a home of one's own

Today - ZEC Inc. broke ground on 4306 S Constitution - the site of our future home.

a neighbor stopped the car one day when we were toiling in the yard keeping things spruced up and said: "your yard looks like a fairy wonderland". the ultimate compliment.

and a journey that began here (which isn't too bad if you don't look too closely):


august 2005

is now here:


july 2008

and i am pretty proud of it actually.

ps - the tree in the corner is a red bud, planted last summer.

it began like this:



august 2005

a year later and after a lot of struggle, some hired help brought it to this:



august 2006

another year later, it looked like this with a horticulture student's inept and misguided efforts:



june 2007

last month:


june 2008

and now:



july 2008

in the post titled "fencing for privacy", there is a photo of the backyard in may 07. Well, this year things have lighted up a litte more because the power company got rid of the chinese walnut in the corner (on the outside of the fence, on the burm), not to mention the aforementioned pine which is also now missing. well, for the most part anyway.

july 2008
this again is a work in progress as you can see from the scraggly grass. i am having that area paved with patio stones (i.e., another patio extension). the grass got that way thanks again largely to the pine and its acidic needles which have been everywhere through all seasons as long as i have lived in this house. now, it's a different story though.

so for comparison here is before:


an overgrown bit of woodland right in my backyard, august 2005
the patio stone cost about $.18 per pound and has a nice reddish tone (most likely called blue rose but don't quote me on it) bought it at guthrie stone, a local place that delivered for $95. Altogether, stone alone cost $350+$95. labor was extra. had a couple of former students work on it at $30/hr each. Both on the fresh sod ($27) and the patio. They took about 5 hours on the first day and 6 hours on the second to bring it up to this point. what a total turn around. but you need big strong boys to do that kind of thing in two days. that's for sure. labor for the backyard - cleanup, compost, sod and patio was $400 even. i am almost at a $2000 mark for this summer and have decided to stop.

it took me a year (actually a tad bit longer than that) to return with an update on the garden make-over. But it's a work in progress and far from being done. Did I mention earlier that in August 07 I got married? So now there is two to toil over the beautification project.
***
ahem, a quick aside - watching C mow the lawn, I realized that I did not know the first thing about mowing and had done a horrible job up until he took over. what can i say? i was born and raised in a system where grass was not a priority - not unless you were the hired help to care for it. but that is neither here nor there...
***
so... back to the garden. the last update was the backyard. work still is on-going and here's what i did (read: had done) this summer. and what a difference it makes. first, the big ol ponderosa pine is no more. on one hand, i say thank god, on another i do think it's a pity. if only it was a less messy tree. but it took $800 to get out of my hair. now i have additional living space. the (tiny) backyard that was unusable before (thanks to the pine) is now the venue for every evening meal. how can that be a bad thing? the pine tree does not seem to have provided a lot of shade to the house because the a/c unit is going at it's old pace and does not seem to be taxed any more than usual. so i need not have worried on that account at all. sure the tree was big and tall but, in retrospect, entirely useless.
so this is what the yard looks like post-tree removal. the stump, btw, is still there - may be as a memento or rather to avoid the extra hassle of having to call a fence guy again to fill in the gap. either way. a token remains of its majestic, useless presence:

a mighty stump

Also noteworthy are the following before-and-after shots:


after - july 2008


before - july 2007

and going even further back in time:


in the beginning - july 2005

the planter beds had become primordial by the time i took possession in august 05 with long years of neglect. i came to detest the "shrubbery" so much so that the sight of any shrubs now makes my skin crawl.


front of house, august 05
first step on the road to deliverance was getting it all out. i tried myself (with the help of a friend with more gardening know-how) and gave up. i was not strong enough for these bushes. in august 06, managed to find 'professional's to do that. and this is what the front beds looked like from then, all the way up to march 07.


front of house, august 06

coming next: photos from almost a year hence... as august 07 approaches, what the beds look like.

since the engagement in nov 06, much has happened, part of which has kept me away from this website. suffice it to say, with the upcoming wedding in august 07, and the number of expected guests staying at the house rising, i have put in a lot of time and work into sprucing the place up, with ample help from my fiance, c.

back tracking a little just to catch up with the progress of said work, let's start in february 07 when c decided to buy a gas grill with the home depot giftcards that he got for xmas. since then it has been a delight and i cannot imagine life without a grill in the mountain west summers any more. but with the purchase of the grill, initially, came the concern of being out in the tiny backyard with a half-fence on the northeastern side of the house that's right by a high-traffic road. so first step was to increase privacy so that we could actually be in the backyard, out of sight of prying eyes.

