Ahoy Matey

Happy National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

I love flags. As a graphic designer, some of the most beautiful designs I come across are flags. The bold colors and the geometry are easy to geek out on. Our house is very symmetrical, with two brick pillars that hold up the porch. The face of them is wide enough for a flag to perfectly sit, almost as though they were made for a flag on either side.

We decided to get bold with our front porch and now proudly have two flags. Our first set are naval themed thanks to my good friend, Ryan, who made me aware of their rich history. Apparently ships used the flags to communicate to one another. We like the bold design of the flag that means the letter a, or alpha.

The alpha flag matches our future color scheme for our house (more on that soon), and also has a nice angular end, for a little medieval times touch.

Believe it or not, I actually bought a special drill for this project. Drilling holes into brick is neither easy nor fast so I purchased a hammer drill to get the job done so I could attach the flag bracket to the bricks. Each hole took about ten minutes to drill, so I don't plan on drilling any more holes anytime soon.

Cashew's Visit

Meet Cashew, a baby squirrel who stayed with us last week. We first noticed him on Monday, and while we were surprised to see such a little guy on his own didn't think much of it. But when we saw him again Tuesday, we became concerned that he may have been left behind when his parents left the nest that had recently fallen out of our elm tree.

 After playing with him a bit, we decided we should intervene, mostly because of some neighborhood cats who were seriously eying his hangout spot. So I began extensive googling of caring for abandoned baby squirrels, and learned the following.

1. Don't feed them. While it seems the obvious first step, it's likely they're dehydrated, and feeding them causes their cells to further dry out while their little bodies try to digest.

2. They need fluids. Pedialyte is best, but as we didn't have it I read that the next best thing is a cup of warm water mixed with one teaspoon of salt and three teaspoons of sugar.

3. Keep them warm. This little guy was shivering furiously when we found him, and I read that at this young age they can't regulate body temperature, so a blanket and a heating source are crucial.

Once we got this little guy watered and wrapped up, he promptly fell asleep. We put him in our cat carrier overnight (in our guest room with the door closed, as Nino paced curiously outside it all night). We set him up with some towels and a heating pad, and he was out like a light. We woke him up a few times to get more water in him - here's a video with some pretty serious baby animal cuteness:

The next morning I took him to Lakeside Nature Center, a local wildlife resource that rescues abandoned and injured animals. They looked him over and were surprised to see a little guy left alone so young. They will stabilize him there - make sure he's healthy and taking formula - and then when he's ready they'll send him to one of their many volunteers trained to raise him and eventually release him back into the wild.

 
They gave me the option of receiving a good news/bad news post card, which I opted for, so hopefully I'll receive news in a few months that our little guys is out in the trees being rambunctious, like he was born to be. We miss our little Cashew a bit - he was fun to watch and hold - but we know he's in good hands. 

Look Closer

After posting yesterday, Chris found a few extra shots from Saturday that show the "after" a bit better. You can see the plants better in this one - some hen and chicks, sedum and a pincushion cactus that I bought, as well as some sedum, moss rose and ice plant that I transferred from a flower bed in the yard. My hope is that once the plants fill in next year, the brackets and quite a bit of the planters themselves will be completely hidden.

And here's the whole view - we're still using the trash cans and grill at the end of the wall (proven in this photo by the corn on the grill!), and the planters frame it at the end pretty nicely. 

Succulent Siding

I warned you Friday that Chris and I had some big weekend goals, and after a busy weekend, I'd say we accomplished one out of the two, and we're pretty happy with it. I wrote months ago about wanting to build some gutter planters on our garage, and we finally got around to getting this done.

The project was a bit more involved than I thought it would be (aren't they all?), so it ended up taking pretty much all day Saturday. It was a beautiful day though, and we spent the majority of it working in the shade of our big walnut tree out back, so no complaints here!

After drawing up plans and measurements last week, I purchased four 10' aluminum gutters, 24 hangers, eight end pieces, a rivet gun and rivets and some black spray paint. We cut the gutters down to size with a hack saw (taking turns and wearing ear plugs - it sounded terrible!)

Then we drilled drainage holes, painted them black and attached the end pieces with a rivet gun. Once that was finished, we took them to the backyard and set them up in the grass to make sure one last time that we liked our design. We did, so it was time to start hanging them up. 

