house + home

When Jesse and I moved to our quirky old farmhouse six years ago, it was mostly out of sentimentality.

My sentimentality.

It was the house that I grew up in and has been in my family for five generations.

I’ve talked about our never-ending to-do list and finding some gems that have been buried for years. But there are so many strange things about the house that you don’t notice right away, but make doing updates to the house harder. Or at least require a fair amount of creative thinking.

Here are just a handful of those quirks:

• Many of the walls are plaster and lath with a weird texture and cracks thrown in for good measure. I have been assured that the cracks are not showing a structural problem; it is just because of the age of the house.

• Because of some remodeling that was done when I was a kid, there is no working heating ductwork that goes to the second floor.

• Nothing is straight. This makes it hard to hang art. If you measure down from the ceiling, the piece will look crooked; but if you hang it using a level, it seems lopsided.

• The basement is a combo of stone and concrete, and when the weather is damp, the walls leak with water. It looks like the house is crying. We added gutters to the house this year, which helped. But we regularly have to use a sub-pump and hose to empty the water of basement.

There are so many beautiful things about our house too. We have tall ceilings and large windows that let in so much light. Our home is in the country, and we have fantastic neighbors.

Most importantly, living in a quirky old house has helped me let go of most of my perfectionist tendencies. I would love smooth walls and an airy open floor plan. What I have are textured plaster walls and creaky floors, but I love it anyhow.

I am forced to love things just the way they are. And lean into the imperfection. That has been good for me.

PS: The Never-Ending To-Do List and my beautiful brick chimney.

As far as gardening topics go, mulch is not a sexy topic. But mulching your garden is probably the best thing that you can do that will help your garden succeed.

It is also the number one thing that you can do to simplify gardening and landscaping chores.

It doesn’t have to be expensive (you can use old straw and grass clipping) and it doesn’t have to be hard to install. And if you are serious about growing your food, this is the easiest way to prevent gardener burnout.

Just in case you need a bit more convincing below I laid out the reasons that I mulch, from both the environmental impacts to the fact that I am kind of lazy.

Mulch helps keep the moisture in.

I live on a ridge and it is a rare day that is not a little bit breezy. So we can go from having just gotten a couple of inches of rain to the dirt cracking pretty fast. But mulch helps keep the moisture from being wicked away by the wind.

Mulch helps keep the weeds at bay.

As I go through an area weeding, I mulch when I am finished. This helps smother the weeds so the majority of them will not come back up. Those that do are so leggy and stressed, they are a breeze to pull out.

Mulch looks nice.

No matter what your personal preference or your house and property style, you can find something that will match the style of your home. I mean, let’s be real, bark goes with everything. And almost anything looks better than a bed full of weeds.

(Organic) Mulch helps build up you soil.

When you use some organic material as mulch, it will slowly break down into the soil adding valuable organic matter (which makes your soil better). And anything you can do to improve the soil is a great idea.

You may be asking yourself, What kind should I use?

Anything you can get. I use just about anything I can get my hands on.

Our foundation plantings have rock mulch. Which after 40 or so years needs to be removed, regraded and replaced (over the years things have shifted and the soil is sloped so the water runs toward the house instead of away). Rocks may not give you the organic matter in the soil that bark or straw would give you but it will have an air well effect which may make it a great choice if you live in a place with drought issues.

In some of the new perennial beds, I use bark either purchased by the bag at a home improvement store or gotten in bulk from a nearby mill.

When I have a more a formal veggie garden, I usually use old straw or grass clippings. I can generally get this for free and then I can pile it up like mad once the plants get bigger.

See what I mean? Mulch is the best: it helps regulate moisture, keeps weeds at bay, builds up the soil, and looks good doing it! Mulch your plants today!

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A few weeks ago on a Sunday, after breakfast, Jesse and I decided to get rid of the corner hutch in the dining room. That lead to us finding a beautiful brick chimney in the center of our house.

At first glance, the china cabinet looks like one of those sturdy, been around for 100 years kind of things.  But in reality shelves were super thin, the doors didn’t close, and the whole thing was in rough shape.  Because of the openness of our house, you could see it from most of the downstairs.

The hutch came out pretty easy, two screws and it was separated from the wall and with a small amount of team shuffling we had carried it out to the garage.

