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spring home decorating ideas, recipes, and crafts

Exterior

April garden notes

Most of my April gardening work has been tidying up the beds, pruning old blooms off the hydrangeas, raking leaves, and weeding.  Oh, the maple saplings and onion grass have been prolific this year, so pulling them out of the beds has been my primary objective.  Instead of spending a couple of long days weeding, I decided to work in small chunks.  Every day, after my morning walk, I put on my gardening boots and gloves and would fill one bucket, sometimes two.  I worked my way around the house in this manner and just finished the last bed last week.  I know from experience that overwhelming projects can be easily completed in bite-sized pieces, but it still always surprises me.  Jeff has been taking the same approach with trimming bushes and hedges.  He also put weed and feed on the lawn and cleaned up along the curb. When we

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1970 home renovation

power washing the patio

This project has been on my list since I did my Spring cleaning of the patio and pool deck in April.  The patio, particularly the old part, was so dirty and stained.  It’s the sort of project that keeps getting put off, though.  Not because it’s hard, but because it’s a pain to get the power washer out and set up and to move all of the furniture and heavy concrete planters.  We’ve been having great weather this week, though, so I finally convinced Marshall to help me get it done. Here is how the patio looked before… You can really see how dirty it was in this picture… When I took pictures of the patio, I tried to take them from an angle that would mostly hide the dirt, but you can still see it under the table and chairs… We moved everything out of the way, which was

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All Things Home

painted garden obelisk

When I decided to make custom lattice for our DIY A/C surround, I measured and counted out how many 1 x 2s I thought we would need for the project.  I estimated that we would need 85 1 x 2s and figured I should round it up to 100 to have some extras in case some were warped or in bad condition.  I was confident in my math, so Jeff and I primed and painted all 100 pieces, even though he pointed out that we wouldn’t be able to return extras. Well, it turns out that math still isn’t my strong suit, and I dramatically overestimated how many 1 x 2s we would need.  Since I have a big pile of primed and painted, unreturnable 1 x 2s sitting on our newly-organized garage floor, I decided I should get building!  We’re going to make a surround for our propane tank,

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1970 home renovation

power washing the front walk

We have done so much work on the front of our house over the last couple of years.  After all of the painting, planting, and updates, there was one glaring thing that needed to be addressed.  This front walk desperately needed to be cleaned. We bought a power washer a few years ago, so we just needed to get it out and put it to use!  (The pressure washer we purchased is no longer available, but it’s similar to THIS ONE.  We paid much less for ours, though!)  I imagined doing this long sidewalk, along with the patio and pool deck, inch by inch, so I looked into power washer attachments that cover a larger area with less effort.  I ended up purchasing THIS 15″ surface cleaner attachment by Karcher.  Jeff was highly skeptical and really didn’t even want to get it out of the box.  He kept saying things

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1970 home renovation

DIY Custom A/C Screen

After having the lumber on our garage floor to season for a few months, we are finally building the DIY custom A/C surround.  I am joking about letting the wood season.  I bought the material without consulting my building partners, and we were not all on the same page regarding starting this project in the fall.  That meant we were stepping over it and tripping on it for a few months because I put the cart before the horse.  Now, the supplies are off the garage floor and we are making the plans (sketched on a now crumpled piece of paper) come to life.  You might be wondering about the A/C screen we already have… I bought it when we opened the pool a couple of years ago, and it does a pretty good job of hiding the A/C unit.  THIS is the one we have. Here’s the thing: when

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All Things Home

opening the pool & back patio

Yesterday was the kind of day that I love.  The weather was just to my liking: overcast, dry, breezy, and warm enough to work outside, but not too hot.  And everyone in our family worked together to get things ticked off the to-do list.  Marshall power-washed the front walk, Calvin mowed, and Jeff and I worked together to trim hedges, weed, mulch, and tidy up the back yard.  Since the temperature is still to my liking today, I’m going to work on painting the back trim.  Since I don’t enjoy working on ladders, Jeff and I will work on the gables together, but I’ll take care of all the lower parts of the trim, priming, and painting them. For today, I am sharing the work I did last week to get the patio cleaned up and looking nice for pool season.  Here is how the pool and patio area look

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All Things Home

how to get rid of bishop’s weed | goutweed update

It’s time for the highly anticipated update on my war on bishop’s weed/goutweed!  I’m kidding, but I know some people are looking forward to an update and some advice on how to get rid of goutweed (or at least get it under control).  Before I get into the different methods I’ve tried and which have been most effective for me, I want to share a fresh perspective on this aggressive ground cover.  While searching online for advice and support can be a good thing, I’m not sure it’s always 100% helpful (except this blog post, of course!)  It’s sort of like Googling a surgery you’re about to have or an appliance you want to buy.  The majority of the stories, reviews, and advice you find will be negative, especially on open forums.  People who are upset about something have a more compelling reason to get online and share their misery

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1970 home renovation

progress on the front garden bed

I’ve been chipping away at gardening projects this week and have most of the front garden bed planted. After looking at black plastic for a year, it’s nice to see plants and mulch out there.  As a reminder, I laid down black plastic to smother some weeds and get a fresh start with this bed.  A couple of weeks ago, I started lifting up the plastic to plant a boxwood hedge along the house.  I received several comments from experienced gardeners, encouraging me to move the hedge away from the house and porch… As I started spacing out the rest of the plants, I decided it would be best to listen to seasoned advice and move the hedge. I removed the plastic section-by-section, planting, laying down cardboard as a weed barrier, and mulched.  I planted a small square boxwood hedge around the birdbath and surrounded that with English lavender.  I’m

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I’m Marian, a painter, writer, and lover of all things creative. From art and antiques to home projects and everyday life, I share my journey in hopes of inspiring you to embrace your own creativity and make beauty in the spaces you live.

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