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By LvsChant, on May 25th, 2013
Well, since we finished scrubbing all the paint off the floors, we had to wait for delivery of the new products from thestampstore.com. We ordered:
Walnut Acid Stain
2500 Floor Sealer
3000 Floor Sealer
Cherry Wax
Cherry Wax Applicator – Wooster 12″ Lambswool.
They all finally arrived on Wednesday or so… We were already in the midst of the next project, though, so we continued on with the irrigation system.
Since last May we’ve had a temporary watering system set up for the four pecan, one peach and one nectarine tree that are all planted northeast of the workshop. The new system completely replaces it with a permanent system, complete with automatic valves, underground pipes, etc. The old system was not ideal, since the pvc piping was sitting in the sun (getting more brittle by the day) and occasionally leaked. We have a very large crop of wildflowers all throughout the trees… some of them noxious weeds that I’ve spent a lot of time pulling. We think the new system will reduce the amount of weeds, since the water will only go in the tree wells now. However, for your pleasure, I’m posting a few of the interesting wildflowers we’ve gotten.
 No idea what this is...  pale lilac color blossoms...  daisies  Gaillardia pulchella  maybe wild blue flax?  Orange wildflowers  Purple verbena  Again... no idea.  Calendula starting to bloom  Lovely clumps of white flowers  More white flowers... scorpion flower in background?  Bees like this one...  More yellow/purple together  Happy Gaillardia  Lovely delicate pink flowers on tall stalks  delicate pink blossoms  Bachelor buttons among the grass  This one gets stickery, so I yank them out.  Mesquite -- they get awful thorns... this one is now gone.  Peach and Nectarine trees  Pecan trees with irrigation system in place Here are some more photos of the garden, back yard area with irrigation system.
 Garden boxes - recycled pvc pipes  Afghan pines planted for future windbreak  Garden beds and fruit trees...  Valves for back yard/afghan pines  Pipes for backyard (fig tree in foreground)  Front yard... trees irrigated We were afraid none of the grapevines we got from a friend were alive, but continued watering them… and now we see that they are starting to grow:
 Grapevines are growing  Afghan Pines
By LvsChant, on May 19th, 2013 
Ok… we have this post as a warning to other would-be concrete floor stainers. We have effectively discovered nearly everything not to do.
Before we began the process, we had looked around online and in local stores to find good products to use. During our visit at the Lowe’s in Carlsbad, the paint dept. manager convinced us that their Valspar products would work very well on our house interior. Well… the etching product seemed to work fine, so we thought all was good.
Yesterday morning, with plans for an easy day, we began early spraying the “stain” on the [...]
By LvsChant, on May 18th, 2013 
As I mentioned in a previous article, Discount Kitchen Cabinets, RTA (Ready to Assemble) cabinets are a cost-effective way to get good quality cabinets at a much lower cost. We ended up ordering our cabinets online from myCabinetPlace.com, a company out of Minnesota. After checking and double-checking final measurements for Kitchen, Laundry, Master Bath, Two bathrooms for the boys and the Powder bath, I made a call and spoke to a very nice and helpful person (with a definite Minnesota accent) at the company phone number. He answered all my questions about specific details and what he could offer for [...]
By LvsChant, on May 17th, 2013 
We decided early on that we wanted to have stained concrete floors throughout the bottom level of the house. For one thing, the finish is beautiful and durable. For another thing, we really do not like wall-to-wall carpeting at all. Lastly, it is a very low-cost alternative to ceramic tile and easy to do relative to other alternatives.
To prepare for this, we asked our concrete guys to give the foundation a machine finish after it was poured. It has a very nice glassy finish already on most of the house (along the edges of the foundation, there are a [...]
By LvsChant, on May 13th, 2013
Here is a YouTube vid of a quick walk-through of the house.
By LvsChant, on May 5th, 2013 
Now that the entire house is primed, we are preparing for the rest of the paint project. However, here are a few tips about the priming phase:
1: Especially when using a big pump sprayer, you will want to dilute the paint a bit for priming. To do this, you need a couple of empty 5-gallon buckets (no problem, since we did our own mudding and taping). Using the buckets, you will add 2 gallons of water for each 5 gallon bucket of primer. You will pour the water and paint back and forth, mixing the paint and water until [...]
By LvsChant, on May 4th, 2013 
As of Wednesday (May 1st), we have the entire house completely textured and primed…
Pantry Walls Textured and primed
A few notes about mudding and taping and texturing. We found the buckets of Joint Compound (green mud) to be very convenient to use for banjoing and the first coat of mud. Mixing it well (and adding no water at all) was the key to smooth mud for the banjo and also for using to apply the first coat to screw heads and seams. Early on, we tried adding a bit of water to the mud to make it [...]
By LvsChant, on May 3rd, 2013 
Early on this spring (before all the night freezes), we had the most beautiful blooms on our Gravenstein apple tree:
Gravenstein apple blossoms
Gravenstein apple blossoms
The trees from Peaceful Valley (with the exception of the fig) are all doing nicely…
By LvsChant, on March 10th, 2013 
We have been working on the next part of the drywall experience the past two weeks. We began on our own in the garage (which was a good thing). Then, starting on Feb. 28th, we had the help of a professional to get things done right in the main living area of the house. In the past 7 workdays, we have made pretty good progress.
We began with patching the heads of the screws on all the sheetrock panels using “green” mud, also known as all-purpose joint compound. Apparently, this stuff is harder (and more difficult to sand) and is [...]
By LvsChant, on February 14th, 2013 
We had a cold front move through the area, with the coldest night being last night… since we’ve been watching the weather forecasts since the bare root trees arrived, we decided to wait until that really cold night was past before planting.
I had the trees soaking in water before planting today. I had to clean out the holes again in preparation for planting. It has been so windy, that the holes keep filling up with blowing dirt. Yesterday, I had prepared wells around the tree locations, so things were ready to go.
Peaceful Valley was running a special when [...]
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