Trench

The trench has been dug for the French drain that will run under the deck. Not all that exciting but it happened.

Shed

We got a shed! Now we just need to paint it. Jon did an awesome job and banged this out in a week. Next step is some backyard drainage and the deck.

New couch and dog name.

New couch from Room & Board is awesome. Ludo (official name) likes it too. Do a google image search for "Ludo Labyrinth" and you'll see where this guy gets his name. Although at first it was just Nellie mispronouncing "Lando" as in Lando Calrissian from Star Wars. Ludo seems to fit this sweet faithful little guy.

Dogs and Chainsaws

Well the big news is I think we finally have a dog. Nellie's been wanting one for a long time and, when this little guy came along, it was hard to say no. He's house broken, crate trained, very submissive, and doesn't seem hell bent on eating our cats. He already knows to sit, stay, and sometimes shake. He's great at fetch, quick to calm down when we come in from playing, and seems to have the bladder of a blue whale. We're currently working on leash-walking.

A very laid-back dude.

Sampson and Frenchie (our cats) are slowly warming up to him, but are not thrilled. Sampson has stopped obsessively stalking the dog and there are only occasional scuffles when one surprises the other. Frenchie has come out of hiding and delicately floats through rooms trying to remain unnoticed. All in all, it's been an interesting week here at the Petty Home. Below are lots of gratuitous dog photos and some shots of the work we got done this weekend.

Pre-yard work playtime. We finally removed all the leaves from this past fall!

We had Jeff Bracken and crew of JB Tree Service take down a tree that was precariously leaning over our neighbors' power lines. They also removed several large dead or dying branches from the big Willow Oak tree. J B Services did a great job at an amazingly fair price. Can't recommend them enough.

This large pile was what was left over. It would have cost just as much to have them haul off and mulch the limbs as it did to have them taken down.

Luckily my parents came to visit with chainsaws-a-blazing and helped us remove and cut up the brush for the curb. We also took down three small remaining trees in the corner, one of which was dead and full of ants! Gross.

What seemed like a daunting task was accomplished with a lot of sweat and only a minor amount of blood.

My dad was a beast with the chainsaw. All this work was basically prep for some forthcoming landscaping. The first step is making room for shed construction that should start on April 16th.

So much wood.

So many branches.

We have a huge pile of mulch to move. We're about halfway through and should finish this weekend. We were pretty pooped from hauling trees and only got halfway through on Sunday. Nellie moved most of it herself and had back pain to prove it. This mulch was left over from the GIANT tree stump that Miles took down and ground when we were renovating the house. It should be a great base for planting beds when the time comes.

We were left with a nice little pile of wood that we'll either give away or save for a future fire pit.

The new fam. Nellie couldn't be happier.

More dog photos!

We still don't have a name for this guy. He came to us as Phredy, but we feel like a new pet needs a new name as initiation into our home. We've had lots of great suggestions including Karo (sweet and brown), Malcolm Reynolds (Mal - from Firefly), Lando (as in Lando Calrissian from Star Wars), Argos (the faithful dog of Odysseus), Sprocket (from Fraggle Rock), Leroy (from Jim Croce's "Bad Bad Leroy Brown), Boba (as in Boba Fett from Star Wars), and countless others. Naming this guy is really hard. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!

Who am I?! Petey?

Slowly warming up to each other. It's getting better every day.

Blinded by the light.

Goodbye sheets from the thrift store. Hello real adult people blinds! Double cell honeycomb shades from selectblinds.com.

Outdoor Design

We've finally started plotting exterior design options. When the house was being renovated, we didn't put much thought into landscaping apart from taking down the giant rotting tree in the back and getting rid of the bamboo forest. Our front yard has been made temporarily acceptable with some grass seed but the back remains a barren moonscape. With so much potential but so little existing to work with, we weren't sure where to start. To help remedy this problem, we've called in the experts. Below are some very boring shots of what we've got going on right now. As you can see, it's a pretty blank slate.

Off the back door where the trash cans live.

Empty back yard with a few scraggly trees that should be coming down next weekend thanks to some help from my lovely parents. The remaining bamboo was removed with help from Nellie's mom and aunt who worked like champs one weekend when they were in town.

Large collection of willow oak leaves we've been too lazy to do anything about.

Moonscape.

Western side yard.

Passable front yard.

More of the front, now with new brick paver between our concrete and wooden steps courtesy of the man-who-built-our-house--Mr. Miles Honeycutt of Park Place Ventures. Miles, do you have a website we could link to? He did a fantastic job on this little project for us.

Eastern side yard.

It's been a while since we've posted a full frontal shot of the house. I desperately need to update the blog header to show off what the house looks like now instead of pre-construction.

Now the exciting stuff! Per our good friend Jessie's recommendation, we've started working the Caitlin and Jon Sloop of Green Light Home Builders. Caitlin and Jon have been great to work with so far and we're really looking forward to seeing their designs take shape. Below are the first round of ideas from Caitlin. The finished plans will likely be some amalgamation of these 4 designs. There's a lot of work to be done and this project may take several months, but we're pumped to some-day soon take advantage of the space. Click on any of the images below for a larger view.