Here's the wall before planters: 

We left the shepherd's hook up for now - it used to hold a bird feeder which I since moved into a flower bed near the fence. I think I'll probably move it to the back of the garage one of these days (maybe near my new garden tool hanger) and put a nice big wind chime on it.

Anyway, here's the garage with planter #1:

and a second:

then #3:

and the last one:

All up! This actually took some doing, as we knew these planters would be fairly heavy once they're full. We attached a heavy duty bracket at each stud that each planter crossed - 22 brackets all together!

After that, it was time to fill them up! I filled the bottom fourth of each planter with pea gravel to facilitate drainage, then filled the rest with one part sand and two parts soil, all mixed together.

 Finally, the fun part came. I purchased a few plants to get me started this year - all perennial succulents. I specifically looked for plants that can deal with hot, dry summers and survive through cold winters (mostly rated for zone three of four through zone nine), since they're in a metal planter rather than the ground so are likely to feel both heat and cold a bit more. In addition, succulents need much less water than most other plants, which means I won't be drenching the side of our garage every day to keep them alive. 

It's hard not to go crazy and fill the the planters full right now, but I'm pacing myself to see how these guys do this winter. I'll probably add a few more plants here and there throughout the fall, but I want to make sure these varieties will come back well after the winter before I completely fill them. My hope is that they'll all be thriving and spreading next spring, at which point I will add more until the garage looks like a big, green living wall!

As for the weekend project we didn't get to, we're still plugging along with our house painting project. So far we're about halfway done - through with the back (east side) and finished except for some trim work with the north side, which we hoped to work on this weekend but ran out of time. This week and next weekend we want to get the north side completely finished. Then CJ will start sanding the south side, while I work on painting the porch ceiling and trim. Our hope is by winter to have only the upper story of the front of the house left to do - which we will wrap up next spring. This story to be continued . . . . . 

Gearing Up

Happy Friday! As you may have noticed, Chris and I have been a bit slow on house progress this summer, but we have some big plans for the weekend. Tune in next week for updates. Here are some photos I find inspiring to hold you over.

Have a great weekend!

 

Garden Tool Hanger

When it comes to garden tools, I am storage-challenged. I have a place in the garage to keep them, but I'm terrible about putting them away - I love to have them handy in the garden, so when I'm ready to rake / dig / weed / trim / etc. everything I need is handy. The sad result is that I've left them sitting on the cobblestones, where they've rusted. My grandfather would be so ashamed!

So when I saw this tutorial in This Old House, I knew it was meant for me. I scoured ebay for old spigots, and found a variety of eight that I loved for around $12, so I went for it. When they arrived, CJ helped me sort through his lumber pile to find old scraps perfect for my project.

And then he closely supervised (and helped quite a bit) while we put it all together in the basement. There was lots of drilling involved . . .

Followed by tightening . . . 

To get these little guys set. We ended up using only six, so I'll have to find another fun use for the two remaining spigots. 

I even got to use CJ's new nail gun! I may have gotten a bit carried away, but the good news is this thing is ready for some rugged outdoor weather!

It was pretty late when we finished it, so despite my excitement we left it overnight so that we could take our time hanging it in the daylight, and make sure it was exactly where we wanted. Just a little history, the back piece of wood where the spigots are attached actually one of our old stair treads, from when we replaced them all WAY back when. It's an almost 90-year-old piece of oak! 

It was great to get it in place on the back of the garage today. And as you can see, it's already working hard. I need to get some leather to attach to more of my garden tools so they'll hang easily. It will be so nice to have them handy, and hanging so they will stay dry when not in use. A few little plants on top of the shelf will be a nice touch too . . . .

So our final project cost was . . . . $12! Everything but the spigots was reused, making this a whole lot of cheap satisfaction. I'll buy some leather to get more tools hanging out, but even then this is a lot of bang for the buck.

Slowly but Surely

We're continuing with progress on the house exterior. Summer was unusually hot, so we took July off from sanding and painting.

With great repitition, the actual sanding has gotten easier. The end result is a smooth, fresh shingle. Painting is the easy part, and takes only a fraction of the time.

We're close to being completely finished with the North face of our house. Next step: South side this fall.