Paver paradise

Did I say we'd be done by Sunday, or did I say we'd be done by Sunday?

It was even relatively painless, despite the fact that we ordered about 144 too many bricks (hello, refund!) and had to return them to the brick store, about 20 miles way.

Nevertheless, it's landscaping time and the walkway is functional and lovely, as it should be.
Before:

After:

We're not 100% sure on what the landscaping portion of this project will entail. We might rip out the two evergreen bushes, but that frankly, sounds like a lot of work for two people who hate landscaping and the idea of spending an extra few Benjamins on filling in all that empty space.

Not to mention, our dance card is filled for the summer with bajillions of weddings, parties, work events and races to run, so we're not above throwing some mulch on it and figuring out what to do next year. Because you can't be a crazy overachiever in every area of life. Landscaping is our lazy.

Best DIY project of all time, ever

Remember how horrifying our other "major" DIY renos were? How I thought the deck project would never end and how the basement project slowly drained my soul of all happiness? During those dark days, I dreamed of a project that would be cheaper, faster and easier than we thought (instead of projects that took twice as long and cost twice as much as anticipated).

Well, I found my dream DIY project and I'm happy to say that not only is it half-over, but it should be mostly finished by Sunday. All for about two-thirds of what we thought we'd spend.

HOLLA.

Here's what's what:

We've torn out the old front walk.

 It was asphalt over poured concrete, which had settled into a bumpy mess.

It was also WAY too close to the plants, so only the outer-most half was usable.

 Plus, asphalt is neither glamorous nor amazing, so it had to go.

Here was Cheaper/Faster Surprise No. 1: There was NO rebar in the concrete. Granted, that's why it became a bumpy, settled, hot mess after 50 years, but it sure did make quick work of jack-hammering.

Here's the concrete layer, under the asphalt. We just shake our heads at the weird things previous owners have done to this poor house.

Cheaper/Faster Surprise No. 2? We didn't hit the gas line while jack-hammering! Oh, happy day!

Hubs was in charge of manning the jack-hammer and it was my job to pry out the boulders and move them (Bad Ass Fact of the Day: I had just come home from running 10 miles and still managed to lug what I assume to be a literal ton of concrete). Sadly, right after he busted the last bit, he had to scoot off to do some grad school work.

So, what you see here is a mostly Alexson-built pile of rubble.

CONCRETE-DUST COVERED BAD ASS.

Ahem. The next day, we plotted our course and took to diggin'.

It wasn't horrible and Cheaper/Faster Surprise No. 3 - again, we didn't hit the gas line while digging. Amen, hallelujah.

And now we have a moat in front of our house and a mailman whose patience is surely waning. Luckily for him, we'll be putting the whole thing back together tomorrow. The plan is to lay paver bricks, using the same pattern we did in the back yard.

I'd been thinking this would be a $1,000 project, but even with adding in mulch and some additional landscaping for the "garden" behind the new path, we'll be sitting right around $600.

What's been your best Cheaper/Faster Surprise?

Upcycle + a winner!

This weekend, I realized that we are in fact, a weird house. I mean, check out our latest improvement:

We are now the proud upcyclers of a bike rim trellis! We just used a rusty (but sturdy) stake that the previous owners had left in the shed and zip-tied old bike rims to it for a quick, cheap and easy climbing apparatus for the clematis.

Total cost: $3.75
BAM!

Add to that the wall we striped last summer, the birdhouse made of old basement supplies and the wine bottle tiki torches Hubs made me for Christmas and I realized that this little corner of our yard pegs us as total hippies. I think we are just inches away from hosting a drum circle here every Tuesday.

Winner winner veggie dinner!
Congrats, Stacie! You won the Vegie Fresh Contest! Send me your shipping info and I'll get the bags off to you.

In the weeds

This weekend, we're re-tackling the .75 acre that is our little urban jungle. Remember our patio garden? And the grand ole Pit?

Well, with warm breezes and leaves on trees (girly squealllllll! I love leaves on trees!), it's time to whip those spaces into shape. The plants are all way ahead of us, as we never even bothered to rake leaves back there last fall and here come the hops and hostas and peonies popping through the mess!

Also on the agenda for my last weekend as a 28 year old lass? Making a dent in the Yuengling stash my parents loaded me up with in STL last weekend (seriously - the entirety of my fridge's bottom shelf is solid beer right now. Add to that Hubs' two kegs of homebrew and the 30 bottles of homemade wine that are officially ready for consumption and well, let's just say the Bigger, Better, Best clan's eyes are most definitely larger than their aging livers), bike riding and zipping around on two legs, because - did you hear? Homeslice named me just ran a 5 mile race (on St. Pat's no less, when she could have been celebrating early), regularly runs at least 15 miles a week and is training for Dam to Dam (a 20-flippin-k!) in June.

Related agenda item: Buying up all the skinny lady clothes I can find because somebody dropped 20 pounds and has legit arm muscles.

Anyway, I'm hoping we can at least get the gardens cleaned up, pruned back and trellised this weekend. I've also got to shift some hostas around quick like a ninja before the rhizomes get too thick for me to dig through.

