Composting

I have been attempting to compost for awhile now without the success I would have liked. Basically there has been no compost coming out after a few years now. When we took the garden down last fall all of the plants were piled up with the hopes they would become part of the compost. They did not break down much over the winter. My brother recently began to use the lawn mower to break down the plants and other material that had been in the compost pile. We combined this with what was in the compost bin. The weather got really cold so the pile we had created sat for a little while until the weather improved and we could put everything back in the bin. 

Here is the pile in the center of the garden area. One change we are working on is to keep it wetter.

This area is my compost bin, basically stakes and plastic netting. You can not see my standing plastic compost bin since I moved it once it was empty. You can see the rolling bin which we left alone.

To augment the compost my father brought over a bag of chicken manure. I also got a bag of coffee grounds from a coffee shop near work that they offer for free.

While moving the compost we kept it wet to make sure it would be damp throughout.

We also kept the new pile wet and mixed the manure and and coffee grounds in as we shifted the compost mix over.

It is awesome to see the shift in Katie and what she can do to help each year as she gets older. When we started she grabbed her shovel and started working without even being asked, she shoveled with me for a large part of the time, she also jumped in with the hose to keep things sprayed down.

She insists on wearing a dress and her dress shoes but I am still proud of her wanting to help. On another note her main play with play-doh is to make a flat surface, poke holes then make seeds and plant them. I like to ask her what she is planting, it ranges from common vegetables to things like rainbows, wouldn't it be nice to plant and grow a rainbow?

My happy helper

I do not have a photo of the new compost pile since we worked until we lost the light. The hope is that if we shift it around in the next couple months it will be ready to work in the soil for this years garden, I will keep you updated on the progress.

Lights

In addition to the painting and flooring changes in my living room I also wanted to change out the light fixtures. The hanging one by the door was clearly from when the house was built and looked it. The second light was very small and matches the lights in the hallway but it really did not look right in the room. Here is a look at the existing lights.

And a closer look at the small one.

I replaced them with matching semi-mount fixtures. Each one has two bulb which proves much better lighting in this area.

The next fixture to replace was the ceiling fan in the dining room. This was a new one put in just before I bought the house but was a shiny gold fixture that was probably the cheapest one they could find. Here is a look at the existing fan.

A while ago I added a ceiling fan in my living room, removing the old light fixture. I went with the same fan in this area. You would have thought it would be a simple task to just replace the fan however  when the old one came down we discovered that the proper bracket was not installed above the fan. What should have taken about an hour took most of a day including climbing in the attic to install the bracket.

Here is the fan coming down, it went to my parents house to replace their old fan which is beginning to  die.

The hole in the ceiling, we saw this for a very long time.

And here is the new fan installed. It is much more pleasant to look a at and is not nearly as gold and shiny.

Planting and Pruning

Since my floors are done it is time to begin looking outside. We have started looking at seeds and making plans for the yard and things got started this week. For my birthday I was given an Ultra Dwarf Red Baron Peach tree. This tree is awesome because it will only grow to be 5'-8' tall which will work out good in my yard. I decided to plant it on the side of the yard near the pomegranate tree. First I measure for a good location then started digging.

A good sign about my soil is that immediately we saw a lot of worms. Katie loves worms and began collecting them. 

She carried them on the sleeve of her jacket and put them in a bucket of dirt.

The tree went in quickly, here is Katie to show the current size of the tree.

Since I was working in the yard I decided to start pruning as well. I have been hesitant to prune since it has been a very cold winter, but it is warming up a little and I wanted to get it done before things start sprouting. Here is a look at the roses in the front yard. Despite the cold the leaves did not fall off, however the came off easily. I have six bushes three were here when I bought the house and three are new ones I have planted.

Here is a look at the after. The jasmine against the wall is doing very well and has not been affected by the weather. 

Olive watched the fun from the window.

Katie checked out the pruned roses and declared them naked.

I also did some pruning on the pomegranate tree, not a lot but cut off the suckers and some of the crossed branches.

Speaking of the cold, I believe I lost my succulents. I have had a jade plant for about seven years and several plants from the original, they did not like the weather which was in the low teens at night.

Looking around the yard today it was interesting to see what might survive and what might not make it.   I still need to prune the grapes but that can not be done until after the last freeze.

Finished Living Room

My living room is done and I was finally able to get my furniture moved back in! Here is a look at Katie's area.

Now here is a look at the couch/tv area.

I did purchase three rugs, a tan one for the living room and a pink oval and tan rectangle for Katie's area. These are more to protect the floor but I think they look nice as well. All of the furniture now has foam feet on the bottom to also not scratch or damage the floor. 

Between the paint which really brightened and freshened up the room and the floor which I think warmed the feeling of the room I am very pleased with the overall result. It may have taken a month of weekends but the people at Home Depot recognize me now and I really like sitting in my living room so it was totally worth it.

Floor Wrap Up

The next and final step in my flooring adventure was the moulding. We had pulled the exiting moulding off the walls and it survived but needed some assistance. Luckily the weather warmed up slightly for a few days and we were able to work outside. The first thing to do was sand them, There were pieces of carpet and paint lines all over them.

The previous paint was not put on them very well.

Once sanded came the paint, the same paint as the rest of the floor moulding in the house.

Because of the spacer used around the edge of the floor the old moulding barely covered the gap so a second piece needed to be added. I chose this shape which also needed to be painted: 

Next we laid out the pieces where they belonged and began trying to hammer them in, turns out this didnt work very well.

So we rented a nail gun to get the job done.

Even with the nail gun it took longer than we had expected, my bay window was a pain to try and refit the poorly cut pieces back in to.

My brother worked on this while Katie and watched the Inauguration so I can not take too much credit.

The refreshed moulding went in all the way around and was looking pretty good.

Next came the new smaller piece which was flexible and very forgiving.

The final step was filling the nail holes and touching it up. I am very happy with the result.