Behind the china cabinet is the old chimney, wrapped in faux brick paneling.  It was not a good look.  And I have been itching to see what the old chimney looked like.  It was on my to-do list.

Since the cabinet came out so easy, we figured this would be as good a time as any to see what we were dealing with.  Underneath the faux brick was plaster.  The plaster wasn’t a shocker; the walls of our house are mostly plaster and lath.

Then we got a couple of hammers and went to town on the plaster, and underneath we found this.

I was beyond thrilled by how the chimney looked.  This project was the first time since we started working on this house that we found something better under what we were replacing.  I am sure you have heard the same stories that I have, that a homeowner rips up the old shag carpeting in the living room to find beautiful hardwood.

Not us.

It is usually something worse.  So I hope for something spectacular and, at the same time, make plans for what we can do it cover up the weird thing we find.  So this was a very welcome surprise.

What is next for our brick chimney?

There are large cracks in some of the bricks (you can see it in the above picture) so we are going to have a mason come over and look at it for us.  Hopefully, it is still structurally sound and we can leave it as is.

The bricks have a fair amount of plaster dust on them.  I am doing some research to see if there is a way to clean them simply.  Most of the instructions I find are for outdoor bricks so the suggestions of going at it with a pressure washer or a hose and brush really won’t work well for this job.

Now that the dust has settled (literally) and we have lived with the chimney for a while, I might just leave it as is.  The white patina of the brick is starting to grow on me.

Mistakes that we made that you can learn from:

Plaster is a mess and dusty bitch.  We thew down drop cloths to catch the chunks as they fell from the brick.  But the plaster dust goes everywhere.  There was so much dust in the air that at one point the smoke detector started to chirp.

It took me two solid weeks to get rid of all of the dust from the floors and furniture.  I think I cleaned the floor every day during that time, and every time it dried it left a residue.

If you are removing plaster, cover every damn thing with a drop cloth.  Trust me.

What do you think of the chimney? Are you an exposed brick fan? And do you hate plaster as much as I do?

Did you plant your first small garden this year?  Exciting right?!?!  I hate to break it to you (since I was the one that talked you into this mess) but now the hard work starts.

It is easy actually, but not exactly fun.  There are four chores that you need to do on a regular basis to keep the plants healthy and happy and soon the veggies will be there for the taking.

Chore 1:  Watering

This chore is best done daily.  The gardening books always say that your garden needs an inch of water a week or some damn thing like that.  That is not super helpful unless you religiously follow that weather reports.  So my recommendation for you, dear friend, is to water every day unless it is actually raining or you are having a streak of gloomy and rainy weather.

If you have just a few plants, go the watering can or hose route.  If you have an already installed irrigation system for the lawn, you may already be set, just keep an eye on the watering patterns to make sure your plants are getting enough.  I love these AquaCones, and you can set a cheap sprinkler system with a timer attachment and a hose (with a sprinkler or added drip lines).

Can you water too much?  Yes, but it is hard with garden plants.  The wind and sun usually dry up plants faster than you can water them, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.  If you are doing container gardens it is possible to waterlog the pots, but if you have drainage holes in the bottom of your pot you should be fine.

Pro tip: If you are using sprinklers (for anything other than running through) run them early in the day.  If they are on during the hottest most of the water is evaporating.

Chore 2: Weeding

Weeding is probably the worst of the gardening chores, but when your plants are small, it super important.  When you are doing your daily watering, pull any weeds nearby.  Try to get the little buggers out by the roots if all possible.

Weeds are not bad, exactly, but any plant that is stealing the water and nutrients away from your veggie needs to go.

Pro tip: To minimize this task, mulch the shit out of your plants.  Use whatever natural materials you have available (grass clippings, straw, bark mulch).  Don’t pile them right up on the plants.  You will need to give them a few inches of breathing room.

Chore 3: Feeding

If we lived in a perfect world the plants would be able to get all of the food that they need from the soil.  Since we live on planet earth you will need to feed your plants.  There are a few ways you can do this.

First up is a slow release fertilizer that you put in the soil around the plants.  This comes in a pellet form that will slowly break down and release the good stuff in the soil.  Ideally, this should be done before you plant the garden, but it really doesn’t matter.  Just sprinkle it around the plants and throw some mulch on top.

Another option is concentred liquid fertilizer.  Add the recommended amount to the water can when you are watering and you are all set.  If you got a bit behind on watering and your plants are super dry, skip the feeding.

