Shed-no-more and garden report

Started this project a few weeks back...

Homemade laundry detergent

I've been meaning to try this out for ages. Bob was reluctant when originally I told him about it - said he liked the smell of our normal detergent. But I've been using this homemade stuff for several weeks now and he hasn't even noticed! Shhh!! ;)

Super simple recipe*: 1 cup washing soda, 1 cup borax, 1 bar Fels-Naptha laundry soap (grated)

Sauvignon blanc and canine helper optional...

 

Mix. Use 1 tbsp per load of laundry.

 

As I said, I've been using this for a few weeks and it is working great. Clothes smell fresh, instead of scented. It removes dirt/stains just as well as our previous detergent and is much much cheaper.

* I got this recipe from another blog but for the life of me I can't remember the name of it. I'll add the link later when I inevitably find it stalking home/diy blogs... from the Yellow Brick House blog!

Facelift for the front porch

Our front porch featured some DIY lattices, courtesy of the previous owners (one on by the door, and one at the end of the porch that the roses could grow up) However they were pretty rotted and needed to come down.

 

Dudley supervising...

I literally broke these apart with my bare hands

After!

I think the porch looks much cleaner and (obviously) open now. We will be putting in a new lattice for the roses at some point, but up next is scraping and repainting the wrought-iron railing...

A new addition and necessary repairs

We've added a new member to our family! Dudley is a 5 1/2 year old, 9 lb. Dachshund/Chihuahua mix. We recently adopted him from Midwest Dachshund Rescue. He's settling in really well.

Excuse the old, ripped up couch - I'm googling slipcovers right now!!

With the blizzard we had a couple weeks ago, we could only take him on walks - the snow in the backyard was way too deep for this little guy! But now it's all melted and he can run around the yard, which means it's time for escape-proofing.

On the N side of our backyard, the neighbor's wooden fence has big gaps on the bottom. It had some mangled wire attached to it to close off some of these gaps, but there were still plenty of holes for a tiny dog to sneak through. As for the W side of our yard, it doesn't even have a fence! We stapled 2 ft. tall rabbit-fence (rectangular holes - bigger at the top, smaller at the bottom) along the whole fence line, and ran it between the shed and the fence to make a barracade at the W side. It's not quite as high as it should be, but it will do for now. There is talk of working with the neighbor to put in a new fence in the spring.

Bob and Dad hard at work, me supervising

Mom and I at the back fence

Thanks to Mom and Dad who were in town for the weekend and assisted with the project (also, thanks for the pictures Mom!!)

The garage door

Our two-car garage has a wooden door - nothing fancy, but it works. However it had a couple spots near the bottom where it had rotted. Bob and I didn't want to buy a new steel door - this one was fine, just needed some love.

I think we spent about 10 hrs total scraping, sanding, filling, and priming the garage. Every weeknight was a rush to finish as much as possible before nightfall (which was around 7pm at the time). We also added new weatherstripping to the bottom of the door to finalize the project.

It looks 10x better now, though we still have to do the rest of the doors and all the trim/siding on the garage. We'll save that (as well as adding some color) for next spring...

Sorry about the crappy pictures! They were taken in a hurry.

Long time, no post

The whole idea of buying an older home, fixing it up - I'm still enjoying that (for the most part). But the concept of blogging about the process quickly lost it's luster. Take before pics, do project, clean up, take more photos, edit photos, write entry - how do people do it? But I'm still trying to give it a go. Bob has been pushing me to "take pictures for the blog!" so there will be some posts soon.

Below is the list of projects we've completed since we bought the house on April 30th. Some are small, some bigger, but I'm happy with the progress made so far. Also, thanks to both our families, who helped us with several projects!

Adventures in caulking

Last week I spent one night after work removing this disgusting, old, moldy tan caulk:

And a couple hours re-caulking the next evening to end up with this (excuse the dirty tub):

What a big difference! I'd never done a caulking project this big, so it isn't anywhere near perfect. Also I ended up with both hands completely covered in a caulk.

I used this silicone caulk we got at Lowe's. Smelled like vinegar gone bad, but other than that was fine.

 
*Another stalled post from July.