Home Improvement Improvement

Our Argenta Craftsman Home has a critical need for major improvements. Major improvements mean major commitments and major money. We are still a little short on the money thing, but I won't let that keep me from building plans. I keep learning and my ideas get clearer and that makes the price tag drop and cost efficiency rise. Becky and I regularly watch shows on HGTV about home improvements gone horribly awry and home improvements that are dreams come true. As the time goes by and the anticipation builds, our dreams grow together, and grow more sound.
I have had ideas about how to put ideas on paper that will communicate and resonate with Becky. Her background is in nursing and major renovation is impossible to her. I, on the other hand, have worked on house renovation projects that were enormous and went on for more than a year. So, I refuse to let a little thing like a present lack of funds force me to think contrary to my hearts desire. It is hard work just to discover what the heart desires.
I edited a picture of part of our property as an experiment in drawing up simple and direct plans. I refuse to just go to the home improvement store and start buying without a clear-cut plan. With this particular photo I hope to draw in a future hedge. This will give us a clear idea of the type of hedge we should install and the definite quantity based on the spacing requirements of the plants. My attention is focused on the creation and use of systematic written plans for home improvement in this blog, even though this is a gardening project. I will track the gardening work of planting a hedge row in my Argenta Gardener blog, http://bnbsgarden.blogspot.com/ This blog starts out more concerned with raising plans and finances for major renovation to the house. With the plans and financing secured, then construction begins to come into the picture.
Perhaps I should seize upon this project of the hedgerow to develop a workable, real-time, planning template. This template would be the framework to organize all the information being gathered in connection with the project. The planning template must lead in the direction of eventual hard and fast decisions, like what specific shrubs do we use, how far does the line extend, how many shrubs do we purchase, how much are we willing to spend, and endlessly on.
There must be transactions and budgets and records. Everybody has these things. Whether people wisely observe them is another thing altogether. This project will be followed in this blog and will be concerned with the elements of the undertaking which lead up to and include the transactions. The gardening part I will endeavor to cover in The Argenta Gardener blog. I will link the planning documents with a photo summary in this blog when the project is all said and done. That's my plan.
So, my goal, my finish line, is the final photo summary of the finished project. The date I set for completing this project is...JUNE 21st.
Here is the first official document of: WEST FRONT PROPERTY LINE HEDGE

Becky and I plan to put a hedge of Youpan Holly bushes along the property line to the right, centered between the open gate and the corner of the fence. The planting line will extend to this side of the tree, maybe as far as the side walk which is just behind and to the right of the camera position. I'm going to take a print of this picture and a measuring tape and mark where each shrub will go. That will give us a quantity and a basis for cost estimates. We can take the drawing to experts to find the exact right kind of shrub to plant for our wants. It's an empty lot next door for right now. This hedge is in anticipation of a house being built there in the future. The top of the brick on our house to the left is about twelve feet, so we are thinking of a hedge that will grow about that high to suffice. Here is where consults with various experts will pay. But this is talk. The next act is to draw up the plan and create the frame work for finance that we can carry to shop.

Ideas From New Orleans

We Went to New Orleans a couple of weeks back. I found new inspiration for our house. One element is the ivy covered walls. Ivy- covered walls are common there, in case you haven't been there, yet.

This wall is an outstanding example of an ivy covered wall.









This picture is a wall around a home in the Garden District near Sandra Bullocks home and the house from 'Benjamin Button'. I'm not exactly sure what kind of ivy this is, or if it will grow in Argenta. You can see it is about 9" thick. It is not stuck hard to the wall like crested or English ivy.

This is the ivy on our house. The neighborhood architects tell me it is destructive. Becky tells me it stays. I just have to stay on top of pruning. It doesn't take much work. The year I was off my feet it got way up. It took some doing to wrangle it back into submission. Becky planted it about three years ago. It is growing on me.

