Sprinklers

This is what functional sprinklers look like:


Major tip of the hat to Tai for the weeks of work that it's taken to get to this point. Major wag of the finger to the weather for raining (or SNOWING) every third day in May.

The front yard is already mostly put back together (holes filled). The backyard should be that way soon. Maybe there is some sod and mulch in our near future? I can't think of a better way to celebrate the unofficial start of summer than by putting in a lawn. (That was not sarcastic. I really want this project to be over.)

Tai wants you all to know...

...that his biceps are getting huge doing all this sprinkler work.

Which is still not finished.

Our yard looks like a war zone right now, so I refuse to post pictures until something looks a bit more done. Incremental progress doesn't translate well to pictures. If you've driven by lately, you know what I'm talking about. On the plus side, I did pick out, set, and lay 11 large stone pavers all by myself last weekend. They are lovely and don't rock a bit when you step on them (which is my personal paver pet peeve).

And, my aspirations to be a doddering old lady with a garden are in full swing. I have already killed four strawberry seedlings and six tomato starts. Congratulate me!

It's about time

You know where to find us this weekend:

Last weekend

To thumb our noses at the rain last weekend and take advantage of some momentum in the house work, we pushed through a couple of indoor projects: sealing the stairs, finishing a scrap of baseboard, and sealing a small patch of concrete we missed the first time around.

There's nothing inherently difficult or time-consuming about these tasks. They're just a pain to do. Which is really the only reason that we hadn't done them before.

The stairs, all taped and ready for sealer:


Detail on the taping we had to do to protect the wall, facilitated by tiny gaps between the edge of the concrete treads and the wall.


The stairs now have a slight sheen on them, and we're glad to have them sealed. Now we can stop worrying about long-term dirt problems on them. But you still can't wear shoes in our house.


Our fridge saga -- our current fridge was the third one purchased -- left us with a weird patch of unsealed concrete floor right in front of the fridge, which happens to be the spot where we most often spill stuff. Dur. It is now sealed. The baseboard on the left side of the photo was also a lingering patch job from the fridge saga; it's now sanded, caulked, painted, and looking pretty again.


Tai has been working on our sprinkler system this week all by himself. Launching pipes into the street by turning on the water cut-off all by himself. Exploding muddy, capped lines onto his face all by himself. It's been an exciting week. We'll keep you posted.

Rain, rain, go away

If you're in Salt Lake this spring, you know that we've had one storm after another, including a string last week and resulted in snow on rooftops for four mornings in a row. Aside from the immediate depression of mid-spring snowfall, the wet weather has extinguished our ideas for quick and speedy landscaping.

But there was a four-hour window without rain or snow of any kind last week, so we invited a sprinkler trencher over to do a little digging in anticipation of, someday, installing an irrigation system:



We were a little puzzled at how he interpreted our sprinkler plan in some spots, but I suppose the solution for criticism in this case is a shovel.


The trenches are about 6 to 8 inches deep. Among the treasures uncovered by the trencher were numerous roots from the trash trees we removed a year ago, an electrical conduit buried too shallow (we will be paying some money to get it repaired, since the trencher tore through it), and chunks of cement ranging in size from an orange to a cantaloupe.


One rainy morning last week the sprinklers were delivered. The pipes are sitting on a patio until work begins (maybe tonight?). Also sitting on our patio? These guys:


We didn't want to risk their health and future happiness by putting them in the ground and directly in the path of the trencher. Good choice, as it turns out. And this is what happens to your shoes if you still try to get yard work done after three weeks steady of storms:


So here's hoping for a little luck with the yard work this week:

The first tree of spring

Behold:


A sign of progress. Thanks to friend Shannon for the very thoughtful and beautiful weeping snow fountain cherry tree, which has found a happy home in our front yard.

The latest punch list

We love our house. Not a day goes by without us thinking about the morning light in our living room, the functionality of the garage, the ideal entertaining space that is our living-dining-kitchen space, our great exterior design, the tranquility of our bedroom...we love it.

That said, it's not perfect. During the design and building process, I guess I imagined that once we moved in the house-building fairy would appear and magically make everything complete and perfect with a wave of her sparkly wand. She hasn't shown up yet, so in the meantime, this is what we're thinking about completing or improving in the next little while:

• landscaping
• house numbers
• fence with neighbors to the south
• cabinet and storage configuration in laundry nook
• office configuration

You've read about our landscape plans. It looks like we're tentatively planning on mimicking this design for the fence:


Tai's been drawing up plans to make it two-sided and to take into account the fall in elevation between the east side and west side of our south property line. I'm really excited, though -- I think it's going to look great.

When we first moved in, a fence was in a top-tier priority, but in recent weeks it had slipped a bit. It bumped back up when the neighbors expressed interest in a fence, which means that we're going to be putting off some other optional upgrades in order to work with the neighbors. A couple of things that are slipping are window coverings, more plants for the yard, a speedier timeline for the landscaping, and office furnishings.

This is what our office looks like at the moment:



Lovely, huh? The un-interesting story for this room is that we thought we had a design we liked for a built-in desktop and shelving, then we decided we didn't. We also decided against doing anything from Ikea in this room -- our kitchen is Ikea by choice, our bookcases upstairs are Ikea by necessity, our wardrobes and bathrooms cabinets are Ikea by expediency, and we just don't want any more Ikea. Back to square one.

One of the smaller tasks we face is the positioning and installation of our permanent house numbers. In order to get our occupancy permit this fall, Tai spray pained some stencil numbers and tacked them up to our front post. After touring a Geoff Tice remodel, Tai spotted this line of numbers and found out they're offered at a very reasonable price at Lowe's:


So the 1, 3, 4, and 2 have been sitting on our kitchen counter for a week or so awaiting installation on our exterior concrete wall. Tai even make a trek to Harbor Freight for a hammer-action drill to tackle the concrete. Current thinking about placement puts them horizontally, off center (to the left), just below the canopy frame.


The last thing I wanted to share is that we are highly amused by the slow drive-bys. Watching the parade of gawkers outside our front windows has become a weekend past time -- keep 'em coming!