Spring gardening. . .

It's been quite some time since we've posted anything, so let's get to it. For starters, it's been quite the warm spring already, with not much of a winter to speak of! Kansas City got a whopping 3.9 inches of snow for the season, a record minimum. Add to that some of the warmest weather we've seen in decades, and in some cases, ever! See NOAA's recent report on the State of the Climate.

With all this warm weather, it was finally time to get started on the garden. As part of a community garden collective, four gardens submitted a grant application to Get Growing KC totaling nearly $3,000! It got accepted! For our garden specifically, we received almost $1,000! And we've already put that money to good use!

Last weekend we spent several hours getting things cleaned up, tilled, weeded, built, and eventually planted. We probably got a bit of an early start on a few things with the warm weather, so we'll see how it all turns out. We planted peas, green beans, corn, spinach, lettuce, onions, and potatoes! All of this accompanies the already planted asparagus, strawberries, and raspberries, soon to be followed by blueberries, more corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and birdhouse gourds! WOW!

With the growing season in full swing, expect to hear from us a little more often! For now, enjoy the pictures of our work day!

All in a days work. . .

Apparently when we get bored on the weekends, we pick a room and ask, "what color should this room be?" That's exactly what happened yesterday. While it was another gorgeous day in KC (60+ degrees), we decided to repaint the bedroom.

Nothing fancy going on with the makeover. We simply taped the edges, primed the walls and painted the ceiling. It was then a trip to the hardware store to pick out the color. We knew we wanted to lighten things up a little, and ended up going with a very light blue, Catnap. Photos below show our progress and the finished product!

Expanding the kitchen. . .

You've already read about the addition of the kitchen backsplash. Another major issue with the kitchen was the lack of counter space, not to mention the absence of a dishwasher. Having lived without the dishwasher for nearly 5 years, we sort of got used to it. However, in order to even think about adding that luxury, we had to make a few more changes.

From the before pictures, you can see we had one long counter along one side of the kitchen, with the refrigerator taking up an entire corner. The first step to making room for more counter space was to move the fridge. Before we could move the fridge, we had to find it a new place to live. Luckily, behind the door with the white curtain was the mudroom/dog room. The biggest drawback was that the room only had a screen door separating it from the backyard.

Before:





The first construction step was to remove the screen door and install a new exterior door. Once that was done, the fridge could be moved, and the 'interior' door removed as well.

After:




       

With a few minor touch ups to the construction aspect, it now looks like this door was part of the house all along. I think Blake misses his mudroom, but he's gotten used to it now.

An upcoming blog entry will show the additional improvements made in the kitchen including moving some cabinets and the installation of a dishwasher!

A little bit of everything. . .

When my wife and I decided to start this blog, we were sort of trying to figure out what it is that we would write about. Turns out, a little bit of everything.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we live in an old country house in the middle of Kansas City, KS. We are trying to fix it up so have posted and will be posting other projects from in and around the house. We have also started a community garden and have and will continue to post about that, especially as we move into spring. I must admit, it's been a little tough not to focus more on the garden with all the above normal temperatures we've had so far this winter. I'm anxious to get outside and working!

Other things we may post about include crafts, art and photography, a few areas that we enjoy in our free time. See the links to the right for Etsy and Pinterest. We also dabble in old/used books and other odd items perfect for eBay and Half.com (astro2111). To sum it all up, we're just trying to share some ideas and objects that may be of interest to others besides ourselves. We hope you agree!

Rules for Yard Waste Changing for Johnson County, KS in 2012

via KMBC.com

The new year will bring new yard-waste rules for residents in Johnson County, Kan. The Johnson County Landfill will no longer accept yard waste beginning in 2012, and yard waste picked up at the curbside must be composted or mulched. The change will affect many of the communities, but some cities' service will remain the same because yard waste may be composted under the city contract and ordinances. Check with your city or homeowners' association for additional information on yard-waste collection.  

More Information:
Visit JoCoRecycles.org for information on where to drop off yard waste for composting.

Read more: http://www.kmbc.com/news/30082998/detail.html#ixzz1id3oDWD3

How will you deal with this problem? HONEBEES is currently developing a consulting platform to help residents plan and prepare for the new changes. This platform will include tips on how to manage yard waste and planning for and constructing compost bins for your yard. Stay tuned for details!

A new tiled backsplash

This project added some much needed POP in our otherwise dull kitchen.

We started with plain white walls behind the cabinets. Using all leftover materials, including tiles from several flooring projects, we decided to cut strips of various widths and lengths and add some color and texture. The tile cutter was borrowed, and we used a couple tubes of Liquid Nails and some leftover powdered grout. The photos below show the process.

This would be the first of many kitchen upgrades. More photos to come!

Who we are and what we do. . .

Hello and Happy New Year from Kansas City! This is a blog about a small family attempting to live the country life in the middle of the city. Let's try and get you up to speed. . .

We own a three-bedroom home built in the early 1900's in the middle of Kansas City, KS. Since the housing market bust in 2008, we have seen people move from the neighborhood and leave homes vacant in the process. This area is what most would consider a low socioeconomic neighborhood, so we are attempting to do our part to help bring about some new life.

Directly to the north of our home sits a vacant lot, the site of an old church. With the foundation still in place, this land was allowed to become overgrown and serve as the neighborhood dump and only cleared by the city once or twice a year. In the summer of 2009, after the city had done their obligatory annual/semi-annual clean-up, my wife decided it would be a neat idea to start a community garden. That fall we held monthly meetings with the neighborhood, primarily focused on getting the children involved. We had activities such as making stepping stones with cardboard forms and concrete to building a scarecrow and creating a pumpkin patch for the kids.

See more photos from the Essex St. Community Garden.

The summer of 2010 started reasonably well with the planting of several vegetables, only to fall victim to the annual clearing of the garden by the city. Throughout the winter and early spring of 2011, with the help of folks from the local neighborhood development association, we were able to declare the lot a community garden and despite the sweltering heat of the 2011 summer, we were able to produce modest crops yields and even manged to sell a few things at the local farmer's market. Plans for 2012 are bigger and brighter than ever!

OK, enough about the garden. . . For now. This blog will serve to illustrate some of the things we are working on in and around our home and neighborhood. We hope to provide some ideas of things you can try.

Happy New Year!