Curtain Rod of Excellence

Finally!! The curtain rods for the master bedroom have been installed. And it's only been seventeen months since I bought them.

They're a very simple, streamlined design and actually intended for outdoor use.

Indoor or out, they're definitely a step up from what I had:

The old-fashioned tension rod with a sag in the middle.

 The new rod, as you can see below on the right, is solid and sag free.

The person who installed them had to customize the allen wrench and saw down part of the middle curtain rod. I wouldn't have been that ingenious so I'm glad I didn't try to put these up. It would have ended in tears and with permanently sagging drapes.

So congratulations Huron. You avoided a meltdown and got to get rid of your granny panties. Huzzah.

Punch List

More little things are happening. A friend's brother is in town and he's going to attack my to do list. Here's what I gave him:

fix ding in drywall where movers bumped it taking stuff to the basement
touch up bathroom skylight hook where installation left it gouged and messy
hang bedroom curtain rod
hang house numbers on door
add electrical outlet in basement to accommodate sump pump plug
touch up paint as needed
estimate costs to re-stain the first floor deck

He'll evaluate the projects and see what he can tackle. Most of these jobs could have been taken care of a year and a half ago but then I'd be living in a finished (almost finished) house rather than a work in progress.

The garage door is installed but I'm not sure the opener is up yet. My neighbor's ladder and tools are still in there so I'm guessing it'll be another...4 days before the job is totally done? That's working days, not counting days he doesn't work at Huron and scuttles off and do other stuff.

 All so exciting. Who knew that mundane house work would get my blood racing?

Ants

in my pants. Can't wait for that garage door to be installed. ....

Lighting Strikes

That's light-ing. As in electricity. As in, something is happening to the garage and I'm very excited about it. After I got my 3rd parking ticket for parking in front of my house on a street cleaning day, my neighbors kindly suggested that I get my garage door fixed so I could start parking back there and avoid Chicago's Scam to Fund their Dwindling Coffers. Conspiracy Alert!! Seriously, those street cleaners don't do a thing. If I remember, I'll try to take a picture of the street after one of their trucks comes through. Honestly they just sputter filthy water in their wake. Here's a googled picture of one of the city street sweepers which is clearly sitting on a street that has already been cleaned. See how pristine the street is in front of the truck? That's how you know they're lying.

 
No leaves or trash or gutter gunk gets picked up by these trucks. They just spurt out Streets and Sanitation bilge water. But, if you don't dash out and move your car before they fart by they'll hit you with a hefty fine. People, you do the math.

But I digress. This post isn't about exposing the city's farty undergarments. It's about the miracle in the alley and Jack, my neighbor, who took it upon himself to put together a proposal and bid to install a new garage door. Here's what it looks like now,

and here's what it's going to look like,

Ha. Just kidding. No, the new door will be boring white vinyl. But it'll be better than the ramshackle two-tone that's back there now.

So step one was to hook the garage up with electricity. I didn't want the new electrical line that had to go from the garage to the fuse box in the basement to be an eyesore. So Jack ran the line from the basement, along the back of the fence (on the left) and into the back wall of the garage.

From the other side of the fence (which you get to through my neighbor's gangway) you can see where the line comes out of the hole in the basement wall, gets threaded through a box and into an insulated pipe

rounds the corner

and tucks up against the back of the fence.

I bought the door this morning at Menard's, it was delivered a couple hours later and will be installed tomorrow. The motor opener thing is coming from Home Depot online tomorrow or Monday-ish. This has all happened a lot faster than I expected and really, never would have happened without my neighbor's intervention. So thanks to him it'll soon be Huron - 1, bankrupt city pension fund - Goose Egg.  

Dig It

More things are happening in the backyard. Some were planned, some were not. Here's how it looks right now.

 

Hey Marvid, can you see the hose? Thanks, it's a great gift. 

Close up of the 4 square beds. The hydrangeas on the bottom right have had a tough time during this hot hot hot summer. 

Even though the neighbor's tree provides a decent amount of shade, the sun and drought have taken their toll on them. They might do better in the empty bed on the left where there's even more shade. Man, you can see some sunburned brown leaves in there.

This patch grew on its own. After clearing out a ton of weeds and transplanting some grass stalks from other parts of the garden (where they also popped up) into this area, this bed really filled out. I love ornamental grass but I'm not sure this is the right choice for this spot. It's very tall and doesn't have a ton of interesting character.

This little peanut is a butterfly bush. Butterflies have already visited and birds seem to like it too. It should grow into the size of the bed.

This is at the back of the yard, against the garage wall. The flowers move from yellow to blue to pink to purple but the pinkies and purples are a little shy right now.

These are right next to the pretty blue delphiniums. My hope is that they'll bust open into sweet little pink flowers and fill in that section with some color.

Don't know yet what's going to happen over here.

But the plan for the weed haven against the fence is to fill it with lilacs.

There are a couple of potted plants up on the back porch. This one didn't do so great. It actually died before I got it into this pot. I thought there was a chance it would resurrect. It did not.

And in the front of the house the hydrangea in the pot is doing really well. This is how it looked back in May when it first bloomed and had a crazy deep purple color. 

The blooms then turned green and deep burnished magenta. Now some new blue flowers are appearing. A little psychedelic but this is a great plant and I'm super happy it's still alive.

And here's a cute little trash can that came from a garage sale. It's super handy for getting rid of all the flyers and circulars that people leave on the front porch.

And in the front

The guys who did the back also pulled out the mess in the front. Now there's a little patch of green sunshine at Huron.

Yard Transformation

See below as it turns from a weed museum into something more manageable.

 

There aren't any plants yet so it can't be called a garden. That will be round two. 

Hydrangeas and Ranunculus

The work in the yard is happening. There's a lot to do back there and progress has been interrupted by the rain but I think another 2 or 3 days of heavy lifting should do it. Then the yard will be prepped for planting. 

In the meantime, here's a look at what's happening on the front porch. I love hydrangeas and ranunculus. Two of my favorite flowers. 

Tweet

There have been lots of winged visitors at Huron since the yard work started. Digging around has unearthed a bunch of tasty treats and birds have been poking and pecking around, noshing on worms and whatever else they like to eat. I tried to get a nice portrait of this little guy 

but he flew up, up and

landed on the fence for safety. 

Then he flew away.

Sneak Preview

Since the last post I found a garden that I really really love. Here's a gander at the design I'm stealing inspired by...

A lot of the elements above are going to find their way into this...

 

I hope.

Yardage

So here's a good look at the "opportunity" in the back yard...

It needs to be overhauled completely. Dug up, graded, new top soil, some sot of water runoff system for the rain gutters, possibly a sprinkler system - all of that plus a plan to put something back there and make it look nice. I like the idea of clover, thyme or vinca instead of grass,

  

gravel or stones to create a patio or foot paths

 

and flowers to add color and pretty smells.                   

That's the dream. Stay tuned for the reality.