How often should you do this?  Once a month for slow release and every two weeks for liquid.

Can you overfeed?  Yes, but it will probably not harm the plants.  The veggies will take what they need and leave the rest, then water and rain will wash the rest away.

Pro tip:  if you are growing plants that are considered ‘heavy feeders’ you can do both.  Think corn, tomatoes, beets, broccoli, cabbage.

Chore 4: Supporting

I know what you are thinking – ‘My plants are tiny, why should I worry about supports now?’  Because it is far, far easier to get a cage around a tomato when they are a foot high.  Trust me on this, the struggle is real.

If you don’t have cages or supports for your bigger plants, get some and install them now.  If you are growing any type of vine-like plant, get the support set up and as you do your watering and weeding chores secure any new growth to the supports.

Pro tip: I love Gardener’s Supply selection or supports and tools. But you can also get them at your local gardening center and many big box stores.

Water, Weed, Feed, and Support.  See friends,  there are just four things you need to do to keep those newbie plants going on for the summer.  You can do this!

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Six or so years ago, my husband and I moved from our little house in town to a larger 150 odd-year-old house in the country.  The house is the one that I grew up in and I am the 5^th generation of my family to live there.

That is both wonderful and horrible.

Assuming that you had a childhood and family that you like, going back to your home is comforting.  You already know that the bathroom door sticks when it gets humid and that the fourth step on the back stairs creaks so loud it can wake the dead.  But there can also be a lot of baggage of the “you can’t get rid of that (ugly and falling apart) hutch because your great-great grandma stored her china in it”  variety. 

Otherwise known as familial guilt.

That is on top of the normal ‘fixing up old house problems’.  The floors are not level, the wiring may or may not be a fire hazard, the drafty windows . . . 

I could go on and on but you get the idea.

When I initially set up this space for a website, one of the first pages I added was a house to do list.  I use lists as a brain dump, especially when I am stressed and since our ongoing home remodel is such a large part of my life, I figured it would find it’s way on here in some type of capacity no matter what I wrote about.

And since we are hanging out regularly now, I thought I would share it with you.

Curious about what we have planned for our old farmhouse?  Click the picture below.

What do you think?  What would you add? Or remove?

PS. We are not carpenters, nor do we particularly like to DIY everything.  So don’t expect regular updates on the fantastic projects or accomplishments that we have made.  We are just normal people, with jobs, friends, and Netflix to watch.

There is something beautiful to the thought of growing your own food, isn’t there?

I picture myself wandering around a lovely, well-maintained garden plucking perfect veggies from the vine.  All of them going into my beautiful garden hod.  I am also wearing a beautiful sun hat.

The reality is more dirty, buggy, sweaty than that.   And I look like an asshole in those floppy hats.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.  I bet you look great in those hats.

Growing your own food, on a small scale, is something that everyone can do.  But it can also be frustrating and expensive for a newbie and that is a nasty combination.

Here are a few tips for someone new to the gardening world:

Choose your location and try to keep your plants as close to the kitchen as possible.  Or at the least the door you use the most.  I have a bad habit of trying to tuck gardens into out of the way places.  So as soon as the spring excitement has worn off, I forget that they are there and it ends up being a weedy mess.

Also, pick a spot with as much sun as possible.

You don’t have to dig up a new spot in the yard.  Put a windowbox full of salad greens on your front porch and a pot of tomatoes on your patio.  Tuck pea and bean plants in the beds along your house with your perennials.  Veggie plants are just as lovely as flowers.

Start with something simple.  Set yourself up for success by choosing something easy right out of the gate.  Check out this list of 10 easy plants for beginners.  There is something for everyone

Only grow a couple of things. It is super easy to get dazzled by the seed catalogs or but the selections at the local greenhouse but try to stick to a few things your first time around.  A big garden is great, but they are also LOTS of work.

Grow food you actually want to eat. If you don’t like radishes.  Don’t grow them.   You will never get to experience the joy of growing your own food if you don’t ever want to eat.  Or even worse, if you force yourself to eat it.

Growing food does not have to be hard, all’s it takes is a few plants, a sunny patch of land, and some water.  The key is to keep it simple.

Now is the time to go get your plants and get your hands in the dirt!

PS Science says that getting dirty makes you happier!