What are you up to this weekend? Would you be willing to rake leaves and weed for beer?

Growin' like a weed

The patio garden is so close to being spectacular. I'm just waiting for my zinnias to fill in a smidge more and the morning glories and moon flowers to start popping off blooms. Here's what we got going on:

Love my hydrangea tree, HATE that fence. Loathe it.

"Here, tiny flower, let me show you the ropes."

Zinnias like fireworks.

The morning glory vine. Can you even imagine how awesome it will be once it blooms? It's taken over the whole stairs.

Last but not least, Hubs' hops. He's building a drying screen right at this very moment so he can harvest these, dry them and use them in a brew. Isn't he a clever guy?

Have a lovely weekend!

Yipes, stripes!

Last week, Bigger, Better, Best was beach-bound with 15 of our nearest and dearest. I'll regale you with group photos and stories about how we spent 12 hours a day on the sandy shores of Grayton Beach, Florida later. As an amateur journalist, though, I feel the bigger story here is the ridiculous nature of last Saturday.

8:00 ish a.m., 88 degrees: We rise and shine. We peek out the back window and see the following:

We are sad. 

8:30 is a.m., 94 degrees: Post-donuts, I don my work jorts and $2 flippies.

 9:00 a.m., 98 degrees: We pick and peel and sand the offending garage wall. We acknowledge it looks shitty. We are soaked with sweat.

 9:15 a.m., 101 degrees, no joke: I artfully arrange our weapons of the day.

 10:30 a.m., 108 degrees: We complete Project Part One, Glidden Caribe. We squint eyes and tilt heads and hope for the best as we push onward, ever onward.

 High Noon, 115 degrees: Project Parts Two (Glidden Ivy Topiary and Sliced Cucumber) and Three applied. Jorts have been removed and your humble blogger is painting in a swimsuit. Hubs loses three pounds of water weight in an hour.

 3:00 p.m., 400 degrees, hellish humidity: Project Part Four (Martha's Acuaba Teal) is complete and touch-ups have been applied. Eyes squint again, necks crane, painting duo agrees to never paint outdoors on such a hot day again, even if in a few hours we still think it looks weird.

 4:00 p.m.: Eye pallets cleansed, we silly homeowners agree - Stripes Are Good.  

 Allow me to dazzle you with our amazing painting-in-the-line skillz, y'all. What, what?

 Present: We are the proud owners of an outdoor living space that looks delightfully beachy, with a dash of Mexican restaurant. So much better than starring at a blah tan wall when we hang out on the patio. Bold move, right?

Honest opinion, you guys - digging our stripes? What's the kookiest paint job you've done lately?

The basement gets it's day in the sun

Did you catch us on Remodelaholic today? Because that's where our sweet little basement landed. We're, um, kind of a big deal online.

But you knew that.

In real life, we at Bigger, Better, Best also roll in the big time and as such, have declared it summer vacation 'round these parts. We're getting crazy doing things like mowing the monster lawn, skimming the redneck pool of debris and riding lots of dubious hot pink bikes.

Pardon our hiatus. Sometimes, a gal just needs a moment to get her mind right before painting 1/4 of her garage a rainbow of sherbert colors.

Yes. That's happening. Eventually.

Hazy summer days are made for moving slow and around here, we like to let the weather make our important decisions.

Ask the Randoms!

Welcome, friends, to my very first edition of -

Ask!
The!
Randoms!

(You guys did all shout that out with me like they do when Wheel of Fortune starts, right? RIGHT?!)

Ask the Randoms will be a segment I'll whip out when I am particularly tickled, intrigued or concerned about the search terms random internet folk have used to find this little slice of heaven we call Bigger, Better, Best.

Today's question is legit. It comes from a random internet searcher who found this ol' blog by searching "will hostas choke out snow on the mountain" on May 24. 


That poor soul landed on my answer-less post about The Pit, wherein I ramble about the woeful state of the southeast corner of my estate and devise a plan to choke out all weeds with a cunning combination of hostas, daylillies and snow on the mountain. 


This random's question peaked my interest. So, I set out to find an actual answer, should said random return.


The articles I found called snow on the mountain an invasive species, which is fine for Pit coverage, but The Pit is rather near our neighbors' yards, so whenever they decide they've had enough of Pit life, we might have some issues. From what I've read, clipping off the flowering parts will help reduce seeding and since the neighbors' yards all touch The Pit with mow-able grass, they'd probably kill all the snow on the mountain with the mower anyway.


This forum discussion had a good perspective on how it behaves locally and this forum of hosta-crazed gardeners included pictures of everything I hope The Pit to be - sans all the little bootie planters. I'm just not a bootie plantin' kinda gal, I s'pose.


The ultimate answer I have in all my non-authority for this Gardening Random is - NO. Based on second-hand stories, snow on the mountain not only won't gobble up your hostas, but will actually be contained by them if the shade is dense enough.


It's been real fun. Join us next time for Ask the Randoms!

Room with a view

Check out the view from our bedroom window. Summer is officially here the second that redneck pool is full.

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