Seedlings Planted!

That's right, over the weekend I finally made it to Home Depot, no thanks to that old to-do list, and managed to pick up some seeds while I was there. I managed to pick up the following:

• Peat Cells (3 Packages of 32)
• Vigoro Tomato and Vegetable Food (I'll admit I have no idea what to do with this, yet)
• Miracle Grow Flower and Vegetable Soil
• Vegetable Seeds:
• Watermelon (didn't plant yet)
• Roma Tomato
• Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
• Gourmet Blend Lettuce Leaf (didn't plant yet)
• Black-Seeded Simpson Lettuce Leaf (didn't plant yet)
• Green Onion
• Broccoli
• Sugar Snap Peas
• Green Peppers
• Herb Seeds:
• Catnip
• Italian Parsley
• Oregano
• Cilantro
• Chives
• Sweet Basil

I have no experience gardening, or starting seeds. I read a little bit about it online, but really, not enough to actually know what I was doing. I figured I'd just jump into it and see what ended up growing.

This was my set up. I don't know what the weather is like where you're from, but it was 30 degrees in Mass, and I did not feel like bundling up, so I grabbed a cardboard box, a little packing tape to make sure the bottom was all sealed so dirt didn't fall everywhere, my peat cells, seeds, spoon, and (not pictured) a small glass bowl.

 I filled each cell with one spoonfull of the soil. Some seeds said they had to be buried 1/4" from the surface, others were 2" so make sure you plan your soil accordingly! I lightly packed the dirt down with my fingers.

This is my photographic attempt at showing what the soil looks like with a hole in it for the seeds. I suppose if you're smart, you'll just follow the instructions for planting the seed however deep its supposed to go. I did a sort of mixed method where I put some seeds in the hole, then spread some out along the rest of exposed dirt, just so there more chance of getting them to grow. Or to smother them, I'm not really sure.

I was having a really hard time getting the seeds out of the bag and into my cells without dumping too many in one and leaving others bare, so I grabbed a tiny glass bowl to dump them into. It made it so much easier to distribute!

These are the tomatoes, you can see a few of the seeds are tucked away in their little holes, and some are spread out on the top layer.

Then I just topped them off with more soil, lightly packed, and spritzed them with lukewarm-ish water. Should the water be lukewarm? I don't know. I read on one of the prepared green house starter kits at Home Depot it should be for that kit, but I figured, it couldn't hurt my little seeds. Right?

And that my friends, is how I started my seedling journey. To those who are interested in perhaps starting their own seed adventure, here is how much mine cost:

3 Peat Cells (Package of 32):	$7.77 ($2.59 each)
Vigoro Tomato & Veg. Food (3.5 lb):	$5.98
Miracle Gro Flower/Veg Soil (1 CF):	$3.33
Seeds:	$15.19 (~$1 per pack)
Total: $32.27

Anyone else starting some seeds? Or a garden? I plan on posting a tutorial on how to make your own plant labels, and if you have nice handwriting (in comparison to my awful handwriting) they are super cute! Stay tuned!

Weekend Accomplishments

In honor of posting a to-do list, my boyfriend and I decided we'd get some things done that weren't actually listed. Don't get me wrong, we tried to do a few things on the list. Replacing the heaters seemed like a good place to start. We had actually purchased them on sale in the winter for around $50 a pop for the 6 foot long ones.

This is our living room heater. It's old, and grody. This is actually the second heater we worked on, the first being the one in the dining room. It was my intention of replacing the large 8 foot long heater in the dining room with a 6 foot one, so we'd be able to fit our hutch flat against the wall. We found out the power actually comes out closest to where the hutch is, so for this project we'd have to drill some holes in the wall, which we weren't prepared to do.  Back to this guy, the living room heater.

I'm aware you're supposed to take these apart and clean them. Clearly, we didn't. Gross.

After Victor removed all the screws attaching this bad boy to the wall, it popped right off without a problem. There was a bunch of black stuff behind it, which I was worried was mold. We think its actually some sort of burned dirt/dust? It came right off with a damp cloth, and pretty much smelled like potting soil.

This would be where I show pictures of us installing the new awesome heater that can be centered right under our window! That would be of course, if we didn't buy the wrong heaters, you know, in December. We have electric heating. The heaters we bought? For a hot water system. I think it's safe to say we're the best home owners probably ever (sarcasm).

We'll be heading to HomeDepot sometime this week (which we didn't do this weekend even though it was part of our list). Hopefully we'll be able to at least get a store credit, which will be fine since we have so many other things there we need to pick up. Talk about disappointing though.

