I hate yew

That was Thom's idea for today's blog title. Well, we finally started tackling a bit of real landscaping today. I finished taking out a bunch of things that I found out were called Salomon's Seal (aka pain in my ass) and then I planted some petunias, marigolds, and some impatiens. Thom mowed the lawn with our new $130 push reel mower (it did a nice job, we think, and it wasn't any harder to push than the big honking mower we had in Louisiana, he says).

Then we did the big work. We cut down and dug out two ewes in the front of our house. The first two weren't bad but then we tried to tackle the huge one on the corner. I had to finally give up for the day on that one. Right now, it just looks like a sad bonsai. Anyway, we replaced the two ewes with some hydrangea and we'll be excited for them to get bigger and bloom. I'm thinking about a peony out front too and we still have a nice rhododendron that we'll keep. It will all look really nice once we get the two junipers out too. We're tired, that's for sure! We are going to enjoy a good ol' Wisconsin meal now - brats, party potatoes, marinated cucumbers, and baked beans - with s'mores to finish it off! We have definitely earned this not-so-good-for-us dinner!

The last of the painting!

I finished painting the last two rooms today- the downstairs bathroom and Thom's "man village" upstairs (see before and after shots). I'm fairly happy with his room and the grey we picked but the bathroom is not really what I wanted. The color is nice but the walls are so bumpy from the add-on they did (this was originally a coat closet, we think) and my poor skim coating skills that it looks pretty bad. Anyway, I'm happy to have all wallpaper gone and all walls now painted. Hooray! Now, on to the big projects...

The battle of the maple tree

Well, I believe I may have won the battle of the maple tree. But they did not go without a fight. My poor fingers did not fare well in said battle and will probably not be gardening again for a few days at least. I was excited to use some of our economic stimulus money to buy some nice annuals and a couple hydrangeas to plant in the front, once we pull up the eyesore junipers. But, that will be another day...

It's not easy (or cheap) being green

We finally got our economic stimulus payment (the only time I will be grateful for our current president) - and decided that buying a lawn mower was well overdue. We had decided to buy a push reel mower since we don't have much of a lawn to speak of and we are trying to be as green as possible in all of our home purchases and updates. We had seen one at the local HD but they no longer carry them - Lowe's too - and they say they don't plan to order more. We look online and these things aren't not cheap. You can pretty much buy a basic mower for not much more. Ridiculous. So now we're trying to find one locally (probably what we should have done first) but it's not easy!

Wallpaper: Worthy Adversary... Susie: Stronger

Yes, that's right, wallpaper - take that!

I am happy to report that our entire house is now a 100% wallpaper free zone (WFZ). Thom's room was the last to do and we'll paint it a nice grey this week.

I have nothing but the best to say about Wallwik - it made taking down 1900 sq ft of wallpaper much easier - and much less toxic - than it could have been. Highly recommend for anyone interested.

Sionara, wallpaper.

Hooray! Last room of wallpaper to be destroyed today!

After several months of wallpaper scraping in our 1900 sq ft house, the final room of wallpaper will be taken down today. I am so happy to see it go and know that it will all be gone from our house - for-ev-ah!

We're also moving along on planning for our low-scale kitchen renovation. While we're pretty sure about the Ikea countertops and painting the kitchen cabinets, we're very torn about the flooring issue. While we really want cork plank flooring, it is a bit spendy ($700). When we look at short term alternatives, such as vinyl tile, it's really only a few hundred less ($300-$400), making us think we should wait and get what we want. I just don't know how much longer I, or the cat, can stand looking at that ugly 1970's harvest gold vinyl floor.

The other debate we've been having is about the ceiling. As I think I mentioned, when they renovated the kitchen in what can only be assumed the 1970s, they decided to put a drop ceiling in. For whatever reason, they smashed out the plaster when they did it. So we need a new ceiling. I think it would make the most sense to just put up some drywall (and it would be the cheapest) but then we'll need to think about what kind of lighting we want to replace the two fluorescent fixtures with. We're leaning toward some of the cool newer track lighting to give us some directable light and to save some money so we don't have to hire an electrician (I hope)...at least the people on HGTV didn't need to!

Plant Identification 101: Do you know what this is?

I admit it, I have little to scarce amounts of knowledge when it comes to gardening. I know you put things in the ground and you water them and they (sometimes) grow -- but that's about it. I'm able to identify dandelions and have been furiously pulling those but have come across this stuff and I don't have any idea what it is. It seems to be springing up all around the house and the ones that have gotten big, like in the photo above, are a pain in the tookus to pull out. What are they? And how do I get rid of them?