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!