Raised Gardens

We have lived in South Carolina for almost three years now.  For two summers, we have tried to have a backyard garden.  For two summers, whatever we planted has been overrun by weeds or killed by a combination of nutrient-less soil and the HOT SC summer sun.  Seriously, we have YET to eat anything that we've tried to grow in our yard.  So this year, we are doing a lot more planning and preparing for the gardening season. 

I will still be working full time and we will have a newborn baby in the house, so I don't expect to have hours to spend on ANYthing, much less gardening.  With the time constraint in mind, we decided to build raised garden beds to cut down on the weeding we'll inevitably have to do.  We first drew out what we wanted on a piece of paper and then made the decision to go with half cinder blocks for the walls.  The half blocks are only 4" wide versus 8" wide for a regular cinder block.  We went with the half blocks because it would still give us enough strength, especially after filling them with wooden stakes and sand, but also give us more planting room inside the beds than a full cinder block would give. 

The area in the yard was already cleared out from last year's feeble garden attempt, so we just covered the section of ground with clear plastic to keep the weeds out of our beds and started the first row of blocks.  Marcus build three beds so that we would have room to walk in between them to make weeding and harvesting easier.  We also used left over fencing stakes and fence wire to fashion homemade trellises next to the fence. 

After making sure everything was secure and stable, we filled the three beds with organic topsoil that will (hopefully!) be much more suited to growing vegetables than the sandy soil that we are blessed with here on the beautiful coast. 

To make everything more visually appealing, we painted the blocks a light green.  We wanted to add the lattice to cover up the cinder blocks, but it is turning out to be more of a pain than we originally anticipated, so we may just leave them alone.  We filled the pathways between the beds with river rocks and trimmed everything out with metal edging to keep the lawnmower from shooting rocks everywhere. :)

The three small planter boxes on top of each bed are the kids' gardens (we even have one for Mason!).  We think it's important that they know where food comes from, so they (especially Taylor) will have a hand in everything that grows in those planters, from picking out what to plant, to weeding, watering, and harvesting. 

We are still in the process of deciding what to plant where, so my OCD/nerd self created a diagram on Excel that we can fill in and change around depending on what we want to grow.  The goal is to get the seeds in the ground before Mason arrives, so we'll probably be planting around the end of February. 

I can't wait to see what we are able to harvest this year!  I'm looking forward to (hopefully!) making homemade baby food for Mason and exploring how to can and freeze what we are able to harvest!

Garage Clean Up

This week, I've been trying to stay offline as much as possible because I go back to work next week and I still have a ton of things on my to-do list.  After procrastinating Monday and Tuesday, I finally decided to tackle the garage Wednesday afternoon.  It was a gorgeous day outside, not too hot and partly cloudy, so I had no excuses.

Our garage lately seems to have become a dumping ground for pretty much everything.  Kids' toys, workout equipment, Marine Corps gear, and out-of-season decorations have been piling up and it was getting hard to walk through there without stepping on something. So, before I started cleaning I took some pics.  Try not to judge, lol.  :)

After 3 hours of cleaning and sorting and organizing, it's not exactly how I want it, but it is miles ahead of where it was.  I think the best thing I did was to group things into sections.  All of the gardening supplies are together, all of the fishing stuff is together, etc.  Before, everything was everywhere and there was no cohesiveness.  I just can't function like that; my brain NEEDS organization in order to work well, haha. 

One of the other things we are going to do soon is mount some hanging shelves on the ceiling.  We should be able to put the hurricane shutters and a few plastic containers up there to free up some more floor space. I'm hoping that some of those toys that the kids have outgrown will fit up there as well because they're taking up the majority of one corner.  We're also planning on upgrading our shelving units so that we can mount them to the wall and get more of the smaller stuff off the floor.

Without further ado, here's the after pics:

Like I said, I know it still looks like a mess, but I'm happy with it because now I can actually walk from the house to the driveway in a straight line instead of having to weave around a bunch of STUFF.  :) 

Painting, Day Four

I am finally getting around to posting the pictures from the fourth day of painting last week.  I decided after that day that I was done painting for a while.  I was getting burned out and I was tired and sore from climbing up and down the ladder all day for four days straight.  That, and I ran out of paint. :)  I got the hallway upstairs done, so now the only thing left to paint is the loft and the stairwell. 

Here's the before at the top of the stairs:

And after:

The before of the hallway:

And the after:

Outside Taylor's room before:

And after:

This is what I have left to paint:

The Infamous Monstrosity of a Stairwell

That wall is going to be incredibly time consuming and to be honest, it scares me.  I am definitely going to wait on a day when both Marcus and I can be home because I really don't want to fall off a 20 foot ladder while I'm by myself.  Not that I think I'd fall off, but you know, just in case.  That's a long way up!

Painting, Day Three

Today I finished painting all I can downstairs.  In order for me to finish the last wall, I'm going to need a really tall ladder!  I gotta say, painting for three days straight has been rough on my body! Especially from going up and down the ladder about 1,500 times!  My shoulders hurt, my back hurts, and my hands are cramped from holding the brush for so long!  But I'm determined to get this done before I go back to work!  I've been wanting to paint since before we moved in, so it's only two years late.  But better late than never, I suppose! :)  Anyways, here's the pics!

The long living room wall before:

And after:

The TV wall and stair wall before:

And after:

The rest of the formal living room/dining room before:

And after:

And last, the rest of the formal living room after:

Tomorrow, I'll be tackling the upstairs hallway and loft and I am hoping that I can get it all finished so that I can try to find a ladder and completely finish on Friday.  I'll post more pics tomorrow!

Painting, Day Two

Yesterday I started painting the khaki color downstairs.  The color is actually called Mark Twain House Oak by Valspar.  I knew this was going to be a big job, but I don't think I truly realized HOW big a job it was going to be until I started painting and the walls just kept on going! So now that I'm finished with the downstairs, here's the pics of what I got accomplished yesterday. 

Garage door (in the foreground) and long hall by the front door Before:

And after:

Long wall by the front door after:

Formal living room and front door before:

And after:

The dining room wall before:  (I only painted the wall on the right yesterday, not sure why I didn't get a straight on shot of it)

Dining room wall after:  (I made sure to get the corner in the pic because that's where the green in the kitchen meets the khaki for the rest of the downstairs)

That was all I got done yesterday. I had to stop early because Tay had dance class last night, so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I finished it up today.  Pics and updates in the next post! :)

Painting, painting, and more painting!

I am on vacation starting today for the next two weeks and I have several projects I want to get accomplished, and at the very tip-top of my list is to get our walls painted!  They've been "new construction white" for the past two years and I am tired of looking at it!   Since we've lived here, I've gotten all the bedrooms and bathrooms painted.  Now I just need to paint the loft and hallway upstairs, and the entire downstairs, because it's all one big open area.  I decided to go with two different colors downstairs, a sage green for the kitchen area and a khaki/tan for everything else. 

I started with the kitchen because it's smaller and I'd be able to finish in probably half a day, even though all of the ceilings downstairs are 9'.   Marcus and I put the first coat on the half bath wall a week or so ago, so all I had to do was the second coat and finish the other wall behind the cabinets and refrigerator.  Here's the before shot:

And the afters:

The wall on the right will be where the khaki color meets the green.  I am hoping to get a large part of the downstairs done tomorrow, so stay tuned for more before and after painting pics! :)