1 Yr. Anniversary

     Welcome to a very special edition of the Dueselhouse Blog. 365 days ago (Actually, it was May 31. I forgot to post this on time), we signed a pile of papers and became owners of a ramshackle 2 bedroom, 1.5 bathroom house. Running water, indoor plumbing, and a fifth of an acre to mow regularly.

     In short, the place was a bit of a dump. This is some before and after photos of the changes we have made to our little home. We are pleased with how much of it has turned out.

 

Our Kitchen:

Your Backdoor, Man:

 

The Famed Man Bathroom:

Bathroom:

The finished product (no, we haven't painted; yes there is a mirror)

The Blue Room (for the baby due June 7th):

Floors for the House:

 

     It was a busy year. I am still surprised with all the improvements we have made - or that Katie even let us buy a house that needed this much work! Also, thanks to our parents, for loving us and encouraging what seemed crazy.  We tried to put forth a strong face, but I know sometimes I was scared with the number of things to be done. Everyone else who helped, keep your eyes peeled for the shout-out blog post in a few days (weeks) we didn't forget all those paint-stained hands and sacrificed weekends!

     That's all for our little before-after tour. It's less than a week until Frankie gets a new brother or sister, and we are headed to one last dinner at a restaurant without cartoon animals or slides. (don't worry, we won't really go to those places with our children!)

     So long, for now, and thanks for all the fish!

-Jeff

A Short Story Titled: Improving the Yard, or Pleasing the Neighbors

This is a writing sample I shared with my students:


Saturday morning, I woke up. "It's time to plant a garden," Mrs. Duesel told me. "Ok," I said. We got up and had breakfast. We drove to the garden center and looked at plants. We drove home, the Jeep was filled with plants. We dug holes, and filled the bottom with mulch and plant starter water. We put the plants in the holes and filled around them with dirt and more mulch. We watered the new plants. There were Camellia, Golden Euonymous, Firepower Nandinias, and Gardinia's. We went inside and had dinner. The end.

This was my second version:



My hands were black with soil, and my knees were raw from the hard ground. I pushed one final handfull of soil around the last Gardenia. Brushing myself off, I stepped back to where Mrs. Duesel was standing. Crossing my arms, I admired the Camellia, Golden Euonymus, Firepower Nandinias, and Gardinia's. It was our first garden!





It was a lesson on how to write about the moments of the good stories you have, not telling every booring bit of the day leading up to your real story. Being one who is long winded, I need to be reminded of that myself. 

Peggy's Design

We planted a garden.


It started a week or two ago, when we stopped to talk to the plant guru at Craven's Nursery. Peggy looked at a picture of the house on my phone and came up with a drawing and ideas - along with what we thought (guessed) was reasonable pricing. So we bought what we thought would be the first of several purchases for the front yard, and set an order for a couple of Golden Euonymus.

Katie shuffled off on business, while I dug holes and watered diligently. over a week later, Katie had been home almost four days before I remembered to ask if she had ever heard from the garden shop. 

The answer was no.

They called the next day. We, of course, bought the rest of the plants in one fell swoop. Last I checked, you only live once.

The lineup was like this, from the steps out:
Golden euonymus flanking the steps, a nandinia "Firepower" is next, then a gardenia, and another firepower, with a camellia ending each row. 
The golden has a nice yellow tint, the firepower turns red in the fall and keeps its leaves through the winter, and finally the camellia will flower in the winter, around Christmas.

The clay that makes up the topsoil around Virginia needed to be cut with find grind mulch. We prepped the soil with some wild plant starter that packs the soil with vitamin B12, and that's the bulk of the task. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. 

It looks good. Dueselhouse is looking pretty sharp now, we have officially been upgraded from "worst house in the neighborhood" status to "just another house on the block," which is a big step. Just imagine what will happen when we slap a fresh coat of paint this place.

BOOM!


This place is gonna be changing its facebook status!

In a relationship!

Edging on Insanity, or Fighting with Abandon

Photo lifted from: http://romancebandits.com/grass/
Pretty silly piece, I may have to read more of it.

I don't know if you've ever cared for a lawn before, but choosing what beverage to consume while casually walking along behind the mower, that pulls itself along, is only half the battle. And if you're going to do battle, it's better to go with the intent to win.

