Carpe Autumn

The turn of summer to fall was a welcome change in KC this year. August was unusually dry and hot. September 1st seemed to reboot the weather, however, and now we are getting spoiled on quintessential Kansas City fall weather.

I've lived here long enough to know that winter can come at a moment's notice. Once it's cold and snowy, all my exterior jobs pretty much go on hold until next spring, so you can imagine that I am trying to make sure I finish my to-do wish list before its too late.

Last weekend, we serviced our burnt and bumpy clay dirt lawn. The ground is really hard, we figured aerating would be a good start. The machine was a beast. It didn't take long to gouge up the turf. Becca fertilized and mowed after that. I raked out old stuff in the ground, and then threw lots of fescue seed everywhere. We are watering compulsively. Cross your fingers this works.

Whats left to accomplish:

Touch-up Paint on house

Landscaping

Treed in

When Chris and I laid our patio and garden beds, we left a four foot border on the east and south ends to make a hedge row. Over labor day we picked up 18 Taylor Juniper trees from Sooner Plant Farm in Park Hill, Oklahoma. We got home Monday afternoon and began planting.


The backyard without trees. And with a Wrigley.


The digging crew. Thanks to Uncle Tim for helping out!


One down, 17 to go!


The first row finished.


Back row finished.


We love the soft, feathery leaves.

When we began measuring out our 18 trees, we quickly realized that we had underestimated. We were two trees short. On the one hand, I think Chris was pretty happy not to have to try to dig through this rock quite yet:



We just ordered our last two trees, so we'll get those in the ground, add some rocks and mulch and our little junipers will all be ready to root deep and grow. In the meantime, we very much enjoy looking out back and seeing our little starter trees. Although, it's worth noting that if you're planting starter trees, maybe don't put them next to mammoth sunflowers. Can't be good for their egos!


The trees are back there, I promise!

And here's this, just because it's so cute!

Dining Pretty

When Chris and I moved in, our dining room chandelier looked like a horrible leftover from the seventies. It was fake woodgrain, with 5 arms that each ended in a fake candle-looking light. Only two of the five "candles" worked. (Also, the walls were painted fluorescent peach - if there is such a color).

So, we were always looking around for a lighting upgrade, and then one day while wandering around the River Market antique mall we came across this.


After a simple rewiring of the light and a plaster collar on the ceiling, it looked like it had always been there.

As I'm sure you can tell it's already hanging in our dining room, so obviously we fell in love with it. We loved the intricate metal parts, with all the little crystals that throw dramatic light around the ceiling and walls. The thing was, it's gold which isn't exactly the "in" metal. We played with the idea of painting it for about 2 seconds, but truth be told we LOVED the gold on this light. So, we made a few key design decisions. First, since we have an old house we have the right to eclecticism, and second, the dining room will have gold accents (along with some silver and antique brass as well).

When we returned home we realized how perfect this was - the room was already filling with gold. The crystal knob from the dining room to the office is gold, as are my china and crystal patterns.





A few months later Chris and I were in Boulder, Colorado on vacation, and ran across these:



Once again, since they're in the room it's safe to assume we decided we couldn't live without them. I've always loved botanical prints, and these were just perfect. So we brought them home and loved how they looked above our little buffet in the dining room. Naturally they would require gold frames . . .

But we got busy and the prints got put into our hall closet and nearly forgotten about, until I experienced a cleaning frenzy last week and pulled them back out. In the meantime our buffet had become cluttered with decor that didn't really fit, so I cleared it off and set the prints back out. The wall above the buffet, framed by curtains and window, just begged for an accent. So, I found some gold frames and finally hung our prints, almost exactly a year from when we purchased them (last Labor Day).


We ordered gold-painted wood frames online, and had mats made at Hobby Lobby.


I cut off the faux mat on the print to fit the print to the 8x10 frames and matting.


Checking for level.


One of the few downsides of plaster and lath walls - it's never just a matter of hammering a nail. Everything needs to be hung on a screw and we have learned from experience that drilling pilot holes is always a must.


Almost level . . . .



And they're up! Next steps - I'd like to find a low accent to set on top of the buffet - probably some sort of rectangular candle tray. Then, I need to order blinds for the rectangular window above the buffet, and hem the curtains (ugh). Once those tasks are completed, dining room done!