The big key items are a shed, planting area, deck off the back door, plants, and possibly some sort of fire pit area. This design leans towards a modern aesthetic, which I like. We're looking forward to having a deck with some sort of plant-trellis and room for grilling. I miss my grill.

A slightly more organic design. We will likely steal the shed and pergola combo from this plan.

We like the diagonal lines in this option as it compliments the existing angles of the property. We're also thinking about some sort of back-door overhang for rain protection.

More decisions to be made, but we're really excited about this project and working with Caitlin and Jon.

Things are about to get a lot awesomer.

Slowly collecting adult furniture

There has been a nice, long, much needed break after moving in and getting the house mostly livable. We've only just begun to get motivated and tackle new projects. In the works are a lot of big plans for the front and back yard... stay tuned! Inside, the most glaring thing is the lack of our "adult furniture." In this installment, we'll talk a little about the pieces we've started collecting.

This corner cupboard was built in North Carolina around 1810 and came to us by way of a generous gift from Nellie's Uncle Charlie, who felt the piece would do well in its state of origin. Charlie's home in Pennsylvania is full of unusual antiques that he has collected, resorted, and researched. The space left by the cupboard will make make room for another grandfather clock restoration. At various times of the day (and night) the clocks in the house all gong the hour. This cupboard is a wonderful, belated wedding gift. The photo doesn't really do it justice, but it's a really gorgeous piece made of solid walnut, that fits well with the style of our home.

On a recent trip to Greensboro, our good friend Erica introduced us to The Red Collection--a fantastic consignment shop. Nellie found some great old cabinets that were probably intended to be serving pieces in a formal dining room. They weren't in the best condition, but were a pretty amazing deal so we snatched them both up.

All the restoration folks we talked to said the quickest, cheapest, and most rewarding way to restore furniture was to use Howard's Restore-a-Finish. The cabinets weren't in terrible shape but had some water marks and nicks that, if corrected, would really make them shine.

The product just goes on over top the existing finish with no major prep. You wipe it on and then wipe off with a dry cloth. We did take a bit of fine steal wool to some of the more stubborn spots before applying the Restore-a-Finish.


This project did take the better part of our Saturday, but luckily it was a nice day for hanging on the porch.

Nellie is a hard worker on projects like this.

After the Restore-a-finish stain goes on, you're supposed to seal the deal with Howard's Feed-n-Wax which really brings out the shine and helps protect and condition the wood. You basically glop it on, wait 20 minutes, then wipe off the excess and buff. It smells fantastic--orange oil and beeswax.

At this point we thought the project was complete. But upon taking a closer look at the drawer pulls, we realized the black handles were not the original patina. So we brought out the brass polish and got to work.

Here you can see what they looked like before and after. We briefly toyed with the idea of spray-painting the handles, but I'm glad we decided not to. The brass is worn off in a few places and if we get finicky we could have them re-plated... probably not.

Here is the larger finished piece that will live next to the front door!



A better picture of the smaller piece which will either remain in the hall, or get used as a TV stand depending on how it looks.

Squeaky Wheel

Hi Readers! It's been a while. Hope you all had a lovely holiday and are having a fantastic new year so far.

OK down to business. We all know the sidewalks in Cleveland-Holloway are a joke, especially considering our proximity to downtown. When we first moved in, I started fighting a battle with the city to have the sidewalks in our lovely new neighborhood repaired. I know lots of others have been fighting this fight too, but have had little success. When the city decided not to pave the whole neighborhood, I pleaded with them to do just Carlton Ave since it's one of the worst. When this didn't fly either, I decided to selfishly push for the sidewalk in front of our house alone. This too was met with resistance, but it finally happened!

As you can see, our sidewalk was not the worst on the block by far, but not great either. Chunks of concrete were continuing to break off in places, and there was a big patch of missing sidewalk right at the base of our stairs which became a muddy mess every time it rained.

I submitted tickets to the city over and over for weeks. Various city workers came out to look at the problem. There was some concern about whether or not our retaining wall was built over the sidewalk--they thought this might cause problems when demoing the old concrete. Others we talked to seemed to think it was fine. Photos were taken, and we were told that the city would be out to work on it soon. Lies...all lies. Finally, one morning I walked out of my house to find no less than 8 city workers taking measurements. They assured me they would be back in two weeks finish the job. After months of emails, I was thrilled but still apprehensive.

But happen it did! The guys got to work ripping up the old sidewalk with a finesse I have rarely seen with a backhoe. They did an awesome job and our retaining wall remained pristine.

They had almost half the sidewalk ripped up before I had to head off to work.

When I got home, this beautiful sight awaited me. Yay!

This post is mostly to encourage you other C+H residents to not give up hope. Basically, my tactic was constant vigilance. I submitted a ticket every other week or so using this link. From the drop down, pick "sidewalk needs to be repaired". Occasionally I'd get a follow up phone call or someone coming by the house to take measurements or photos. There were lots of promised dates and speculation, but I just kept submitting those tickets and eventually it happened. I know it's not the whole neighborhood, but maybe if we each individually take up arms for our own sidewalk they will do the whole neighborhood. Go get 'em!

http://durhamnc.gov/Pages/doc_online_form.aspx