Modified Greenhouse

The weather sure skipped over the Fall niceness, and went to sever cold a few weeks back. The weather continues to be hot / cold and it is messing with people's health and the plants just don't know what they should be doing.

When we left the old house, I took a lot of plants with me. I divided the lirope and daylilies to use in the new yard. I also took all of the iris Nana gave me.

During this time of living at Mom's place, I have acquired more plants. My co-worker is an extraordinary green-thumb and gives me all kinds of unique plants that only real gardiners have!

Dwarf Lamb's Ear

She introduces me to so many. One of those being a shade-loving Soloman's Seal. Such a cool name and plant.

Soloman's Seal

When her yard gets over-crowded, she divides them and shares them. I'm just one of the lucky recipients.

I didn't want to plant all of these in the ground and later have to move them, but they needed protection from the cold. I thought of using the garage, but it's a one car garage and the driveway only holds two cars, so we need the garage space.

I looked into buying a greenhouse, then making a green house, until I came to my final idea. The boys have a playhouse that they won't be using when it is cold. I can board up the windows and put all the plants in there.

In the treehouse, we put two plant stands we already owned to take advantage of vertical space.

I used visqueen as the plastic barrier to cover the windows. Two of the windows have shutters, but the others did not. I also made a flap for the door.

There is even a skylight in the playhouse to let light in.

So far, this has been a huge help for keeping the plants from burning in the frost. Some of my plants had new growth (from the crazy weather) and I didn't want them to be harmed.

The only downside is it's a pain to water. But this past weekend, I cut all the dead foliage off the plants and it's easier to water. I don't have to water often either.

I'm proud of my greenhouse. I didn't want it to be an eye-sore or have anything take up room in our small yard. This worked out great. Best part, I have plants ready to go in the new yard! Just have to pay for sod and trees! Not bad at all.

And while I was converting the playhouse, Mom was using the contraption Dad created to blow the leaves out of the gutters. She has woods behind her house and the leaves are abundant. Dad created this extension for the leaf blower so that we could easily clean out the gutters and not use a ladder. Thanks, Dad!

Captain America

For Halloween, the boys dressed as Captain America. It was an easy find at Costco, and it was the only character I could find in a size 3T. I ended up liking that they were the same character, because I think we would have had fights if they were different.

We used those costumes for weeks. The first time to wear them was at our Sunday School Family Costume Party. Mr. Brigglesworth did not want to wear his.

Since it was a family costume party, parents were encouraged to dress up and possible match the entire family. I made our's easy. I bought t-shirts and puffy painted them.

Little JCrew was gifted a Captain America action figure, so I used it as my guide. Then I realized we didn't really match the boys' costumes. We were Captain America's parents!

I put an apron with mine and I wore my costume to work on Thursday for our costume party.

On Wednesday, Little JCrew wore his again to choir. He stayed in character and called everyone by their costume name. Georgia was "Sophia" the entire night.

For actual Halloween, we dressed up and went to Panera Bread for dinner and Publix for games. The boys loved it.

It was REALY cold last night, and since there is a lot of construction going on around the townhouse, not very many of the neighbors had their porch lights on. But we went to one house of my co-worker, MAJ Gillespie. The boys loved it.

We've had a great time dressing up. I'm sure we'll continue wearing them at home.

New House Lighting

I shared the lighting I have already bought. I thought that was a lot already, as it is taking up space in the storage unit, but there is still so much more!!

I have at least picked them out with one or two that are not definitely, but placeholders.

1.        Home Depot - $50
2.       Home Depot - $50
3.       Shades of Light - $170
4.       Home Depot - $65
5.       Shades of Light - $299
6.       Home Depot - $104
7.       Lowes - $50
8.       Lowes - $63
9.       Lowes - $60
10.   LampPlus - $90
11.   Lowes  - $16
12.   Home Depot – 6pack - $65
13.   Home Depot - $21
14.   Lowes - $360
15.   Home Depot - $30
16.   Lowes - $45

The totals I put at the bottom of the pictures are the amount I need to purchase multiplied by the unit price. Even though I tried to keep the majority of lights at $50 each, it adds up!

I am excited about the placement of all of them. I wanted to add a fancy light to Mom’s and my closets, so I chose a semi-flushmount.

I could have gone fancier, but I’m on a budget and think these will be perfect. I actually already purchased these. They were on sale for 50% off and now they are back to their regular price. The regular price isn't bad, but a sale is always better.

The bathroom chandelier is similar to the one we had in the old house. Remember when I took it out of the kitchen, painted it white, and re-hung it in the bathroom? That was my favorite project. It’s hard to find a simple white chandelier, so I will be painting the new one white. I loved how it turned out the first time, so why not repeat it?