Photo Survey

Brody and I did a photo survey of the grounds the other day. This post could be included in my Argenta Gardener blog. I intend to have 6 yards of screenings dumped beside that tree. I will use the screenings as the foundation for walks. I will excavate the soil out of the site and fill in with the screenings. I will go into the details of the project on my gardening blog. In this blog my focus on the project is as a capital improvement to the property and not so much of a gardening project. Six yards of screenings will cost me $131 delivered. This photo is the car park area. The plan is to excavate the strips of bare dirt and fill with 6" of the screening gravel. A 3' wide walkway will be constructed from the brick apron under the gate, yonder, to come around the corner and connect to the front walk. This will link the front walk to the car so that we can get to and from the car on a real walkway. Also the walk from the gate will accommodate the rolling trash can. It is important to get all of this engineered with proper grades that allow for good drainage of the affected areas. Then the yard will be constructed around this foundation. I will use a 6" fill with the view to taking off the top 2" next year and laying down some kind of pavers. The pavers will have a very firm foundation and I can reuse the extra material somewhere else.

Grand Opening of the Argenta Market

The Argenta Market opened today. The bottom picture shows the Mayor, Jody, Shane and other dignitaries. The ribbon cutting scissors are at the left side of Mayor Hays. (The red handle). They are listening to someone speak just prior to the mayor's remarks and the ribbon cutting. The top photo is the front door and the check out counter. There was a large crowd gathered for the event and the local media was well represented. Not only do we have the closest house to a trolley stop, we now are the closest house to the grocery store. I hope the market thrives. Traditionally stores like this were mom and pop operations. This one is a conglomerate with no owners on sight. Momma won't be at the cash register. They have done a great job with this operation.

West gate underlayment- both sides now

$ 11.24 is what I spent on this project. That was for the sand to grout the joints of the brick. This landing greatly improves the experience of passing through this gate, particularly when putting out the trash and bringing the empty trash containers back. This project is both a Gardener and a Craftsman project. I charged the sand off to the Gardener account. I hope that my construction techniques endure for decades.

Project finance review

This is all the refuse I had out for Wednesday pick up. All the old paint cans are out of the house. Now it is time to clean out the storage unit. I put my monthly rent check in the mail today. It is $ 83.85 every month. We have a few boxes of records and some of our Christmas decorations in it but other than that it is full of junk. I desire to empty it out and apply that money to improvement projects on this house. I could get a great return on that money. This much of the "Goodbye old paint" project cost about $9.00 in kitty litter. I have about a quarter of a bag left over. I have spent and done the following: $ 11.24 for sand to grout the brick underlayment at the west gate 59.96 for parts for top notch dryer duct system 9.01 for kitty litter to congeal paint in cans = $80.21 total $80.21 is not enough to pay someone to do any of these vital jobs. I doubt I could find anyone to do things like this, anyway. I would still have $3.64 to roll over to next month, if I were using the mini storage rent payments of $83.85 for my revenue stream. Next month I would have $87.49 for Argenta Craftsman improvements. I gotta get that done.

Good bye old paint

This is the last bit of old paint cans that came with the house. It was in the basement and I stashed it in the crawl space under the house to make room in the basement for our stuff when we moved in. I decided to advance another step to getting rid of these old paint cans when I was under the house replacing the dryer duct. The city will pick up the stuff if you pull off the tops and stabilize the paint material with an absorbent like kitty litter. The pick up day is Wednesday. This being Wednesday and having the need to get rid of some ivy we had pruned, I hastened to prepare and put out the stuff for pick up. You can tell by the pictures that I put a light above where I was working so I could see. It is a small halogen work lamp. Then I dumped the kitty litter into a bin for ease of access. Next I sorted the containers and opened them up. I poured off the fuller cans into the empty cans to even them up. It averaged out that all the cans were about half full. Then I scooped in a generous amount of litter into each can and stirred to blend. I had to add more litter into the cans until the contents were solid. When I was satisfied I had a done good jobbie I took them out to the street. I was happy to finally have this mess cleared out. All the old paint cans in the house are gone and legally disposed of. It is something worth celebrating!