Edges Like Sea Glass

By Leah LaRocco

Gardening

Home From California…Sans Turquoise Skinnies

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After being in LA for a week of excitement at work and June gloom weather, it was good to return to the nest.  I knew I’d been in LA too long when I found myself contemplating a pair of turquoise skinny jeans at Urban Outfitters.  It was time to go.  I love my job and the people I work with are simply amazing, fabulous, human beings who I feel so blessed to know.  But for the first time in a long time, I wanted to be back in TN taking care of things before the parental units arrived today.  Let me take you on my little journey home.

The bathroom is nearing completion!!!  I have never been so excited to take a shower.  Washing my hair in the kitchen sink was a nightmare, but thank goodness it was short lived.  There are still things to do, but this is what’s happened in the bathroom.

The new vanity is firmly in place, replete with glass hardware from Anthropologie (on sale for $2.99!!!) and a new high efficiency toilet has been installed, purchased from Costco for less than $100.  Don’t worry, a new mirror is coming, the one in the picture is just there to help out right now.

 Sink faucets are expensive!!!  This cool looking modern one was listed on Overstock.com for $139.99, so I went on Ebay and ordered the knock-off version for $36.  The only problem was the hoses that came with it weren’t a standard size, so Rob spent some serious time with the plumbing “specialist” at Home Depot figuring that one out.  And who knew Target carried such adorable soap dispensers!  Thanks to a stay with my friends in LA who took me to Target to buy my very own copycat version of theirs 🙂

Here’s a picture of the completed shower tile, but this just can’t do it justice.  There are pretty sparkly parts and it’s all blue and green and sea-glass-ish.  I love it!  If only I could take all my readers in the shower with me to experience the awesomeness that is this tile….but well, that would be all kinds of awkward. 

A lot has been happening in the yard as well.  When I was mowing the lawn I noticed that the roof had been knocked clean off the bluebird house.  I looked inside and there were four perfect blue eggs.  Bluebirds and robins are in the same bird family so the eggs look very similar.

I put the roof back on the house and banged the nails in, but I was very concerned about how long the eggs had been left uncovered.  Today I saw the mama bluebird telling some other bird off and waving her wings around like she was a NYer defending her right to eat hot dogs from a street vendor.  Hopefully the eggs will survive and my little bluebird family will fly happily into the sunset.

There’s also been some action in the weeping cherry tree on the front lawn.  Those of you who know me well know that I am a total nerd when it comes to butterflies.  I raised them as a kid, then as a teenager, and am still quite obsessed with them.  I love butterflies and moths.  They bring such beauty into the world for a fleeting time.  I think they are magical.  Eventually when I figure out the backyard I want to have a garden with plants that will attract them, but for now, I was thrilled to find this chrysalis.  My caterpillar/chrysalis identification book is buried in a box somewhere, but I’ll eventually be able to tell what it is.  It could be a moth considering the shell is covered with leaves, but moths don’t tend to hang as much as butterflies do while in this phase.  I liken this to finding a Tiffany bag under the Christmas tree!

I have some sad news…I think one of my Purple Leaf Plums has some kind of borer in the bark.  The tree has looked weak since I moved here, but half of it is dead and it’s not looking good.  I hope it can survive.  Dad was a horticulturist and used to inspect greenhouses for plant diseases so I need to see what he thinks. 

I bought a rug!!!!  The living room rug was super tricky, but after looking at thousands of rugs online, I settled on this “deco inspired” one because it ties in the black of the fireplace with the cream color of the furniture.  The walls will be a pretty light green called “Recycled Glass” and it’ll look much more colorful once it gets painted. 

People always ask me about “The East End” pillow.  I bought it at Hildreth’s in Southampton, Long Island.  It’s what the locals call the North and South Forks of the island.  Historically it used to only refer to the South Fork, but everyone on the North Fork says they live on The East End too, so I’m claiming it.

And lastly, I leave you with a flower.  My dad has a way with plants and I can only hope I inherited half of his magical green thumb.  A great pastime of his is hybridizing daylilies, which is creating his own varieties by cross pollinating plants.  I planted several along my front walk and since the first bloom they all sent up second shoots of buds.  This one was open to greet me when I came home.  None of them are named, so perhaps I shall call this one “Welcome Home.”

Memorial Day Weekend: Where We Remember Times When We Rented

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The common phrase I heard this past week was, “Welcome to being a homeowner.” Lots of things went wrong and took way longer than they were supposed to take, and I even had the pleasure of running into an ex because the week was just that awesome. But enough about me, let me tell you what is happening with the house.

