the offending beasties!

for what it's worth,
lmj (alias hez)