The dining room chandelier is my splurge. I love it. It’s not too fancy, yet makes an impact. I wasn’t too fond of my last dining room chandelier, that I covered it up with a shade my dad and I made out of paint stir-sticks. I highly doubt this chandelier will ever get covered up.

The semi-flush I chose for the pantry is popular. I saw it and picked it out, and now I see it everywhere! (Fixer Upper on HGTV had it!) I plan to use it as a foyer kind of light in front of the doors that lead to the back yard and in front of the doorway to my mom’s living room. It’s a great way to bring focus to a certain spot.

I actually already bought these flush-mounts as well. I never got them on sale, but the stock supply was low in town. I got two at one store and then a month later picked up two at another store. Now, there are none with no plan to restock them. I really want one or two more, but I am still happy with the ones that I have.

I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at lights with me. Now to keep myself out of the lighting department and wait until we have a construction loan to help pay for this.

Transplanting Existing Plants to a New Yard

With the building of a new house, we are trying to save money in every corner possible. Of course, we are not trying to cut corners structurally, but there are some things that we can take with us to save on cost. Appliances are where we are saving the most money. Our kitchen appliances and washer and dryer are all coming with us. They are five years old and we love them.

When I moved to Alabama, my parents brought some plants from the home I grew up in in Florida. And some of those plants came from my grandparents' homes in Mississippi. One of those plants was the Cast Iron Plant. My mom calls it Ironwood.

We had it outside the dining room in Florida, and I had it outside my dining room in the last house.

It was the green in between my purple loropetalum. I took the clump at the back of the grouping because it would be less noticeable. They don't like the cold, so this winter killed them down to the ground, but they came back! I just cut down the freezer burned leaves and it shot up new growth.

The other plant that came from Mississippi / Florida, is my Border Grass. It was outside the Master Bedroom.

In the winter, it dies to the ground (in Alabama, not Florida). If you trim the old leaves off, it will send up new growth faster. Keeping the old leaves attached, only makes it harder and longer to come back, but it does.

This plant is easy to make babies from. It shoots off babies everywhere. It's how it fills in gaps so easily. I just dug up the babies that were spreading beyond where I wanted them and potted them.

These babies don't really die after being transplanted. They thrive! However, I think it does help that they are in pots. When I thinned out my border grass two years ago and placed them in another area, they acted hurt and didn't look great the first year. But after the winter, they came back great!

Having them in pots, will encourage them to thicken up in the pot and I will have nice full plants by the time I have a yard to put them in.

The daylilies were another plant I made smaller plants with.

You couldn't even tell I took some.

The daylilies have already started shooting up new leaves where I removed some just two weeks ago. These plants do like to be thinned out and improve the health. Overcrowding can become damaging to the plants.

We were able to make 25 daylilies out of the clumps I dug up!

However, it can be easy to become discouraged. When I transplanted my iris's years ago, I cut them down to 5-6 inch leaves so that the plant can focus on new roots and spend less energy on the long leaves. I dug up all my iris's to take to the new house and did the same cutting technique.

I used the same cutting technique on the daylilies. I didn't capture pictures of them right after they were potted, but they were green! And then they turned brown, quickly.

I didn't cut them at first, but after they turned brown, I started to remove the dead leaves and cut them down just a little. They were starting to look bad.

I cut them down three times, before I was as low as I wanted to go. Sure enough, new green leaves started sprouting up!

They aren't large now, but they will fill those containers up by the time they go dormant for Winter.

It's just enough to keep me encouraged.

They are growing at different rates, but they can all count as having new growth. That's 25 new daylilies for free! When they can be bought at a store for no less than $3.99, I just saved $100! And yes, I do plan to use them all in the new yard. They will be everywhere!

Cast Iron Plants and Iris's aren't cheap. You pay more for very little. However, they expand and fill in over time. Border Grass can be cheap, but dividing my own probably saved me $100 as well.

If you've got the time and space, I would definitely encourage you to use your own plants to make more before buying from a store. I was able to fill in gaps at the old house this way, and now I am going to be able to fill my new yard with transplants! The only thing we'll have to buy are sod, trees and some foundation shrubs. I'm really excited!

And I've already acquired some new plants from old friends thinning out their yards. And the neighborhood I live in is holding a perennial swap in September, and hopefully I can acquire some new-to-me plants.

"To Plant A Garden Is To Have Hope In Tomorrow" - Audrey Hepburn

Sale!

Mr. JCrew and I are Financial Peace University (FPU) graduates. One quote (of many) that I repeat from Dave Ramsey is, “Sell so much stuff, the kids think they are next!” This quote is in reference to selling what you don’t need in order to generate cash to pay off debts. We don’t have debt to pay off, but Mr. JCrew is eyeing everything that will be going into storage.