in march, quite unexpectedly, a student from the college's hortculture department approached me with an intent to use my yard for her final year project (i had put my name on the list of interested homeowners in the hope that someday some bright, hardworking student would alight from the skies and deliver me from my landscaping travails) so i put her to the task. at the time, i did not want to spend money on new fencing, so i asked her to be creative with the design and in an hgtv sort of way, think of a low-cost alternative. the usual discussion about arbovitaes ensued but i did not want to wait several years to watch those ugly plants grow into a screen. i pitched the idea of reed screens to her. she incorporated them into her design. i even went and bought three 6 by 15 feet pieces that we would install with rebar, but luckily, good sense kicked in soon after: one winter/spring is all it would take for the $130 investment to disintegrate in this weather. i began to make phone calls to fencing companies.

casey was the third guy to call and his bid came in the lowest but more importantly, he is the only one who showed interest and sounded polite, in a very old-fashioned way, on the phone. i gave him the job. he wanted 70% down before he began work and although unsettling, i could see why. he did not run away with the check. and now, i have a beautiful new fence that allows us to grill and have nice, quiet dinners on teh back patio whenever we want. $670 well-spent (fence length 44 ft.). i had budgeted $500 for the job but at the time, was not aware that removing old fence to install new one is more expensive in some ways, because you have to dig up the stakes and the concrete bases which you have to take to the landfill to dispose of at a fee (which in my particular case was $125!). had some special issues to deal with since my house is on a corner lot. had to call zoning dept to find out about something known as the 'clear vision triangle' regulation, which stipulates that a privacy fence cannot be more than 4 ft tall upto 40 ft from nearest intersection.


fence before
(the hideous arbovitae in the left corner is no more (photo: august 05)


fence after
(photo taken on 25 may 07 when we inaugurated the 5-piece patio set, bought for $79 from homedepot)
the new fence got a fresh coat of stain. the previous owner had left me 3 cans of stain (true cedar, oilbased, 'woodtech') and a sprayer which c put to good use. he is no expert in homeownership either but at least i didnot have to lug the heavy sprayer around with me and get oily stain all over my hands and clothes. we ran out of stain and to finish the south side of the house, had to buy one extra can from home depot. it sucked. it progressively thickened on us and sprayed unevenly through out, finally running out before we had covered one third the length of the back fence. never again. if we re-stain, we will leave no stone unturned to find woodtech brand - it went on like a charm.

it took two young adults 10 hours to clean out just the planter beds in my tiny 0.13 acre lot @ 28/hr. but at least we can now start re-planting with a clean slate. but before moving on to that, had a hard time getting landscapers to accept the job at all. seems that in this valley of semi-literate people opting to battle nature for a living or, failing that, go work for walmart, landscaping - at least in the summer - is a good career in great demand.

work quality is shoddy at best. service fees are arbitrary. but it is hot outside right now and it is strenuous work that i refuse to do myself so i guess i should not be complaining too loudly. except to add that i was substantially taxed by this whole experience.

at the same time, nature is carrying on its own rebellion. weeds are back in the beds already and it hasn't even 2 weeks yet. plus, i haven't even watered the beds lately. if it was only this hard to kill real plants!

next i need help with getting the grass back - which i will do in spring-summer 2007. i can only budget for landscaping this year.

not a bad idea if as homeowner you are typically spending 100 -150 USD almost every month on various repairs and contingencies. and insurance is no insurance at all for normal wear and maintenance issues. over the last year, i spent $90+$135 on two bathrooms and $125 on a/c fix. Altogether almost as much as the annual cost of home warranty ($370 - $380) [minus] the peace of mind.

so, i looked for home warranty plans on the internet. found three. requested quotes online. got follow up phone calls immediately after offering 5 - 15% discount on quote with phone sign-up and one time payment for the year. co-pay is $45 (one company adjusted the co-pay as well from $60 to $45) but can be $0 at an additional $100 per year. i declined that offer cuz i wanted to see how many times i actually use these services.

look for limited roof leak coverage and for sure get a plan that includes central air conditioning.

just in case i need to use the services, i'll of course post a follow-up on the experience.

the a/c has been acting up this week. it is true that we are enduring 100 degree heat on most afternoons but still a ten degree difference between thermostat setting and actual interior temperature caused me to make an appointment today for a diagnostic intervention. called a number of companies. someone will be over on thursday at a minimal charge of $59.99. All repairs etc are of course additional to this. If it is only a tune-up that is required, then total would come to $99.99. Adding freeon or refridgerant is all additional and on a per pound basis.

went to a neighborhood bbq on jun 17. took home-made walnut brownies and ice cream. almost everyone came, including girls next door - my sworn enemies. had a good time despite fearing the worst. there was good food - burgers and hot dogs on the grill. we took turns at a party game with beenie bags which was quite fun.

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