Extreme Makeover Part 5b: Side Yard Farm

We wanted our farm to be organic as possible so Stephen found organic dirt for our boxes and shoveled it in.

Side note: Stephen is my editor and checks my posts before I publish them. He stated that I must include the following,

...and I quote:

"Make sure to mention how this was horrible, awful, terrible, back-breaking work that took multiple days and 3 truck loads of dirt."

End quote.

Moving on.







After getting the dirt in, we started planting.

First, tons of herbs. There is nothing like fresh herbs.

Rosemary, thyme, mint, basil, oregano, cilantro, parsley, lavender and sage.







We also planed tomatoes (at the end)



And from seed we planted zucchini....



cantaloupe, chives, carrots, squash, turnips and bell peppers.

We are pretty excited to see it all grow.

Stephen started sweet talking the tomato plant as soon as we got it.

He reassured it that he would take better care of it than the last tomato plant (which he let die).

We named it Linguini and the grape tomato plant Penne. Since they are going to be used to make pasta sauce.

Oh, you don't name your plants?

That's just a crazy thing we do?

Like at the last house when we had a "George" bush.

Anyways...

Extreme Makeover Part 5: Side Yard Farm

Along with the many things we are doing on the house, we are also working on the yard. By we, I mean Stephen.

He is a bit obsessive about the yard.

This is where some of the to do list prioritizing has been a problem.

I want lights, he wants to build garden boxes.

I try to express how lights are more vital than a garden at this time.

He disagrees. (With no real logical backing I might add)

But hey, if I’ve leaned anything it’s;

“Don’t argue with a man in a tool belt with a nail gun.”

Or was that;

“Don’t argue with a woman in an apron with a butcher knife?”

Anyways...

Stephen build the garden boxes along our side yard for our "side yard farm".

The dogs loved it. As soon as they saw it they ran over to one of the boxes climbed in and peed.

That’s when we knew we needed a gate.

So Stephen built a gate.



He loves his nail gun.



I helped too.



Ta-da!



Stephen was very proud of himself.



I am really proud of him too.

Extreme Makeover Part 4: Rocks

Remember back when I talked about the eternal battle between dog and coconut?

Today, I am going to tell you about another battle.

This one is between man and rock.

See these rocks?



These evil, jagged, volcanic rocks?

These cover a good amount of our yard.

It was hate at first sight for me.

You see, I like to walk barefoot in my backyard.

Not with these rocks, no way. Step on one of these and you are in for a load of pain.

Stephen’s hatred started a little later but with even more strength.

He started hating them when he discovered how quickly they would do this:



Yeah, that is our beautiful new flooring with a ugly scratch.

This happened when one of these devious rocks hid on the bottom of one of our boxes.

These rocks have been quite cunning in attaching themselves to Lilo’s fluffy fur as a way to penetrate our fortress.

About a week or two after we moved in, Stephen couldn’t take it anymore and went outside with a shovel and attacked.



He has gotten a lot of the rocks out but there are still a lot more left.

But under the rocks is the dirt.

That evil red dirt that the dumb dogs love to lay in.

Don’t even get me started.

Extreme Makeover Part 3: Let There Be Light

Our new house was apparently either owned by vampires or lamp enthusiasts because there is pretty much no lighting in the house.

When we moved in I thought, simple fix, we’ll just replace the fans with fan-lights.

This was a no-go.

Stephen (in his slightly autistic self) can’t stand fan lights because if you have the fan and the light on at the same time, it flashes on the ceiling.

Stephen instead decided that we should put in recessed lighting.

So being a very supportive wife, I encouraged this endeavor with encouraging statements such as:

You’re going to get electrocuted.

You don’t know anything about putting in lighting.

The ceiling will look like Swiss cheese.

You’ll set the house on fire.

You’ll put in too many lights.

You won’t put in enough lights.

So finally the day came one Saturday morning and we started by marking where the lights would go.

We soon discovered that measuring is really not a strength for either of us, but a little more for me.

This unfortunately wasn’t realized until the ceiling was covered in pencil marks.



We also got ahead of ourselves and didn’t cover the furniture until we were about half way done.

We are not very good with going “step 1, step 2, step 3…etc”.

We like to be more creative with a step 3 here and and step 1 there and maybe throw in a step 8 in.

For example, Stephen would start cutting the hole and then put his protective glasses on.



Or he would be about to cut the hole and then remember to check for studs.

I turned out to be quite skilled in fishing for wires, the only fishing I am good at.

Stephen, well he was amazing.

He put in 7 lights, two track lights, a fan and dimmable switches.

Before: (or I guess, during)



After:



I will never doubt him again, at least until the next project.

(Oh, and this was just the living room, we haven’t even gotten to the rest of the house yet!)

Meet Jack

Before you freak out over us having ANOTHER pet, Jack is a foster dog. We are trying to help out the no-kill dog rescue that we got Willow from.

