Category Archives: Around the house

As I have hinted in a few previous posts, JT and I are working on revamping the front entry.  We did a little more this weekend . . . . but let’s go back to the beginning — here is what we were starting with:

First the front door went from white to my current favorite teal color.
 Next JT did some concrete work to the stairs and I painted them a nice earthy color with epoxy paint.  This weekend was supposed to be the final jewel in the crown, the installation of our brand new, full-light, amazing storm door.

Yikes.

We got the old door demoed out, and unpacked our sparkly new door.

Cue the needle scratch on the record now.

It was the wrong door!  But it was a special order!  The overly helpful employees at Home Depot made it right but we still have to wait another three weeks for the new special order door to come in.

So with about 5 spare hours on our hands where we were fully expecting to be sweating and cursing through the door installation process, JT and I instead tackled the planting beds on either side of the front door.  After hunting all over town, I had finally found some metal edging at Lowes.  I was really looking for the corrugated stuff and Lowes didn’t have the nice clear anodized metal color I was going for, so I made do with the chocolate brown instead.

After a quick dash to the city’s free mulch pile, we had a small *ta-da* project completed, albeit not the one we were planning on tackling.

Here’s another before shot — I went all Edward Scissorhands on the azalea bushes — they needed a lot of trimming!

All in all, it tidies up the front of the house well.  If I had my druthers, I would pull out all the azaleas and that scraggly evergreen at the west side of the house and do more of the ornamental grasses.  I couldn’t really justify ending three innocent azalea’s lives over it though.  Now that we don’t have a storm door for another three weeks (we put the old one in the alley and the metal scrappers/thieves had it hauled off in 40 minutes), we have to keep a closer eye on the furry ones.   Look at snoopy Mr. Shenanigan — he already has his long nose halfway out the door.

Posting this picture makes me realize we still have a bunch to do — sand and patch up the brick mold and lintel and paint the step into the house.  Good thing I have a few weeks!

One night as I was emptying the dishwasher, I went to set a reusable plastic container on the drying rack and found . . . .
There was no room!  Our collection of plastic storage containers was getting out of hand.  Also considering that I take my lunch to work every day and am often heating left-overs in said plastic containers, I began to question the health impact of eating a little bit of plastic with each meal.   It might be time to switch to glass . . . better for the environment, better for me.

Off to the interwebs I went.  (Is the word  interwebs still being used?  You guys know that’s a joke word right? )

I finally found this set from Snapware on Amazon.com  although when I happened to be browsing through, it was listed for $35.48 (now $52.99, boo).  Based on some other online research I had done (Target, Walmart, Container Store, Bed Bath and Beyond), this seemed like a good deal so I bit.  I didn’t even think/ask/realize that the lid color might not be as shown in the picture.  The lids are pretty bright green . . . but it seems to work in the kitchen  —

The Big After —

I recycled a lot of our temporary plasticware but saved some of the big ones for freezer storage as I don’t think I’ll be using the glass for that.  I have a drawer I can tuck those other ones into, so for now only the glass storage is sitting out.  (And our Shenanigan as Elvis mug — so perfect — we got it on our trip to NYC last year).   I think the green lids look more intentional next to the greenery of our Hen and Chick plant.  (And it helps that I buffed up the countertops — they are custom concrete tops with recycled glass in them, done by local outfit CK Designs.)

So it’s not a jaw dropping jump up and down while screaming and crying reveal/change.  But that little corner of my kitchen counter makes me smile.

Our corner of St. Louis is known as South City because, well, it’s south of the city.   It is the officical home of the brick bungalow.

Our brick bungalow is not nearly so ornate (which is okay with me, some of it gets a little gingerbread-y for my tastes).   

It appealed to us because of the more open floor plan which seemed a little unusual for the area.  I spend so much (read: too much) time in AutoCad at work so it seems normal to have drawn our familiar 800 square feet up.

To the McMansion crowd, 800 sf may seem on the “quaint” side but for the two of us and the fur-kids its pretty great.  Would I change anything?  Sure!  A half bath would be great for when we have people over or for when JT has locked the bathroom door during an hour-long shower and I drank two Diet Cokes and need in . . . .

Sometimes I dream about living in an even smaller footprint.  Like I would quit my current life (by life I mean job really) and move with JT and the fur-kids into a cozy little space like this one by Ikea.

