Neighborhood Spies

Well, not really.  But sort of. 

You see, Liam loves to look out the window, so we spend quite a bit of time observing the neighborhood happenings.  As it turns out, this summer was a particularly great time to people watch on our street, as new neighbors moved in—and before they moved in, the house was completely renovated, so there was a ton of activity.  I actually saw some pretty interesting things at 3 am back when I was nursing Liam in the middle of the night.  I’m pretty sure that the construction workers lived in the house at one point…which is totally weird and kind of creepy, but their comings and goings did keep me awake during many an early morning hour.

Our neighbors actually do intrigue me.  To our left is a very sweet lady, but I secretly trim things around her yard, as she isn’t the greatest at keeping up her yard.  For the record, she’s admitted this to us on several occasions—just in case you were worried that I might be exposing some deep secret.  Her yippy dogs drive me bananas, but she used to be an English teacher and librarian, so we connect over good books and that eases the ringing sound in my ears…

The neighbor to our right turned 90 years old this fall.  She is a staunch one, I tell ya.  When we moved in a few years ago, she was up on her roof cleaning out her gutters—no lie.  Every time we chat, she tells me to come over more often, so we’ve been making more of an effort to do so.  Sometimes it’s nice having a baby, because they become the focal point.  Two funny stories about this particular neighbor… When we first moved in, she came over one day and told me that since Matt slept during the day (not sure where she got that, because she also seemed to think he worked nights), he could always hold up a sign in the window saying “SLEEPING” and she would quit making so much noise.  This struck us a super funny, because 1.) Matt doesn’t sleep during the day or work nights and 2.) what in the world would she be doing that would cause so much noise that it would wake Matt up (if he, in fact, did happen to be sleeping).  Too funny.  Another time she mentioned in passing that if we ever saw her stripped down (as in, no clothes), it’s because she sunbathes in a little greenhouse-like structure that’s connected to her garage.  Hmmm…can’t remember how I responded to that one.  She definitely keeps us on our toes and I can only hope I have even half the energy she exudes at age 90. 

Then we have the neighbor across the street and slightly to the left.  She works at the Olympic Training Center, which is only a few blocks from our house—we need to go on a tour!  Should have done it before the 2012 Summer Olympics…drat!  Apparently the men’s gymnastics team was there!  Anyway, she throws lots of weekend parties and I think some of the partiers are actual Olympians.  Cool, huh? 

Directly across the street are two older guys—don’t  know much about them since they are the ones who moved in right when Liam was born.  Apparently one of them had a house that burned down in the horrific Waldo Canyon Fire this summer.  So sad!  The best part is that one of them plays piano beautifully.  When it’s a warm day and everyone has their windows and doors open, I can hear the music drifting over.  I keep wondering if they give piano lessons…you know, so Liam can become the talented pianist I never became…nothing like living out your dreams through your children, right? 

And of course, then there’s our favorite neighbors, across the street to the right.  They are a snarky older couple who I really like.  They tell it like it is, no bones about it, but they are so caring and helpful.  When Matt was literally buried in leaves last fall, they came over with their grandson and helped rake.  Then they informed us that next fall (which just so happens to be this fall now), we should use their leaf mulcher, as it will save us loads of time.  Let’s hope the offer still stands, as the leaves are a-fallin’.  They also brought over a hand-made quilt for Liam after he was born, and we’ve spent many hours lounging on it in the backyard.  Love that quilt.  Overall, they are the people who seem to know everything that’s going on in the neighborhood, so if I ever have a question, I go straight to them and know they’ll have a good answer.  I still remember them saying that this particular street used to be the “buy and die on” street.  Isn’t that such a neat thought?  Oh, and even though I’m sure they’re in their 60s or 70s, she is a black belt in some sort of martial arts—hard core! 

So these are the folks who surround us.  They have their quirks, but they are a huge part of the reason we love calling this place home.  Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled spy session. 

Fall Photo Shoot

Just a little fall photo shoot with Liam this morning, compliments of Matt, my hubbie.  Enjoy! 

And of course, there was some “playing” in the leaves…or maybe we should say there was a some face planting…

And that was the end of that!

From Critic to Creative

As one who has been known to criticize quite freely—and I’m not touting it as a strength—I found Kate Connor’s post convicting and challenging.  Check out her truth rant here.

Happy Apple Farm

One of our goals this fall was to visit an apple orchard or a pumpkin patch.  When our friends mentioned that they were heading to Happy Apple Farm last weekend, we jumped at the chance to join them and were thrilled to find that it’s an orchard and pumpkin patch in one.  Hurray for meeting both goals in one shot!

Can you tell that I’m the overly excited mom here?  Oh Liam—welcome to the rest of your life. 

