Today we finished all the baseboard in the back room and back bathroom. It’s a smaller size than will be used in the main house.
Final coat of polyurethane (with a hint of grey antiquing stain in it) on the floors and hopefully we can get back in there on Monday afternoon.
Finished the courtyard back fence and some details in the bathroom like towel rods and toilet paper holder.
Mostly I am panicking because an agent is bringing buyers through on Monday and so we loaded more trash (where does it all come from??) overflowing the truck and off to the dump. Then massive cleanup of courtyard and side yard. Another load of stuff going back to my storage garage. Also, I bought a bunch of small succulents and ground cover and we put that in today. How is it you can come back from nursery with $120 worth of plants and they don’t even make a dent in the emptiness?? We need something really tall out front to put a damper on all that white
your courtyard fence looks great. I get what you’re saying about buying plants - they dont go far when you get them home! Do you use mulch in your area?
Here you go jym. It’s looking great! I want to move right in…just need a spare million to afford the house and another for the expense of living in San Diego.
The plans for landscape are to mulch in the whole side yard (where Plumeria and old laundry sink are). Use the old laundry sink as a planter with something in it for now. The reason I’m going to mulch the side yard is because buyers have different ideas what they want to do with their garden space… vegetable garden, citrus trees, rose garden, whatever.
Need to landscape the front entirely but there is an issue that there are no sprinklers in that area. It would be too expensive to put in an irrigation system now. So, we are going with the new California drought tolerant landscape and I’m going to run two soaker hoses through that area connected to the hose bib on a little timer.
I have put in a lot of little Sedum ground cover there that needs to flush out and a lot more succulents. Have rosemary bushes also. Now, I need height and I will have to go find a couple of trees to break up the front. After that we are going to mulch the street curb strip and I will probably plant a lot of kangaroo paws in the strip in front of the retaining wall. More $$$
I loaded some more photos. I took a photo of a neighbor’s drought tolerant landscape and some trees that I am trying to identify. I want the same trees in the front of my project.
So, back to the house numbers…will you put them where they were before (on the green accent siding), or is there a way to mount them just under the light that is below that, on the white stucco? Then they are lit up at night. Placed centered under the light at an angle parallel to the last section of railing section that is nearest to the front door?
The light on the white stucco is a motion sensor light only (California energy requirements), so the numbers would only be lit up if the motion detector is on. I’m not sure if there is a building code about where to place numbers, but I think they have to be near lighting. I would love to put them down there to break up some of the white
I notice that you have some andirons in the fireplace. If they happen to be brass, I know a great and easy way to polish the most blackened brass, given to me by a Coast Guard guy in a hardware store years ago. It is the way they polish the brass fittings on ships:
Soak brass items in a solution of powdered Koolaid made with half the water. (The flavor doesn’t matter. ) Best to use some kind of plastic container. It seems to work faster if the water is hot/warm. It’s okay if you can’t submerge the entire item at once.
When most of the tarnish is gone, rinse the pieces off, and finish polishing the items using Never Dull wadding. It comes in a blue can.
I recently used this method to polish my own blackened andirons, as well as all of the hundred year old deeply incised door knobs, key hole plates, and rosettes on the first floor of my house.
Skimmed the updates… are you still looking for trees? I’m thinking they could be olive trees. We’re also coastal SD and see them going in both residential and commercial sites (have you been to Herringbone?).
Nooooo…not olive trees. At least, not unless you’re absolutely certain that they can’t fruit. I spent a LOT of hours picking up olives, and the ones mushed into the sidewalk made a mess.
Bougainvillea would be (eventually) pretty against that white wall, but I do not know how much water it requires. An espaliered tree would also be pretty.
apologies but can you supply it again. Thanks . This is such a big project!!