Since we will crash with my mom while a tenant is renting our place, we will have to put our things in storage. The first thing I sold was Little JCrew’s twin bed storage system. Once I knew that our buyer wouldn’t need/want it, I decided to list it. It went to a lady at church with teen girls. She is redoing their room, and the girls were so excited. I can’t wait to see pictures!

Next thing to go was the dining room table, TV wall-mount and the fridge. Those things are all staying with the house. The new owner bought them from us. The dining room table is the perfect size for the room. The TV wall-mount would be a pain to take down when the buyer would install his own, because he wanted his TV to be mounted over the fireplace too. His TV is 55” (ours is 52”) so, the wall-mount would work.

Most things I sold, I used an Online YardSale Facebook Page for my city. My county actually has quite a few Facebook Pages to sell things. There is a page for just kid things. That is a favorite of mine. It is similar to the consignment sales that occur twice a year, but you don’t have to wait for the sales to find things. I have pretty good luck with selling things. For some reason, I feel safer on Facebook than Craigslist. But when something doesn’t sell on Facebook, I then list it on Craigslist.

The next thing I sold were the white bookcases in the bonus room. I sold those for a third of the price I bought them for.

The couches in the Bonus Room were also put on the chopping block. A friend of ours was looking for new couches for their living room, so they wanted them. All they had to do was find a truck and come pick them up!

I tried to sell the PotteryBarn Kids rug. That was harder. I thought I could recoup the money I spent. It was a $565 rug that I got for $100 from a neighbor. I wasn’t so lucky. It is now in storage and we will use it in the new house.

The guest bedroom bed was sold using Craigslist. I tried to donate to a maternity house in town. It just so happened I was introduced to them that week and I felt a tug to give them the bed. When I called, they gave me a list of their needs, and a full-size bed was not one of them.

Mr. Jcrew had eyes on selling everything! He looked at the porch furniture and asked. I said, “No, I like those!” There are some things I know I like and could not find again if I tried. Those things are staying. I might could find them again, but not at the price that I scored them at. Mr. JCrew just doesn’t want to pay storage for everything.

Selling a house is a great time to do Spring cleaning. I have donated, thrown away and sold so many things! Mr. JCrew was nervous we wouldn’t fit everything in storage. Little does he remember, he is working with two ladies that know how to pack! It thrills us. It uses a part of your brain that gets you thinking outside the box.

Of course, I can’t sell everything; we wouldn’t have furniture to sit on if I did. But it is a great feeling to start living as a minimalist.

Appliance Moving

Alright (in the words of Mr. Brigglesworth)...

I have a house update. I wish it was exciting news, but it's not. I have come to the realization that our housing market is not so hot right now. To all my fellow in-town friends, now is not the time to sell... but it is the time to buy!

Remember when I said pricing our house was the hardest part we were still unsure of? Well, it was our only pitfall. We have had no showings. We've received advise from realtors and they say the only thing wrong is our price. I was so nervous to sell it low, and then to wonder if we sold it too cheaply. But that won't be the issue. We are competing with new construction and they are able to build cheaper than our builder could build back in 2008. The kicker... all that was considered fancy upgrades to us, is now a standard!

So, we've reduced our price to what we bought it for (no upgrades). And because we are doing that, I am looking at everything in my house that I could take with me to a new one. Even those plantation shutters!

I removed my fancy light switch that I love. I don't think the new buyer will appreciate it as much as I do.

And my gas stove was the first thing to be removed. When my mom and dad built their house, I paid for their upgrade to a gas stove. Once they closed on the house, we switched appliances. I got the gas, she got the electric.

I really enjoyed the gas stove and wanted to keep it. So, we switched them back to the original owners this past Sunday.

Mr. JCrew's dad came to help.

I needed to remove the gas stove before potential buyers thought it was what they were getting. Switching electric and gas means having to cut off the gas to the house and capping it off when not using it.

The electric stove helps draws your attention away from the fact there is no backsplash.

It now kind of feels like a new appliance to me.

Once we build, we will transfer the gas stove that is now in Mom's house to the new house and will buy an electric range to put into her house before selling it.

That's not the only appliance that will be replaced. We bought a nice dishwasher over the summer and sold our loud and small old one. We are also going to take the new dishwasher with us! I know it's starting to sound silly, but we can buy a new replacement dishwasher for $180. That's not even looking on craigslist or yard sale sites. The new dishwasher is only 6 months old, and I love it!

And if you look closely at the kitchen cabinets, you'll notice I already switched out the cabinet knobs to the original ones. They were never my style, and I wouldn't use them in a newer house, so I put them back on. It beats having to take them off and soak them to clean them had I used them the last five years. They look brand new and feel new to me!

So, at least some upgrades I did I can take with me. The upgrades I did won't get me any value in selling them, so I might as well. Helps with the costs in the new house as well.

Anything else I should take with me?