Instead, we did a general clean up of the downstairs, ran a lot more stuff to the basement (including new blinds, a shelf system I bought from Ikea, and a bunch of other stuff that should've gone down there forever ago), cleared off our stairs, swept, vacuumed, and cleared out our entry closet.

This is the top of the closet before. Home to tools, power tools, oh, and more tools. Tools that belong in the basement, so that's where they are now. Hooray!

This is the top of the closet now. We kept one generic tool box here (which, if you'll notice, isn't in the before picture, because it was on the floor next to the couch...) some bungee cords, the box containing our floor spacers, and bed risers. Okay, so we're not perfect. Everything but the tool box should totally go in the basement. After seeing this image, I don't get why we left those there to begin with. At least its better, right?

And here's the bottom of the closet. I didn't take any other pictures of the stuff in the bottom because A. it's too embarrassing B. I'm forgetful and C. if I stopped to take more pictures I'd likely have taken way longer or not done it at all. Allow me to give you a quick run down of what I found:

• Potting Soil, from when I actually worked on our garden, the first year we lived there (circa 2007)
• Christmas wrapping paper, from two years ago
• Winter shovel from two years ago (it only snowed twice this past winter, totally didn't need it here)
• My prom dress shoes, from 2003, and my senior dinner dance shoes, 2004
• Retro video game controllers in the white box there. Including the NES Zapper...
• White trash bag with two different pairs of slippers
• TJ Max returns from Christmas two years ago (I'm seeing a pattern...)
• Some door hardware
• Lots more shoes that don't fit, and probably haven't fit since 2007

About 7 pairs of shoes went to donation. Including a NEW pair of men's 16.5US sized Nikes. I should mention here I've never met someone who wears a size 16.5US men's shoe. And the prom shoes. Oh the stuff we hold on to. 3 pairs of shoes were missing their mate, so in the trash they went.

Here is the bottom of the closet after. The shoes we did end up keeping went upstairs to the bedroom closet where they belong (I think we kept 4 pairs?). Looks a lot better though. We can actually shut the door now too. I think that's the first time it's actually been able to shut since we moved in.

Maybe over the course of the week, or this coming weekend I'll actually get something done on the to-do list...

Get On That Already!

I haven't posted in a while. We've been in a sort of lull between work (as most lazy people do) so we haven't been getting a whole bunch done. Hoping to change that this weekend! I've got a list going of things I'd like to accomplish.

• Replace the living room and dining room heaters. Our current ones are old and disgusting. Replacing them AFTER Winter is, of course, the best laid plan. Who replaces them before they use them? Psh.
• Clean out and reorganize the bathroom. Last time I did this was last January, but this will probably a life long project. 
• Clean out and reorganize the bedroom. We desperately need to get a new mattress but can't even get it in there until we clear out the extra stuff  in this room.
• Finish clearing the pile of trash in the basement. Yes, its still lurking there. 
• Clear out the stairway and begin removing the carpet. 
• Hit up Home Depot
• Return Sump Pump
• 1 gallon of Behr in "Silver Sateen" (for office)
• Template for Cabinet Hardware (for knobs for entertainment stand)
• Wall/Floor Scrapper (basement)
• 5 gallons of Drylok in White (basement)
• Polyester Roll/Brush to apply Drylok

Bathroom Mood Board Breakdown

 

Paint: Behr Dark Granite

Mirror: Ikea HEMNES $50 (painted Martha Stewart's Egg Yolk, high gloss)
Sconces: Progress Lighting Lynzie Collection $40 each (need two)
Shower Curtain: Cotton X-Long Waffle Shower Curtain $25
Shower Curtain Liner: X-Long Fabric Shower Curtain Liner $11
Hooks: Everbilt Single Robe Hook $4.30 (painted Martha Stewart's Egg Yolk, need two)
Flooring: US Ceramic Tile Avila Gris 12x24" Porcelain $3.53 sq. ft. (need 50.4 sq. ft.) $178
Bathtub: American Standard 5 ft. Whirlpool $599
Wall Alcove: US Ceramic Tile Bright Snow White 3x6" $.23 ea (need 480 sq. ft.) $110.40
Faucet: MOEN Chateau Single-Handle Tub/Shower Faucet $90
Art: Paris Postcard Collection 4x6 Yellow $15
Frames for Art: Ikea RIBBA Frame $3 (need 9)
Bath Mat: Already Owned
Bath Hardware: Already Owned

Project Total: $1,157