I spotted it in the newest Ikea catalog!! Can I just mention that JT and I battled our way through the Atlanta Ikea on our way back from Florida and I spent only $12.87.  There must have been something wrong with me, like a severe brain trauma or something.  Now that the new catalog is out, I’m already planning/scheming for things that might generate an Ikea Chicago trip.   I’m also planning/scheming some things for the front porch and door, possible related to the Pinterest Challenge.    First, I am frantically trying to learn Pinterest!!!

We came perilously close to getting some new appliances this week.  A co-worker had upgraded to stainless steel and was getting rid of her spotless white refrigerator and gas stove.  I’d love me some stainless too but with all the white South City tile in my kitchen, white would be pretty good too.  And hers were priced pretty cheap, another major selling point.  All this appliance talk was giving me flashes of a revamped kitchen.  (While we take the stove out, we’ll tile the floor!  Then I’ll finally paint the cabinets!  Then I’ll install those shelves! . . . )  Come to find out that co-worker’s fridge is a newer bigger model than ours and if we were to transplant it into our kitchen, it would overhang the doorway by 4″.  Pesky measurements. 

But alas, we did do a teeny tiny kitchen improvement.  On my scatterbrain mom’s scatterbrained trip to Ikea, I also had her pick up a magnetic knife rack, the Asker.  I made JT the notorious template . . .

And then he installed it for me . . .

(PS – JT just saw a preview of this post and called this his ‘weekend outfit’.  His words, not mine.)

The cart below the knife rack used to have the microwave on it but I moved it over to the Metro shelving for the time being.  I still have a lot of de-cluttering and consolidating I need to do in here, but the Asker has made a big impact for its diminutive stature.

And yes, that’s a light switch cover I still need to replace after painting the walls, um say three months ago . . . Small steps people, small steps.

We planted our garden about, maybe, a month late.   The weather in STL has been a roller coaster.  And now here’s this post, about a month later . . .  yeah.  Here’s a before shot — not much going on.  The fencing was up from last year and it will stay for this season but after that it is G.O.N.E.

I used that bin in the corner for compost.  So that gets mixed into the soil before planting.  Pretty nasty but great for the plants.

I usually try to start a few things from seed.  JT’s uncle had given us some green bean seeds from his garden a few years ago so I started those earlier indoors.  I think he’s ready to go outdoors now though . . . .

I can see where the story of Jack and the Beanstalk came from.  Those things grow like little mothers.

So one case of heat stroke later, we got the whole thing installed.
We only used about 2/3 of the garden for produce this year.  Last year we bit off more than we could chew and it got real weedy.   The neighbors gave us some extra flowers they had bought and didn’t have space for so we planted them in the back 1/3.  Most of them didn’t make it.  We are kind of bad neighbors.
In past years we’ve had the tomatoes at the back, along the alley where the neighbor’s flowers are now.  I’m pretty sure some of the good for nothings that wander the alley during the day because they don’t have jobs were eating said tomatoes so we decided to move everything inboard.  Not that it will stop all the neighborhood murder birds, squirrels or rabbits, but hey, we had to try. 

Here’s the breakdown:

3 Roma Tomatoes
3 Big Boy Tomatoes
1 Zucchini
1-2 Cucumber (we’ll see what survives)
2-4 Green Bean stalks (2 planted, 2 more on their way)
1 Green Pepper
3 Jalapeno Peppers
1 Black Raspberry
1 Strawberry

Herbs:
Basil
Rosemary
Oregano
Mint (from the farmer’s market and a co-worker)

Shenanigan is frustrated that the garden fence keeps him out as he would prefer to help in the garden.  What a weird dog.

But he is pretty freakin’ cute.  That was him saying hi after I came in from my heat stroke gardening. 

I’m interested to see if all this work and money spent in plants will yield any measurable savings vs. buying at the grocery store.  I might try to keep track of it al.  That sounds like a lot of work though, so maybe not . . .

I’ve been traveling more lately, and was off without JT in Albuquerque this last weekend.  It made me realize how much I miss my little tiny home. 

Here’s one corner of it that I love — the dining room. 

I love how all these little pieces have come together to make a home.  The art was an anniversary gift from JT.  The vinyl MCM sofa we picked up at an antique mall — that was the first furniture purchase that JT really championed.  The tabletop is from my parent’s house but I switched it out to a base from my sister-in-law.  The two Karim Rashid Oh chairs were a gift from my mother.  The orchid lives with a tiny letter “t” in its pot — part of my ever-growing “t” collection. 

 I’ve been thinking about changing out the drapes in that area and maybe also adding a small console table or ledge behind the sofa for more plant/accessory area.  Part of what I love about our little home is that it’s an ever-changing thing.