Matt was our official apple picker.  Because of the dry weather, the apples were small but flavorful.  The owners of the farm are really great about letting people taste test the apples, so we snacked our way through the trees. 

Enjoying a short hay ride…sadly, I forgot Liam’s hat until later that day…no Mom-of-the-Year award for me.

Playing in the tree with Dad…

I love this photo so much—especially their eyes. 

I promise that Matt is not picking a wedgie in this picture! 

Later Liam caught a ride on our friend’s bike.  He’s quite a natural—haha!

Happy fall! 

Dandy Chandy

If you would have told me that I’d have a hankering for chandeliers five years ago, I would not have believed it.  But it’s true—I love me a little chandy these days.  Maybe what I really love is their versatility, as chandies are making appearances in all sorts of unexpected places, like laundry rooms, nurseries, bathrooms, kitchens, and even backyard patios.  Often they boast cheery colors, as it’s super easy to update an old brassy chandy with a coat or two of spray paint. 

They’re even popping up at outdoor weddings!

When you get right down to it, DIYers are a lot like teachers.  They beg, borrow, and steal ideas, so of course, being a DIYer and a teacher, it should come as no surprise that I decided to jump on the bandwagon of chandy-huggin’ folks.  While doing the casual drive by, I spotted this beaut at a garage sale last summer and literally leapt out of my car to claim it for only $2—gotta love a good deal. 

Apparently the woman selling it had originally intended to hang it over her dining room table, but it was too small for the size of the room.  Happily, I took it off her hands.  Then it sat in the basement while I debated what to do with it.  When we got pregnant last fall, I determined that it would indeed grace the nursery if we were blessed with a baby girl, but it just wasn’t to be—and for the record, we’re so glad to have a baby boy, even if means no chandelier. 

Then I decided to put it in our master bedroom, so after a bit of prep…

I gave it a coat of primer and then some grey/blue spray paint that matches our dresser hardware (which I also spray painted back in this post of yore). 

I love the more subdued matte look. 

Now comes the sad part of this tale.  In my excitement to switch out our boob light

(yes, that’s a technical term, just in case you were wondering) for the chandy, I didn’t take the time to hold the light up to the ceiling in order to check out the dimensions, etc.  You know, the proofreading part of DIY.  It turns out that since our bed, headboard, and mirror are not centered with the light fixture, it just looks really strange.  Matt and I debated for a few minutes, but the verdict was pretty clear.  Was I disappointed?  You betcha.  Still, I am confident that someday I’ll have the perfect spot for this light, so I’m going to keep it in my back pocket for the time being.  You win some, you lose some, I suppose. 

Something Old, Something Blue

Every time I glance at our backyard, the peeling paint of the garage rears its ugly head and glares back at me.  Check out this photo from when we first  bought the house.

While we’ve trimmed the tree and cleaned up the junk in the yard, the garage itself looks much the same.  I’ve tried to ignore it.  I mean, it took living here for well over two years before I finally cleaned the dirt and bird poop off the window of the garage door! 

And then I sold something on Craigslist.

The buyer needed to get into our garage to see the item…and I was totally mortified.  That’s when I snapped and decided a little facelift was in order.  Since school was starting and a baby was growing, this normally quick project took almost a month to complete with all the prep work, priming, and painting between Liam’s naps.  But she’s finally done—yay! 

I’d really love to paint the entire garage, but to be perfectly honest (hmmm…that rings of Eugene from good old Adventures in Odyssey—anyone?), that’s just a little more bite than I can chew right now.  So I tackled the next best thing—the door.  I have a slight obsession with old doors.  They have all these great features, but sometimes they are so old that their lovely attributes get lost beneath the wrinkles.  Thank goodness for power sanders and paint!  While it took some serious elbow grease to get beyond the grime of this door, it was worth it. 

Before…

After…

She’s definitely a far cry from perfect, but she’s cleaner and brighter, giving the entire garage a much needed lift.  In addition to painting her blue to match our front door, we spray painted the hardware oil-rubbed bronze

and replaced several of the wood slats on the inside of the door.  See how they’re all rotted out? 

We scraped them clean with a chisel and then picked up some thin plywood from Home Depot (I think it was 1/4 inch).  We had them make some cuts in the store and then finished off the rest of them at home with a circular saw, since HD won’t make rip cuts.  Then we used wood glue to lock them in place, finishing off the edges with caulk.  After a coat of Zinsser’s oil-based primer and two coats of paint, we had a new-to-us door on our hands. 

Maybe someday we’ll replace our garage door with something new—or maybe we’ll snag a good replacement at the Restore.  Until then, it feels good to have restored a bit of life into our garage without spending much moolah.  In fact, I think we only bought the wood and the glue, as we had everything else on hand.  It works for us.