lisa May 27th, 2003
This weekend, being a long weekend, meant we had an extra day to work on the house. We got a lot done. The biggest accomplishment was the pantry cabinets. Have a look at the photos! They turned out great - of course we still need to build the drawers, doors, and shelves, but that’s not the difficult part.
The sink was a great find on Mark’s part - he found it on Craig’s List, a local bulletin board website that has come in really handy recently (he got our chipper from the same place, and we used the list in our roommate search, too). The sink, which you can buy at Home Depot for $300, was only $45. It’s white, which wasn’t my first choice, but hey - it matches the washer and dryer. (The other appliances are black or stainless, so it won’t match the rest of the kitchen, but that’s okay - we saved $250!)
The other big accomplishment this weekend was that I planted most of my seedlings - tomato, foxglove, cupid’s dart, lavender, and spurge. I didn’t get the cucumbers in - I need to buy a bag of gravel to put in the bottom of the tub I’m using for a planter, first.
Last year I put my tomatoes in on May 25th, too, and didn’t get my first tomato until August 15th. This year I’ve planted Early Girl, which might be ready sooner - time will tell!
lisa May 19th, 2003
We had a very productive weekend. We, and our new roommate Peter, worked on Peter’s bedroom. It used to be the Rose Bedroom because of the wallpaper, but since the wallpaper’s all gone now, I guess we’ll just call it Peter’s room. We stripped the paper and put up wall board on one wall where the plaster was shot, and we repaired the existing walls and put up a new ceiling. Now it just needs to be painted.
We also had the electrician here on Saturday, doing some finish work. We now have a temporary kitchen set up in the mudroom, and we have lights in the great room and kitchen. Mark did a beautiful job on the track lighting in the kitchen and recessed lights in the great room. I was very skeptical about using such modern lighting in this house, but I have to admit, it looks really good.
lisa May 19th, 2003
Have finally finished transplanting all my seedlings to larger pots. I am pretty tired of seedlings at this point. I don’t think I want to do this next year - if I have the money, I’d rather buy plants. The amount of work that goes into seedlings is just too much for me.
Anyway, I’ve started hardening off and hopefully next weekend will be the big planting weekend.
This past weekend I laid out the irrigation for my vegetable bed and planted some carrot seeds. It’s really too late to be planting carrots, since they are 70 day vegetables and they spoil above 80 degrees or so. Maybe I can rig up shade cloth or find a cool spot for them and make them work anyway. We’ll see. The second crop this fall will probably be better. I’m not exactly sure how the fall crops are supposed to work, but I’ve got the rest of the carrots, some lettuces, and broccoli for the fall. Will have to calculate carefully in order to get them in at the right time.
lisa May 14th, 2003
We got our electricity switched over to the new panel yesterday. What a saga this has been. We got the quote from the electrician last July, and we’re just now switching over. All the wiring has been done for months - we’ve been waiting for NST*R to come connect the weatherhead and they’ve been completely unresponsive. But they finally did the work yesterday.
Now we have working outlets on the second floor and in one room on the first floor. We have a contract with the electrician to do the finish work (outlets, light switches, etc.) but I wish we could back out and do the work ourselves. We might be slow, but at least we’re in control if we do it ourselves. With the electrician, we’re completely at his mercy.
So we have working outlets on the second floor, but none of the wall or ceiling lights are wired up, so we have to improvise with lamps, and we don’t have enough for every room. Plus, the study hasn’t been wired up, and that’s where the computers are, so as of yesterday, I have no working computer at home. I don’t know how long it will take before the study is wired up.
We’ve found a roommate to move in June 1st. The extra money from his rent will really help. And I’m looking forward to having another pair of hands around.