I got my awesome new Whirlpool fridge from the VIP program that a friend had access to. We plugged it in and it worked for all of 3 minutes before the control panel went dead. The lights still work, the water dispenser thingy works, and yet the fridge does not cool off because the little digitally lit snowflakes melted in the heat. A technician is coming out on Tuesday.
I made an unpleasant discovery in the guest bedroom. It is never wise to leave me alone in a house with a crowbar. There were visible tape lines all around that room and we’ve been thinking we’d need to repair the drywall in there. Well, people, I have an announcement to make, it’s not drywall. It’s paneling…with a couple layers of wallpaper…that were painted over. Son of a biscuit!!! I immediately started tearing the room apart, and in the manner of Ty Pennington, I have made it my “special project.”

 Rob has been working so hard on the bathroom.  The Hardie board backer is going up for the tub surround.  This will provide moisture-proof backing for the glass tile.

I continued tearing the guest room to shreds with the righteous anger and incomprehension of how someone would wallpaper paneling and then PAINT over it!!!  Morons.  Thank goodness there is drywall underneath.  It’s in rough shape, but we can fix it up.  I can’t even describe the smell of that paneling without making you sick.  It smelled a bit like sewage.  As I was tearing everything down, the pile in the dining room grew larger and more overwhelmingly smelly.

Lacey got all dramatic with the explosive remodeling noises happening throughout the house, so she decided to find a quiet corner to chill.
The Hardie backer is up!!!!  How exciting!  Onto the floor!
I made another awesome discovery in the guest bedroom.  In the picture, it just looks like a white square on the wall, however, be not deceived by the innocent white square.  After whoever made this nightmare ran out of paneling on that side of the room, they smeared drywall mud all over the empty portion of wall to make it nice and even.  Needless to say, that part of the wall will need to be replaced. 
My new dining room rug was delivered on Friday.  I ordered it online from the Home Decorators Collection to match the Jacqueline Penney picture I am putting up in there.  After demo-ing the guest bedroom and filling Rob’s truck with the debris, I held my breath, rolled out the new rug, and did a little dance across it.  The color is EXACTLY what I wanted and so much prettier than the picture online.  I could not be more pleased and I think it will look so beautiful in the dining room.  A burst of color that just begs to be dived into!
 HH Gregg is where I purchased my stove, and while I was very pleased with the deal I got, I could not have had a more horrendous customer service experience.  I will never buy anything from that place again.  The salesperson was abrupt and unhelpful, the cashier had no clue what she was doing and took 15 minutes just figuring out the computer while looking like a brick had just hit her in the skull.  The manager was also less than helpful when asked what to do if the item were discovered to be damaged.  His words were to “just bring it on back” like it was an ill fitting pair of shoes or something, as opposed to a hundred pound item.  THEN, as if the attitude weren’t enough, we drove there to pick it up on Saturday (when they told me it would be available) and the delivery truck hadn’t arrived yet and they were not able to tell me when it would get there.  I was livid when we left the store because that one mishap cost us hours of time and frustration in our plans over the next 36 hours.  After much angst, a trip to the dump, and many murderous thoughts later, we got the stove.  However, the sales manager who helped us get it out of the store neglected to tell us we needed to buy a power cord, which would have been much more helpful than the Verizon phone pitch we got while signing the pickup form.  Unless you want to be treated like crap, don’t shop at HH Gregg.  This is not where these appliances will remain…they’re just there until the kitchen gets built…so ok, they’ll be there for a long time, but we won’t think about that right now.
Today, Rob worked wonders on the floor of the bathroom.  I seriously cannot say enough good things about the quality of work he is doing, I am so impressed.  The original sub floor was a nasty conglomeration of particle board and plywood that was water damaged, so he pulled all of that up to reveal the slats on top of the joists.  All of this after removing the original toilet, which was a nasty business, to be sure.
As you can see, some of the boards in this area needed a bit more support, so Rob went under the house and nailed a 2×6 to the parts with holes or shaky boards.
While he was doing all of that and cutting the 1/4″ Hardie board for the sub floor, I decided to tackle the bamboo in the backyard.  While bamboo is a lovely plant, it is very invasive and needs to be controlled.  There is a lovely stand in the corner of my yard that is obscuring two large viburnum bushes that were probably planted years before the bamboo forest began to encroach.  Here is a pic with the evening sun shining through.
My friend, Charlotte, just built a lake house and needs some bamboo for her shower wall.  I cut down quite a few pieces and cleaned the leaves off of them and piled them next to the shed.  Obviously, I will have to get a panda bear.
While I was cutting the trees, I noticed the most glorious beetle!  It was an iridescent red and blue that just shone in the fading light.  I tried to find a picture online and the closest thing I can find was a picture of the larva of the Blue Bug, which eventually grows a hard blue shell after the red disappears. 
I came inside to find the floor all finished and ready for tile!  It’s almost a bathroom again!!!  Rob added silicone around the toilet ring and the tub, so water leaking and damage will no longer be an issue.  What a job well done! 
 We are both exhausted, sore, and beat up.  There were a couple of times this past week when I indulged myself in a meltdown.  I whined pathetically while standing in the middle of my demolished guest room asking Rob, “Did I bite off more than I can chew?”  He answered sympathetically, “Maybe for the first two weeks.”

