Decorating & Renovating
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Whats on your summer to do list?
We're leaving all our indoor projects until fall now and focusing on outside.
Our list for the summer includes
-painting all of our exterior doors black(we have 7 eek!)
-Painting all of our trim white
-Putting in a huge flowerbed
-Planting a tree in the back yard
-Making a gravel and stepping stone pathway on the side of the house
- painting our fence
What about you?? And anyone who has a lush green lawn is welcome to share their tips because I would like to make ours look great this summer!
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Re: Whats on your summer to do list?
I just moved into my house so my to-do list is super long, but I am mostly replying because we recently turned out lawn from patches of yellow to bright green in about 10 days.
Step 1 - Mow your lawn reasonably short
Step 2 - Use a steel rake to thatch the lawn
Step 3 - Get one of those green wheelbarrow things to spread seed all over the lawn (Scotts Turf Builder Lanscapers Fescue Grass Seed)
Step 4 - Fertilize the lawn with the green wheelbarrow thing (Scotts Green Max Lawn Fertilizer)
Step 5 - Water often (we have in-ground sprinklers and set them to go off in every zone for 20 minutes at 4am and 5pm)
Here's the spreadsheet DH and I just wrote up the other week:
It will be a miracle if we even make through half of this list!
Wives Unscripted
We rent.
1. Maintain/add vegetables and fruit to garden
2. Get deck misting system and patio umbrella
3. Organize storage shed for useability
4. Paint master bedroom.
5. Buy a house.
That last one is on our long-term list. We're pre-approved and all, but we're having a hard time finding anything we like for sale. We're hoping to get relocated in the next year or so.
Most of this we're going to hire out because we're sick of DIY for a bit, but our list includes:
-residing and painting our garage
-lanscaping the back/side of the house
-power washing our deck
-painting our fence
-growing tons of veggies in our garden!
Our lawn is doing pretty well, and we don't do a ton to it. We try to be pretty environmentally friendly in our lawn care.
*We use a slow release organic fertilizer in the spring and fall.
*We hand pull weeds and then go back and add some fresh dirt/compost and grass seed to the spot.
*We use a mulching mower and leave the grass clippings on the yard. And we try to mow frequently enough that we're not removing more than 1/3 of the grass height at once. We also don't cut it that short. Too short of a lawn can cause the soil to dry out more quickly and can make the grass more susceptable to pests.
*And in the summer we do water as needed, but water deeply and not frequently. (watering too frequently can hurt your lawn as it doesn't encourage the deeper root growth).
Our (my) list is way too long but here is a realistic list..
Finish the basement remodel. (very important and long overdue)
Tear out gigantic overgrown bushes.
Relandscape front of house.
Paint living room and replace all trim.
Weed and Feed (but you have to do it in fall or early spring) and cutting the lawn on a higher mower setting keeps our lawn looking quite good! I'm not a big believer in too much extra lawn stuff and with 3 acres I'm not about to water either!
Our outside projects are pretty minimal I think..but we've been doing them for years.
1) Our side flower bed doesn't look too hot. The soil is too gravely and it's in a really sunny area so everything bakes. I'm not much of a gardener either. I have to figure it out. I think we're going to till over it and do a rock bed with a couple planters instead.
2) I want a screen door but we shall see.
3) Our drainhose from the sump pump in the basement is right now just connected to the house and laying in the middle of the ground. I have to move it everytime we mow. We're going to figure out what to do with that.
4) Rain gutters on the front of the house at least. If you stand in front of our house under the eaves when it rains you just get dumped on as the water gushes straight down. Not the best greeting ever.
Complete the large master bathroom (currently just studs and a plywood floor) doing everything ourselves but the shower mud pan, tub install, and shower glass enclosure.
When all of the tile work is done in there install the unfinished HW floor in all 3 bedrooms and hallway. Finish ourselves on site.
Finish the master bedroom. Paint, install electrical fixtures, put in registers, and hang a TV.
Build a complete closet system in our new walk in closet from scratch.
Move back into our master bedroom.
Build one-two new flowerbeds.
Possibly attempt to build the two vanities and storage cabinets for the master bathroom?
Turn raw roughcut cherry lumber into awesome craftsman trim for the entire house.
OK that's more than just a summer plan. I'd be really happy if we could do all of that by the end of this year! We're very busy the next two months with our hobby but come July the renovations will be in full swing.
reorganize our basement storage unit, ugh, that's not going to be fun.
make a fountain for our garden, (our garden is going to be featured in a garden tour so lots of gardening will be happening over the next few weeks...) We have an arborist coming in the next two weeks to prune our two trees, then I need to finish planting and mulching. I also need to order some new furniture for the garden and make some cute throw pillows for the new chairs.
I'm teaching at two conferences, so I have a lot of work to preparation to do for those workshops...
I'm hoping to hire an electrician over the next few weeks to have our over head lighting replaced (and our outdoor sconce replaced.) I'm sure we could do some of this ourselves but why do it ourselves when we can hire someone... ok that's not the truth... truth is, we don't trust ourselves and electricity scares me.
I'm so jealous of people who can do real diy projects.
I would love to have our sink replaced and find a new sofa... the good news is that most of what is left on our list are things we don't have do our selves... the bad news is we have pay for the rest of the stuff on our list. : ( oh well, one step at a time.
pressure washing decks and house
staining the decks
having screens installed on the deck