Our Old House

In 1940, the city of Kansas City, Missouri took a picture of every property within city limits for tax assessment purposes. I'm not exactly sure what the intended benefit of such an undertaking was, but one wonderful perk is that we can see a picture of our house 70 years ago! It's amazing to think of how different everything would have been then - with World War II going strong in Europe and Japan, FDR giving fireside chats, African Americans fighting for the right to vote, an average salary of $1,299 in the USA - here stood our house!


Our house in 1940.

When we received the photo earlier this summer we noticed several differences immediately. First, all the way on the right side of the photo you can see part of what looks like some sort of shed or outbuilding in the backyard, which is now long gone. This may, however, explain why when we dug for the fence along the side of the yard we hit several large mortared stones - perhaps an old foundation?

Another change is the landscaping along the front of the porch - I can't imagine what those small trees would look like now, had they been left to grow! When we moved in all plants had been removed from the front flowerbeds, so we had a wonderful blank slate to do planting of our own. I wonder what varieties of plants have graced that area between when this photo was taken and when we moved in last year.

Finally, notice the lovely, lovely shutters! I've been dreaming of shutters on our front windows since we moved in - the old hardware from which these ones hung is actually still in our trim - and this photo was the final ammunition I needed to convince Chris that we should bring back the shutters. I love the classic board and batten style - especially on the cute arched window on top!

It's fun to try to imagine what this house might have looked like then, when it was only 15 years old - a baby compared to now! I like to try to picture the family living in it, how the inside would have been decorated and what major differences the house would have had so long ago. Obviously there's no way to know the answers to all these questions, but this is a fun little glimpse into history!


Our house in the spring of 2010 - notice our tiny little boxwoods! They're getting bigger every day.

An August Weekend

8' Mammoth sunflower from the garden

I don't know if its the high heat of the end of summer, or me just trying to relax a little more on the weekends. but recently, we have been trying to take things a little slower around the house.

In fact, I have not even made a post on the blog for more than a month. In the meantime, Becca has been blogging more often than ever, filling the blog with pretty pictures of things to come.


Hazel greeting me on the couch, for the first time since she was a kitten.

In other news, Hazel has started jumping on my chest/belly, a skill she used to practice exclusively on Becca. For some reason, she has become more spunky and social in the last few weeks, which is cool.

I, the pragmatist, think we need to focus on before and after projects for the blog. However, we have really gotten a lot of comments on her most recent stories, which focus on design and future kitchen plans. What do I know?

Now for some pictures of small progress, from the weekend.


A freshly patched concrete step. The dark grey area is the new concrete, which will probably turn white in a few weeks.

I had been meaning for a while to patch a few small holes in my steps to the house. We have nicely aged concrete steps, so I was apprehensive about matching the concrete color, and making a mess that I can't clean up. Anyways, I just decided to go for it, and cross my fingers.



Wooden form screwed to step.

I screwed a wooden form around the step to guide the new concrete. Once I got it snug to the original form, I mixed up some fast setting concrete in a bucket. The hardest part was not to make a mess and spread new concrete unecessarily over the rest of the old step.

I really tried to mix the concrete with as little water as possible, so it would not be runny/messy.


Old rusted hole in step

There were old holes from a rusted out old handrail, dirt and junk needed to be hosed out before I started mixing the concrete. I also applied a liquid latex paint to help the old concrete and new concrete bond better.



Patching concrete is not very glamorous, but hopefully this latest fix will protect the steps for many more years to come.

First Meal in the New Kitchen

I love this article in This Old House about families celebrating their first day in their remodeled kitchens with a special meal. What should our first meal be once our kitchen is finished? I can promise you it will be accompanied by a chilled bottle of Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, and followed by crème brulée. Any good suggestions/recipes out there?

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20413580,00.html



We've always said we'd host a "better late than never" housewarming once the kitchen is finished, as we believe our downstairs will finally be fit for hosting. When we moved in we were so overwhelmed with tons of repairs necessary for daily life, we never really celebrated the new house. As time dragged on we decided that this project would finally make the house worth celebrating. So, watch for that invite!

Happy Hibiscus

As I wrote earlier this summer, I planted some perennials in our new backyard garden beds with the hope that they'd root this year and give us big blooms next summer. Much to my delight the hardy hibiscus plants I put in are blooming already. The enormous red blooms look ridiculous on the tiny twig of a plant, which leans dramatically with the weight of each bloom, but they're already quickly growing and are a joy to watch fill in and bud more and more each week. Based on what they've done so far, I can't wait to see what they produce next summer.