Birthday Weekend in the New House!

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I am typing this blog with terribly blistered hands that have bled and been scratched and have nasty dirt caked under the fingernails. My back hates me, as do my legs, shoulders, and arms. Advil, here I come! As soon as I made the offer on this house and started going through the process of making it mine, I have been praying that it will be filled with love at all times, and let me tell you, this weekend I totally felt the love. Not only did I get TONS of “welcome to your new home” cards and gifts, but people just kept stopping by. It was AWESOME! Friends and neighbors stopped in to say hello and see the progress. Random people walked off the street, and in spite of my NY self being initially weirded out, it was so nice to meet some of the neighborhood folks. Here is my kitchen counter of love, replete with champagne, wine, cards, and lovely flowers.

Saturday was my birthday, and when I got back to the house, Rob was already hard at work. He asked me to help him get some things out of the shed, and lo and behold, there sat my awesome birthday present!!!

I feel so loved and taken care of by my man. He was concerned I would liken this to being given a frying pan as a present, but I am so thrilled! It’s a Cub Cadet self propelled, badass, grass eating god of the lawn. I can start that thing on the first pull, I am woman, hear me and my lawnmower roar! As I was walking over to the gate to open it and start mowing, I saw a snake and did a funny little screaming dance across the lawn. I hate the slithery little nightmares, but I certainly did not want to kill one on my pretty lawnmower’s maiden voyage. Luckily it was smooth sailing once I got going. It took an hour and a half and the front lawn was like mowing carpet, it was so thick. I’m quite sure the novelty of this will wear off pretty quickly.

Meanwhile, inside, Rob was building out the wall where the tub is going to sit. The studs in there were shaky, so he had to secure them and bring the wall out to cover an oddly placed pipe.

After the lawn was finished, I decided to attack the flower bed lining the front walk. It was planted with ugly red begonia annuals that hadn’t grown a smidge since they were planted. I took off all the mulch, placed my containers to see where I wanted the plants to go and started digging. The soil here has a clay-like texture, so I’m hoping the plants can thrive in it since I didn’t really do any kind of preparation to the soil. Here is the before and after.

Plants include Stargazer lilies, dad’s very own hybridized daylilies of his own creation, fall Seedum, and Wormwood. I had all of these in pots and planters on my apartment porch, so I am thrilled they now have a home of their own. The gorgeous purple Clematis has been a resident for quite some time and can show them the ropes. Today in the heat, some of the plants were wilting, which really freaked me out, but I think they’re in shock, just like me, from all the transition.

That night we went to the Holland House in East Nashville for birthday dinner. I had a drink which was most appropriately named the Corpse Reviver. Needless to say, this little corpse felt very revived after a meal of spring hen and divine chocolate cake!

Ok, back to the bathroom…Rob took on the plumbing today (Sunday). The previous owners must have been midgets because the shower head was low enough that even I would have to duck to get under it. Rob raised up the plumbing and hooked everything together like a puzzle in preparation for a pretty brushed nickel Moen shower system. We also hauled the tub in there and he sprayed foam around the bottom of it, riveted it to the wall with brass screws, and caulked everything.

Now we’re ready to begin putting up the Hardie Board in preparation for the tile surround!!! Excitement all around! I did more yard work and sprayed 3 gallons of roundup along the fence, under the trees, and along the edges of the beds to prevent grass from growing there. I almost used up my whole bottle of concentrate. Crazy! Also started sawing, hacking, and pruning a lot of dead branches off the yard trees. Am totally wiped out, but so happy to be making progress toward getting the place how I want it.

I’m incredibly thankful for all of my friends who made my birthday so very special and who brought lots of love into my new home this weekend!!!