Hanging Gardens

I first remember hearing about Hanging Gardens when studying world history. The Babylonians built them waaaaaay back in the day, and the idea really struck me as one ahead of its time, and one that we could benefit greatly from in today's urban areas. Then, the Topsy Turvy hit the market, opening the world of gardening to anyone with the ability to hang a plant in a sunny space. I came across an informative NY Times article all about upside down, DIY gardening, and I am getting pretty excited about the idea! This summer my "garden" consists of a potted basil, some potted arugula, a potted tomato, a potted nasturtium, and some potted chard. They're actually doing fairly well, but they would look a lot cooler hanging upside down!

I see the light...

I am completely smitten with this unusual antique crystal chandelier. I'll have to hop on down to Olde Good Things here in Los Angeles... they have two LA locations!

Faux Pas

The house we have our fingers (and toes and legs and arms and eyes) crossed in hope it will become ours comes complete with an unfortunate, added-in-the-1970s, faux stone facade on the fireplace wall in the living room. Fortunately, this page offers three very simple steps for removing it. This should be a fun undertaking and I'm actually excited to see what lurks behind it. Assuming the house becomes ours, of course!

The Dish

Ever since stumbling on the image of the satellite dish gazebo for my post about offer #8, I have become absorbed with the idea of making one of my own. It is enough to get me excited about the idea of having one of those tech-dinosaurs in my new front yard!

I love the fantasy-land vibe of this one

I like the solid structural look of this one

And this one comes complete with the how-to nitty-gritty.

I'm sure that those of you who have been through the house hunt, especially in a market as competitive as ours, can sympathize with the feeling that life is on hold until an offer comes through and you get to closing day. My whole family and I are so ready for this search to be done. We've been at it for about six months now! We are excited to be able to get on with our lives, our new lives, as homeowners.

Offer #8

I don't really want to get into the nitty-gritty, but it looks like our long-held offer #7 is falling through. Let's just say I am sick of banks. So we're back to making offers and we submitted #8 today.... for your consideration:

Bungalow with swing-worthy front porch
Built in 1907
Two stories
large lot
large dining room
large kitchen
two bathrooms
bonus room
FIVE bedrooms.

And it has one of these in the front yard:

which I think would be really awesome used for something like this:

Popcorn

A lot of the houses we have been looking at have been graced with popcorn ceilings. And if we ever get to move into one of them, one of my first orders of business will be to get rid of that texturing! I came across this excellent resource for DIY popcorn ceiling removal, each step complete with its own instructional video! It looks pretty labor intensive, but I don't think it is something we can't handle doing on our own. So, bring on the popcorn!

It's in the bag

In my house, we're really good about taking our own bags when we go shopping. There is only one downside to this, and it is that we use those plastic shopping bags for our trash cans. So, we've been running out of bags, but we're not running out of trash (unfortunately!). While looking for biodegradable or compostable bags, I found that they were either not as biodegradable or compostable as one would hope OR they were outrageously expensive (as much a $5 per bag!). But now I have discovered Trellis Earth products and I am very excited to order my trash bags from them from now on! Their website is incredibly informative and details exactly what they mean when they claim a product is "biodegradable" or "compostable". And they sell wholesale to the public with free shipping, it can't be beat!