Category Archives: New House

The Craig and Jo Show: Another Spot of Landscaping

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I told you earlier this week that Craig and I (mostly Craig) put up the new hanging basket post.  Well after that was done Craig asked me if I have the stuff to do the landscaping on the back south west corner of the house.  I said I did…Craig said, “It’s so nice and cool yet today so we better get it done.”…so we did.

The back corner of the house had gotten a little overgrown.  I’ve been so busy keeping up with watering the plants I have and working on the other new landscape projects that this…well, this got left.  You can tell right??


This area has never been the best.  When I moved plants from the farm house where we used to live I had ran out of space and these plants still didn’t have a home, so I walked over to this side of the house, dug a hole and put them in.  I figured I would take care of them when the time came.  I’ve weeded them a time or two but until this day, that’s all the maintenance they’ve had.

This spring…no maintenance at all!!  UGH.  It looks overgrown and a  mess.

Grass was growing in it. Oh my…it NEEDED to be WEEDED.  See?? Continue reading →

The Craig and Jo Show: The New Hanging Basket Post

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Kalissa had to work the overnight shift at the local ER where she works so Saturday morning Craig called and said, “The weather is super cool.  I’m trying to keep the boys from waking up Kalissa.  How about I come over and tackle a project or two?”

Oh my..there is no way to say no to an offer like that…so I quickly started getting things together so we could get something done.  If I’m going to get help, I’m going to scramble!

I had two hanging baskets on a shepherd’s hook.  Well the hooks I had either weren’t very strong or shepherd’s hooks weren’t meant for hanging baskets.  Either way, it wasn’t working.  Craig had suggested putting in a permanent pole.  Well I liked that idea so when Kalissa and went to Home Depot on the 4th of July, we got the supplies.

I tried to buy everything I could to make it as easy as possible.  We started out with a big pole support.  You can see here that Craig pounded it into the ground.


We had previously had a plant here but it’s the spot where the drain from our eave comes out so the plant would get too wet and die.  That’s one of the reasons we opted on the polt.

After the pole support was in, next went the 4 x 4 post.


After that on went the post jacket…. Continue reading →

The Living Room

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I started on the living room two Sundays ago.  My intention was to get it finished during the week but it was a busy week and nothing got done.

My goal for the weekend was to paint and if I got time to try to work on the woodwork.

The Sunday before:

First up…fill the holes.  I use a great product called Drydex.  I put it on pink and it dries to white.


Another product I HIGHLY recommend is a trim brush.  I don’t paint a wall without one.  I don’t use painter’s tape at all….just this trim brush.  Seriously, don’t load the paint heavy on the brush and you’ll be just great without painter’s tape.

I use it for edging the trim and in corners.  No other specialty brush is needed if you have one.  It’s only just over $6 for a brush too!!  I love all the time it saves when I don’t have to use the painter’s tape.

This Saturday:
Craig was at my house at 7:30am…and he had me working at it in no time.  If someone is going to help me paint, I’ll do most anything to keep them happy.

It took THREE coats of paint.  I don’t know what the problem was.  I bought the good Sherwin Williams paint too so I don’t know why it was like that.  Craig was on the roller…I was on the trim brush.  We both took breaks to handle the kids.

After the paint was finished we started in on the woodwork.  When the guy did the drywall on our walls, he didn’t restick the tape so we ended up with lots of spots on the wood that looked like this….


I never worried about them as Kramer was always going to redo the woodwork.  Well Kramer is not here and I can’t redo the wood like he was going to.  I have to settle with what I can do….

So, I found this.  Goo Gone:  Latex and Paint Clean Up

I highly recommend it as well.  See??? Continue reading →

Sunday Happenings

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Sunday the 9th, was a big day.  I take that back.  It was a huge day.

Kalissa and I took the boys to church.  During services we heard that the lady who went to our church who acted much like a grandma to Kalissa had been moved to the nursing home.  We decided after church to bring her flowers and the church bulletin.

We had a nice visit.  We kept it short as Carver was antsy but it was so nice….and short visits are okay.  She had heard that Kramer had passed away and sent along her condolences.  I am so glad we went.

From there…Home.  Kalissa and I decided to go ahead with plans for the garage sale for the weekend.  It will be Thursday and Friday 4-7 and then Saturday morning.  We are known for our EPIC garage sales and hope this one will be no different.

It started with LOTS of garage cleaning.  Our garage had gotten to be a holding bin of unfinished projects.  The last six month here, Kramer didn’t do anything in the garage.  That means none of the old projects got refinished and none of the new projects (yes he bought more while he was sick) got touched.  Going in the garage was pretty depressing.  It was a museum of good intentions.  It made all of sad to see…it made us feel like Kramer lived an unfinished life.  I started making decisions….what did I want to try to fix myself?  What could I fix with a little help that I wanted to keep?  Everything else was getting sold on the garage sale.

It took a couple hours but WOW.  My garage was actually nice and more spacious than ever.

After that, Craig said, “Let’s get those plants planted.”  Well, who am I to not take help so…we tackled the plants.

We got several outside plants from the funeral.  Kramer and I hadn’t landscaped or planted plants the front side on the house to the south.  We weren’t sure what we wanted and we are kind of “do it as we can afford it people”.  So this waited.  Well we got in PERFECT plants…hydrangeas and bridal wreath spirea.

I set the plants out where I wanted them and Craig went to work.  He’s such a trooper.


Of course little can be done without around here that Carver isn’t a part of!!


This hydrangea totally perked up after a good soaking!

Kalissa grabbed some really cute pictures of Carver.  Aren’t they cute?? Continue reading →

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