01/27/10: The Greenest House Is One Already Built
So our own house progess may be a little slow these days, but I just found out about an upcoming event that sounds really exciting! For anyone in the Atlanta area, this sounds like the place to be...
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The Decatur Old House Fair - March 6th
A day long seminar will feature a number of lectures about living in and restoring old houses. Some topics that will be covered:
- Historic Wood Window Restoration: Did you know that a properly restored historic wood window has higher e-value than most new windows on the market?
- National Register of Historic Places and Tax Incentives: The National Register of Historic Places is our country's inventory of the buildings, sites, and cultural landscapes that are historically significant.
- Researching Your Old House: Ever wanted to know when your house was built and by whom? Who lived in your house and how it has changed over the years?
- "Greening" Your Old House: The greenest house is the one already built. But, did you know that there is even more you can do to reduce your old home's carbon footprint?
- Design Solutions for Additions and New Construction in Historic Neighborhoods: Want to add space to your historic home but don't want it to look like an addition?
- How to Hire a Contractor: Interviewing and selecting a contractor is a daunting task and not having all the information can cost you many thousands of dollars.
- Maintenance Plans for Old Houses: Owning any house means maintenance. Owning a historic home means maintenance and preservation.
- Historic Landscapes for Old Houses: Historic landscapes tell us so much about lives and interests of previous generations. Each style of home and each time period has its own unique landscape associated with it.
Go to www.decaturoldhousefair.com for more information. Advance tickets are $10.
*****
Something I personally love - they emphasize historic window preservation so much that they have TWO seminar sessions about it! Go Decatur Old House Fair!
*****
A day long seminar will feature a number of lectures about living in and restoring old houses. Some topics that will be covered:
- Historic Wood Window Restoration: Did you know that a properly restored historic wood window has higher e-value than most new windows on the market?
- National Register of Historic Places and Tax Incentives: The National Register of Historic Places is our country's inventory of the buildings, sites, and cultural landscapes that are historically significant.
- Researching Your Old House: Ever wanted to know when your house was built and by whom? Who lived in your house and how it has changed over the years?
- "Greening" Your Old House: The greenest house is the one already built. But, did you know that there is even more you can do to reduce your old home's carbon footprint?
- Design Solutions for Additions and New Construction in Historic Neighborhoods: Want to add space to your historic home but don't want it to look like an addition?
- How to Hire a Contractor: Interviewing and selecting a contractor is a daunting task and not having all the information can cost you many thousands of dollars.
- Maintenance Plans for Old Houses: Owning any house means maintenance. Owning a historic home means maintenance and preservation.
- Historic Landscapes for Old Houses: Historic landscapes tell us so much about lives and interests of previous generations. Each style of home and each time period has its own unique landscape associated with it.
Go to www.decaturoldhousefair.com for more information. Advance tickets are $10.
*****
Something I personally love - they emphasize historic window preservation so much that they have TWO seminar sessions about it! Go Decatur Old House Fair!
01/07/10: Happy New Year!
Happy New Year from Westview Bungalow! We had a fantastic time over the holidays. Both Christmas and New Year's Eve were wonderful. We also took a trip to Washington DC and saw a number of historical sites along the way - including Mary Washington's House (George Washington's mother) and Kenmore (the home of George Washington's sister). I promise we'll post some photos soon, and we should start some more projects, or finish some old ones, later this month! Sorry for not posting anything in a short while.
12/02/09: General Fall Update
There are some things we've done here and there around the house this fall that haven't been posted on the blog, so this is a brief update post.
I can't pass spring or fall without going to my beloved Growers Outlet, so in late October we went for our semi-annual trip to Loganville to buy some plants. One of my visions was to make the landscape strip more attractive. After the sidewalks were re-done we tried the grass thing, but it didn't look all that great. The earth sunk down too much and the grass was patchy.
I've always found landscape strip gardens intriguing, so this is our go at it. Closest to the mailbox is the annual winter section – kale, cabbage, pansies, etc. To each side of the red bud tree we planted more perennial plants – sage, dianthus, coral bells, daylilies, petunias, etc.
Another section we tackled was the left side foundation. We fell in love with the Southern Living plant collection's "Purple Diamond Chinese Fringe Flower"; however, due to our purple-ish brick foundation we decided to separate the purple evergreen plants with the evergreen "Waxleaf Ligustrum". On the left side are some elephant ears. The larger one is supposed to grow up to 6 feet! We'll see next year…
And what else have we been up to? Well, with the colder weather we've focused our attention back on interior projects. Mainly stripping...
...stripping...
...and more stripping. I don't think we'll ever finish that dining room!
I can't pass spring or fall without going to my beloved Growers Outlet, so in late October we went for our semi-annual trip to Loganville to buy some plants. One of my visions was to make the landscape strip more attractive. After the sidewalks were re-done we tried the grass thing, but it didn't look all that great. The earth sunk down too much and the grass was patchy.
I've always found landscape strip gardens intriguing, so this is our go at it. Closest to the mailbox is the annual winter section – kale, cabbage, pansies, etc. To each side of the red bud tree we planted more perennial plants – sage, dianthus, coral bells, daylilies, petunias, etc.
Another section we tackled was the left side foundation. We fell in love with the Southern Living plant collection's "Purple Diamond Chinese Fringe Flower"; however, due to our purple-ish brick foundation we decided to separate the purple evergreen plants with the evergreen "Waxleaf Ligustrum". On the left side are some elephant ears. The larger one is supposed to grow up to 6 feet! We'll see next year…
And what else have we been up to? Well, with the colder weather we've focused our attention back on interior projects. Mainly stripping...
...stripping...
...and more stripping. I don't think we'll ever finish that dining room!
11/26/09: Fixing Our Fence
Since we bought our house three years ago the back section of chain link fence has been a mess. Our guess is over the years the giant oak tree dropped large branches that crushed the fence. We have been debating if we want to get a privacy fence (and one day we'll probably get around it), but for now we decided to spend a little money and fix what is already there.
Here is a photo of what we started with. See how bad it looked!
We had one post that had broken off near the ground, and all of the top rails needed to be replaced. The first step was to remove the top rails. It was pretty easy to do since they were all broken and rusty.
Once we got to this point we put the top rails through the old posts and realized we were going to have to first clean out all of the English ivy. The fence had been overthrown by vines, and we were not able to straighten it out without first clearing all of the plants and debris.
Once we got the ivy cleaned out, which took a while, we dug the hole to set the new post.
Even Buster wanted to lend a hand with the fence!
So after a day of hard work the fence is working again. It didn't end up perfectly straight because the posts weren't level to start with, but it is still a big improvement for a little money!
Here is a photo of what we started with. See how bad it looked!
We had one post that had broken off near the ground, and all of the top rails needed to be replaced. The first step was to remove the top rails. It was pretty easy to do since they were all broken and rusty.
Once we got to this point we put the top rails through the old posts and realized we were going to have to first clean out all of the English ivy. The fence had been overthrown by vines, and we were not able to straighten it out without first clearing all of the plants and debris.
Once we got the ivy cleaned out, which took a while, we dug the hole to set the new post.
Even Buster wanted to lend a hand with the fence!
So after a day of hard work the fence is working again. It didn't end up perfectly straight because the posts weren't level to start with, but it is still a big improvement for a little money!