Where I grew up, there was a house that was completely abandoned. Just up the road from my parents house, and when I learned to drive I passed it daily going anywhere. The place was overgrown with weeds, the roof was sagging, there was no glass in any of the remaining window frames. It was a mess.

Rumor has it, the last family had cleared out in the mid eighties. Then kids stared partying in it, and there was a fire. By the time we moved out there, I was in my mid teens and the house was a complete mess. [I'll see if I can find a picture back in my files, but we all know I won't]

Point being, this house was half collapsed off to the side of the road. There was a low spot where a driveway once was, but it was covered by layers of leaves and dirt. The ground had quickly grown grass and  weeds, left unchecked by years of not mowing.

Dueselhouse was left empty for at least a year before we moved in. When I imagine my home prior to May 29th 2012, that is the image I have in my head, and it embarrasses me to think of it that way. So one of my main motivators is to make my house not look like that mess - including the whole fire part.

As I was saying, Dueselhouse was forclosed upon by Freddie Mac, and left lonely for some time prior to its new moniker. Whoever cared for the lawn was obviously employed in just cutting the grass once every couple months so that the locals didn't complain. (I've heard from a couple neighbors they all pitched in a time or two) Now the only photo we have seen of the house besides the MLS listing that led us to the palace is the one from a rental ad around 2005.

It was a grand place. A tree grew off to the left, there was an ornate, craftsman style, to the porch railing; and the trees that have recently fell (on/near the house) were tall and almost still alive looking.

The classic image also shows a large walk leading to the front steps, but today the front walk wasn't looking quite so grand. We had a good twenty inches of walking space, but the old photo led me to believe that there was more to be seen. Additionally, the curb surrounding two sides of the property was all but invisible to the passer by. And the sidewalk! Oh the sidewalk... well, you get the idea.

There is a curb under there, somewhere.

So while Katie was looking at house plants the other night, I picked out a string trimmer and what just floored me - a jug of premixed fuel for a two stroke motor. Unreal how lazy people are, and I bought a quart of fuel for about five dollars.

Never again. But I tried it.

Armed with a Ryobi multi-trimmer, and rake, I went to work. I trimmed and cut down along the side of the house, the porch, the mail box, and then I was at the front walk.

I looked at that front walk, and revved my weed-wacker.

The sidewalk looked back at me, and just sat there. Maybe it was looking at the neighbors house defiantly, I don't know. The jerk.

Well, I started trimming.

Son of a gun was almost a foot wider by the time I was finished! Now, when Mrs. Duesel and I walked out together, we could actually walk beside one another! Who knew? Well I then realized the sidewalk was probably just as over grown. And the curb out front...

SURPRISE! Our home is surrounded by a fine line of concrete just waiting to be revealed! Oh, and the gutter that runs from the curb to the pavement of the street, that isn't supposed to have grass weeds growing in it!

I laid down the broom and rake along the lines where the grass once reached for the comparison of trimming it all back.

To keep to the point (I am watching Blazing Saddles right now), one of the easiest things to keep a house looking lived in is to keep the perimeters trimmed. Curb, driveway, sidewalk, edge of the house. Put a deep clean line on it, and you've got a good looking piece of property; at least, that's what I think.

Everybody has something that makes them think that their house isn't the worst looking place on the block, what is that line that makes you think the house is habitable versus abandoned?

Next step, landscaping!

(Ok, flower beds and shrubs will be a spring project, but you get the idea)

As a little post script, I should tell you what I did with all of the slag from edging the property.
Most of it went into paper-lawn cutting bags, from Home Depot. But in the street was some built up soil, what could someone use that for?

Perhaps if there was a post hole in their yard... what could cause such a situation?

We moved our mailbox to the porch, like many houses in the neighborhood. Removing the post that supported the original mailbox was extremely hard. Fortunately I am extremely strong, so the post pulled right out. Next I filled the hold in the ground with afore mentioned soil that had build up in the street! It's got to be good, there are all sorts of weeds growing in it!

Post hole in ground

Dirt from the street

Problem solved.

(note: I did pick out much of the weeds before stuffing it in the hole)

AND ANOTHER THING:

Edging is a dirty job!