by. the. way.

my new dahlias i'm in love with my projects. love. well, perhaps it is more like infatuation. i suppose that i've replaced a personal life with a house project life :) i decided today at work that the only need for a man in my life is perhaps a lawn guy to cut the grass that is finally growing! i'm supposed to be grouting right now but after a not fantastic start to my work week i'm nursing a headache and watching bull durham (love). i recognize that i should not become to attached to my patients, but when you see some of the same ones 4-5 times within a 9 month span it is difficult to not become attached.                    luscious pink mandevilla i have these amazing 1950s slat windows in the bathrooms of my place and lately have noticed little creepy, crawly things like to enter through them. unacceptable. replacing those windows just jumped to the head of the "to-do" line. window world here i come :) of note, parents comin...

laundry project is going well. last week i prepped the floor with primer in preparation for the self-leveling concrete. other than some annoying lumps of concrete that would not mix into the proper consistency it was pretty easy to do. i did end up with one area that wasn't entirely smooth with regard to the transition, but my dad said it is absolutely good enough to tile on. sweet. photos below of self-leveling work....  not a fantastic picture quality, but you get the idea. self leveling compound while it dried marked middle of room with chalk lines starting to lay out tile pattern. decided to stagger them... excited!  first three rows after thinset applied me! excited to tile... learning how to use the trowel all tiled and ready for grout in a few days my dad did all of the tile cuts with the wet saw and i was in charge of the thinset process and spacer placement. we were quite the team.   ----------------------- meanwhile, my mom ...

house. house. house. i bought my first house. a house with a yard (errr, area of dirt, sand, and sandspurs lol) and project opportunities galore. love it. parents visited and we uncovered what appears to be the ormond beach version of the garden of eden -- i say this due to the plethora of beetles, roaches, snakes, flies, and other creatures inhabiting the six inches of leaves in the yard (front and back). i'm hopeful the yard can grow some grass to fill in the gaps, as it has produced some although sparse. after raking, the second project was tackling some gnarly, vine-choked former shrubs that occupied the entire south portion of my property. (see below the "before" photo)  a little clearing done in this second one, but still frightening....  serious clearing performed! leaving the cute palms that were hidden underneath the vines  two of these piles... one on the east and one on the west part of my yard... 40 bags total we did some serious w...