still here!

Dear friends and family,
We're still here, but come check us out on our new blog too! Just go here:

librarycollective.blogspot.com

...and tell your friends!

thanks, Amanda

now back to our irregularly scheduled programming...

Okay, so vacation is over, summer's winding down into fall, and I'm finally back in front of my computer. It feels like we're making real progress, though, and I'll soon have good pictures to post!
While I was gone, Josh went about pulling up the kitchen floor (if you look at earlier posts with kitchen pictures you'll see the ugly early-sixties vintage 'tile'-look asbestos-vinyl flooring), only to discover that it was backed with an asbestos paper. He quickly decontaminated and sealed it all up under a nice new plywood subfloor. We've picked some nice new VCT flooring in white with a red border (well, mostly...we had to narrow it down to two 'whites' and order a whole box of each), and after much additional labor we'll have a new floor.
Also while I was gone, someone posted a comment on another earlier post about a nearby house for sale. It goes like this:
"Is this the house at xxx xxx? If so, I just can't believe it because I signed a contract to buy it yesterday. (Seriously!) I just happened to stumble onto your site doing some random 50s searches and I recognized the bathroom. Small world... "
Yes, in fact, it is. I redacted the address since I don't want everyone to know exactly where I live, but yes, that is your house, and I have the best of intentions to come bring you cookies now that you're well settled in.
Anyhow, I promise to be back soon with some nice pictures and news on our gardening (among other stuff!)

stay tuned!

I'm so sorry, since I know that people keep stopping by, but we've had a long month and now we're on a lovely vacation, away from the house (thus, not much to report!). My vegetable garden is going wild, the grass is shaggy, projects remain unfinished! I'm sure we'll have more to report once the heat breaks and things settle down :)

My email was down, and now my dear mother's here, so I haven't had much time to update, and we haven't been doing much work lately. I did have the opportunity to check out a house up the street from us, though, and it was such a treat! I'll have to run down and take a picture to post...
Anyhow, I promise I'll write more soon!

Things are growing well, and planting, watering, weeding, and fertilizing have really taken all my house time (not to mention picking up after the four of us!).

"Josie's little garden" began life as a bare patch in the lawn where Josie planted a few old pea seeds in, oh, February. One sprouted and has been joined by a red pepper, carrots, spinach, and radishes. At least it's not just dirt like the other bald patches in the yard! She waters it, tends it faithfully, and brings offerings of roly-polie-olies and worms whenever she finds them. Oh, and she's not just growing peas, they're 'sweet baby peas', since that's the kind her baby brother eats.

I took this shot of the 'big family garden' over the weekend, and things are already twice as big. We've got cantaloupe and zucchini against the brick wall, and a trellis for them to grow up. Lettuce/spinach, peas, onions, and beans in rows, then tomatoes/peppers, carrots, corn, potatoes, rhubarb, pumpkins, and watermelon. Josie and I still go out and hoe every day to keep the weeds down, but she's already enjoying the peas.

In other news, it seems that we've moved to our summer quarters in the basement, since it's been at least ninety (or felt like it!) every day for the past week, and that pattern doesn't seem to be breaking anytime soon. We've thought about a swamp cooler, but we all sleep with our doors shut, so that doesn't seem to make that much sense, and with radiant heat an a/c would be mucho expensive to install. We'll see how it goes...

Oh, and happy birthday to me on Thursday!




The "big family garden"

The other day when I checked out the open house around the corner, the realtor was really into the whole fifties house thing (maybe a little uninformed on a few matters, but enthusiastic nonetheless!). He had copies of an article from the May 24th issue of The Denver Post: Fervor for the 1950s. It was a fun read....and at least didn't ramble on about Mod Livin' (our local midcentury furnishings boutique), as every article on Denver's modern architecture is wont to do (see this month's Atomic Ranch). I just want to know where she's garage saling.

We've almost got the sprinkler system back up and running (did I say we? I think I meant Josh.), from last Spring when we (did I say we? I think I meant I, although Josh has generously split the blame for it with me) rototilled through it while prepping our vegetable plot. We've never had the joy of a automatic watering system before, and our neighbor (great folks, btw) assured us that the sprinkler pipes were down far enough that we wouldn't hit them. Oops. Six trips to the hardware store, a couple of new heads, and quite a few hours later, the garden waters itself. Just in time for Summer too
I'll have to get a picture of our beautiful seedlings up soon....