Archive for June, 2009
Portland Blues Festival
Posted in Blues Festival on June 27, 2009| Leave a Comment »
grass and lawn problems
Posted in back yard, tagged grass, lawn, weed killer on June 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

lawn at the beginning
The lawn was just patchy grass, we had it removed and turned over a few times then the guy flattened it with a drum and laid new sod over it. The problem was that the soil was too compact and the sod grass started dying the next year. We then hired another guy to come and pull up the sod, and amend the soil, while eliminating all the weeds and spreading new grass seed. The process was time consuming and ended up costing $250 plus.

planting new grass seed

grass is coming in patchy
After all that the lawn was taken over by weeds.

some weeds are taking over
He said it was just seeds from the air, landing, every kind in Oregon, actually. I thought it was in the manure he amended the soil with. He said no, but I still think it was. I was stunned, I pulled them slowly by hand. I also kept adding more grass seed in the patchy spots. After about 100 pulled weeds I stopped. Then I started spraying. I sprayed weed killer on it a few times and finally, now we have grass mostly. It actually looks like a real lawn.

present day lawn
Redoing the bedroom
Posted in bedroom renovation, tagged bedroom, contractors, paint, trim, voc on June 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »
This room was a mess, it took 3 weeks to redo. First drywall was layed over the old cracking walls, then smooth sanded. New doors and trim were installed and everything painted. Much was learned by me about VOC paint as well as contractors, again. He said it would take 3-4 days and after 4 days he barely had the drywall sanded, but not finished. He said he underestimated the length of time it would take and I had already paid him for the 4 days. He then said he would keep working until it was done and not charge me anymore. I said fine, not knowing it would take him another 4 days. He took all day, 8 hours to take out an old door and pout in the new prehung door. He took all day to lay drywall over old walls. He took all day to install 46 feet of baseboard trim. Etc…He then sent a letter after finishing, asking for 36 hours more of paid work, even though he only worked 24 more hours, barely at that and he had said he would not charge me, according to his “principles”, he felt he needed to finish his jobs, no matter what. I thought to myself, I will see you in court, if need be! According to him, he is a teacher, going through a divorce, laid off from work, and his sister told him to check out Craigslist, where he contacted me through my ad. I could write a book just about the guys I got through Craigslist! OMG!
Garden Slugs and Lettuce
Posted in back garden, tagged organic garden, vegetables on June 3, 2009| 1 Comment »

small snail in my lettuce

Lettuce from my garden