Living in stereo

I was on Nextdoor.com the other day and saw someone here in the village was giving away a nice stereo system, and Onkyo CD player, component, and tape deck. I immediately wanted it as I no longer have a way to play all my old mix tapes from the 90's. My tape players have all conked out, even both my old Walkmans. I exchanged DM's with the guy giving it away and it was a house just a few blocks away over on Division Street. The house was empty and being sold, it belonged to his mother-in-law. He told me the stereo was nice unit, she was a big jazz fan. I couldn't take the stereo wires that hooked into the speakers because they went behind the wall unit out of reach. I decided to take a gamble and take everything...if it didn't work after I got some new wires, well, I'd just throw it all away. I got on Amazon and found 50 feet of stereo speaker wire for only 10 bucks. I got it yesterday and hooked up the system today...and it works GREAT. The sound is amazing. I'm playing one of my old tapes as I write this. I'll say it again: FREE is the best price in the world!



Right now I have it sitting on top of the cabinet in the TV room. I may put it in the shelves down below, I'd have to drill some holes in the back. I have to measure to sit if it will fit. A good 'project of the future'.

What a crock

I spied a bunch of furniture and household items on the curb in front of a house down the block from me. I sauntered down there of course. The house has seen better days and is for sale. It was mostly junky stuff, ugly furniture, kids' toys, etc...but there was this clay crock jug. Scott said, "you could paint that dark gray and use it for something, maybe an umbrella stand." So I took it. Got it home, sanded it, primed it, and put two coats of gray paint on it. And just like that it modernized it. I'm using to hold all my wrapping papers in the craft room upstairs. Funny, I have been thinking I needed something like that for literally years, something heavy that wouldn't tip over when all the rolls were in it.

BEFORE

AFTER

Addressing a stone

Years ago I put a rock in front of the house next to the driveway with my house number spray painted on it. Over the years the paint faded. I still had the stencil I used in the basement so i re-painted it putting a drop shadow of white behind the black numbers. You can really see it now.

Much mulch

Scott suggested mulching all the 'new' beds when we were done cleaning them out and moving things around. He said it would be the final clean touch to give everything a polished look. He was right. We got a dark brown mulch called "Easthampton Mix" from a place called Easthampton Masonry. They deliver it in a bid dump truck and leave it in a pile on your property, in my case on the driveway. They sell it by the 'yard', so we got 3 altogether. Once we placed it all around we decided we needed another two yards to finish things off, especially the wide expanse in front of the privet on the street (a Herculean that Scott did all by himself that took 4 days). Everything looks great as you can see by these photos.

The small blue bureau

Another example of putting positive energy out into the universe and having it come back to you. I was offering to give Scott one or two of my drawers in my bedroom bureau for him to put his clothes in. He said no worries, he was fine keeping his stuff folded on a chair. Well, THE VERY NEXT DAY I was going into town and a house along the way had a big FREE sign in the front yard with a bunch of odds and ends and small furniture pieces, one of which was a very cute little bureau in an ocean blue color. I came straight home and told Scott about it and we hopped back in the car and went and got it (it was only two blocks from my house). It works perfectly on the side of the bed and holds all of his things neatly. No more piles on the chair and on the floor. I love the way the color works well with the ocean painting we put leaned on top of it.

A case of shingles

I had English ivy in the bed below my dining room windows for years. Not a good idea. The ivy is so strong it would literally get under the shingles and pry them loose. On top of that they covered the pieces on the bottom rows near the foundation and rotted them across the bottom. Lesson learned. I'll never do that again. So Scott pulled them all out a few weeks ago. I wanted to plant new blue hydrangea in that bed but before I could do so I needed to have the shingles replaced. I got estimates from 3 carpenters and went with the middle bid. It only too two guys one afternoon to repair the damage and it looks good. It was a costly mistake but I'm glad it's fixed. Here's a progression of pictures from BEFORE to AFTER...

I realized after the fact that the shingles underneath the sliding glass door were rotted too. So I replaced them myself with the extra shingles that were left over from the job. 

She's a brick house

I've been working on overhauling my yards from top to bottom this Spring with the help of my friend Scott. Aside from clearing out all the beds from leaves, weeds, and overgrown ivy, he suggested I really continue the red brick edging I have in both front and back yards. But where was I going to get more bricks? If memory served they only come in huge pallets of 200 or so, way more than I calculated I needed. I need 50 or 60 at most. I posted a notice on Nextdoor.com, a community newsletter and bulletin board. Coincidentally my next-door neighbor Dan saw my posting and said our other neighbor Ron across the street from me had a pile of bricks he wanted to get rid of. He contacted him and just like that I had my bricks! It must have been the positive energy I was putting out into the universe for them to land right in my lap. It was just enough to finish all the beds and the brick path on the side of the house. Best of all was the cost. FREE is always the best price.