Breed: Poi dog (Hawaiian for mutt)

Build: Around 60-70 lb. (that’s as much as Lilo!) He is short and stalky.

Age: No clue. Probably around 2.

Name: He came with the name Jack. This works with our disney theme because there is Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean and Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. I call him Jack-Jack which is the baby on The Incredibles.

Personality: He is very sweet and totally non-aggressive (even when the other 2 dogs completely hogged the food and wouldn’t let him have any, those punks). He has a good amount of energy and could probably benefit from a daily walk. The lady who was holding on to him before us has kids and said Jack does great with them.

Quirks: He is a serious wiggle-butt when he gets excited. His back legs are turned out like a ballerina. His wagging tail is a deadly weapon.

Best of all, he has the GREATEST smile.



He has never been around cats before so he is pretty interested in ours. So far the cats have been pretty brave about coming up to him.



He is a couch potato just like our other two mutts.



Don't let this picture fool you. He likes me better. (you can even see his smile in this picture too)

The Break

After working my parents for two weeks, we decided to give them a break.

And the downstairs concrete was being sealed and we couldn't be in the house anyways.

First we went to sharks cove and snorkeled. It was cloudy and not very warm (keep in mind that the whole time we were working on the house it was sunny and hot)

It was the first time I had been in the ocean since we moved here a year and a half ago.

I know, I'm lame. But like I always say, A phobia wouldn't be a phobia if it was rational. (mine is of sharks by the way)

We had a good time though and I didn't see any sharks. I did see 2 turtles and an octopus though.

We then took them hiking at Manoa Falls. This was the same place we took my grandparents and it was pouring down rain. So we came prepared this time, no flip flops :o)

Extreme Home Makeover: Part -1

Let's go back a little.

Before all this manly construction.

Before we even owned the house.

I slaved away and painted the place.

I had picked out pale colors to go on the wall and contrast the white baseboard and crown moulding. I knew it was going to look great.

So I started with buying 5 gallons of a light blue and painted the entire living room.

2 coats.

It took all day.

I then stood back to take a look... and hated it!

I suddenly realized my idea of beautiful pale colors may have looked good in my head but on the walls, it looked like a nursery.

That's when I had my meltdown.

I then started at square one and started to think of a new color scheme. I new I wanted something more on the neutral side seeing as that we are going to be renting out the place in only a year and a half. So I decided to do beige/taupe colors.

Easier said than done.

Did you know there are a million shades of beige?!

Picking the right one is almost impossible!

One was too yellow, the other too pink and another too green. None were just right. (said Goldilocks in utter frustration)

So I had to test them out.



And then stare. And stare some more.

I finally picked my colors and I love them. But not before the house looked like this:





In the end I tested 17 different paint colors on our walls.

That's gotta be some kind of record.

Extreme Home Makeover Part 2

The other big task we had to work on was the baseboards and crown moldings. I was adamant about putting those in because I love how they look. Little did I know how much work it would be.

First there was the painting.



Then my dad showed Stephen how to do the cutting and the sanding.



Then it was Stephen’s turn.







Then the installing.





Then it was the caulking.

The puttying.

The sanding.

The recaulking.

The reputtying.

The resanding.

The wiping off. (Which was done with me on Stephen’s shoulders. I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of that.)

Then the repainting.

Then on to the baseboards.

It was a lot of work. But so worth it!

(If you are wondering were the after pictures are, like a true makeover, you have to wait till the end to see the before-after pictures, trust me, its worth the wait. Not to mention we are not really at the "after" yet.)

Extreme Home Makeover: Part 1

In May, one week after moving into our new house, my parents flew out for two weeks to help. We had many tasks on our to do list, the biggest one being putting in new flooring, baseboards and crown molding. Stephen and I know nothing about tools or carpentry. Lucky for us, my dad is a general contractor and my mom is a serious work horse and an amazing decorator! So they made up our team for our “Extreme Home Makeover.”

First things first, Stephen and my dad took a trip to Home Depot to get a few supplies.

By few supplies, I mean they came back with half of home depot in the back of the truck. I mean like saws, a nail gun, a shop vac and all kinds of “toys”.

Then they turned my living room into a hard hat construction zone!





I made sure to tell my dad to keep a close eye on Stephen so he doesn’t lose any fingers. Safety first!



Then started the instillation. We had ordering the click flooring but there was some confusion and they sent us the wrong kind and we ended up having to nail down all the flooring.



My dad worked for days on just the stairs!



Meanwhile, my mom and I (mostly my mom) tore out the wallpaper, putty-ed, sanded and painted the guest bathroom.



Let me take this moment to say, if you ever consider putting up wallpaper, PLEASE DONT! It may look nice now, but someday, I can guarantee it, it will be out of style. There is nothing worse than taking down wallpaper!

Lets end on a positive note though. By far the best thing the boys bought at Home Depot: a tool belt.



So sexy! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself!