oh, the house, it's so painful.

[kaigou]

The worst thing about ADHD is that good ol' diffused attention span as I walk through a house with a thousand possibilities. I need to do this, but there's that to finish, and I want to do this, but I never finished that, and what about this, and if I could just finish something...

This entire post is mostly to organize my thoughts, make something I can come back to, refresh my memory so I don't forget -- again -- where I'm at and what the Next Steps are. And, of course, if you have suggestions or personal experience or input of any sort, please do feel free to jump in. (Some items in my want-to-do lists have example pictures, which are also all in the scrapbook, if you want to see all at once.)

That book I got in college from a friend should've had a theme not of, "oh, the places you'll go," but "the places you'll redo."

Things left undone, by room:

• entry-way alcoves
  
• facing for getabako kutsubako
  
• painting, moulding
  
  
• repair coffemaker drawer
  
• build toaster/toaster oven drawer
  
• install flip-down door
  
• build replacement drawer under oven
  
• install pan-shelf over microwave
  
• strip/refinish oven cabinet
  
• install window sill & shelves
  
• install soffits w/underlighting
  
• tear down arches, redo spans
  
• tear down & rebuild pantry door
  
• remove countertop from sink to cabinet
  
• remove old sink
  
• install dishwasher platform
  
• build up countertop level
  
• remove old, install new drawers
  
• install new sink
  
• strip/refinish base cabinets
  
• build drawer fronts
  
• install hardware
  
• do cement overlay for countertops
  
• install/finish veneer for fridge surround
  
• strip vinyl flooring
  
• install cork flooring
  
• paint kickplates
  
• paint walls
  
• finish/install wood moulding/trim
  
  
• install knock-through for recycleables
  
• build mudroom addition
  
• install new kitchen/garage door
  
• drywall new walls
  
• install shelves in mudroom
  
• remove/replace pantry wall
  
• install pocket door for pantry
  
• replace pantry shelves
  
• insulate pantry, mudroom
  
  
• remove/replace garage backdoor
  
• install screendoor over backdoor
  
  
• build lockable door for powertool cabinet
  
• move storage to new metal rack
  
• unpack & sort wood scraps/shorts
  
• tune up/clean table saw
  
• tune up/clean drill press
  
• build router cabinet
  
• build clamp table
  
• build drill press table

...and that's not even starting on the dining room, with shelves and screens and upright beams.

I will finish it. Damn it.

And, for the yard, there's a list now, too. Except there's good news for that one!

About a month ago, I was bringing stuff in from an errand, and a kid was mowing the next door yard. He offered to mow our lawn, and I'm looking at the waist-high grasses and flowers and thinking, no way -- he said he'd do it for $15, and I told him I wouldn't pay him less than $25.

So he came back a day or two ago, checking on our yard, and CP had him run it over again. Afterwards, I caught him to ask, would he be willing to move the rocks from along our perimeter, bring them in closer, arrange them how I say? He told me at least three times (and ma'aming me the whole time! my gawdz!) that he doesn't know much but if I tell him what goes where, he'd do it, but he'd talk to his uncle, find out how much would be a reasonable hourly rate.

He came back to the house later, to tell me he talked to his uncle, who thought $10 an hour would be a fair rate. Oh, and then there was the "I don't want to cheat you, ma'am," and all worried the rate was too high, and I said -- while thinking, "okay, so construction guys with no experience make about $13 starting, around here, and landscaping crews, I'd be paying about $50 for just one of them... what? what do you mean, $10 and hour? Are you high?"

But still... take that, you irritating landscaping assholes who won't even return my emails, or do and give me no info at-all. I can figure this shit out on my own, and damn it, I'll come up with a design that works, even if when it comes to the actual plants it means hiring one of the teacher-designers (woo for that) who'll spend an hour going over my tentative plant list and refining it for me.

The tentative list of yard ideas -- including those that, uhm, might be off the list for reasons of, y'know, money or feasibility, but hey... if I'm dreaming, I can always dream in stages, right?

like, hardscaping for front yard, which means:

• bushwhack front yard, leave cuttings in place
  
• water & bake entire yard*
  
• rototill front & side yards
  
• move topsoil to holding spot
  
• dig down to bedrock (maybe a foot!)
  
• install terraces (see pictures)
  
• replace topsoil
  
• throw down lots of wildflower seed
  
• plant three or four texas sage bushes along curb**
  
• mulch like crazy

* July would be the best time... give everything a good soaking, then lay down clear plastic, weighted with rocks. Two weeks, and the sun'll bake that dirt so thoroughly that not a single seed o' grass in there will ever come back. *pumps fist in air* Who needs pesticides or grass killer, when you can let the sun do all the work for you?

** those are the only plants I've identified as definites -- they don't like to be watered, they don't like to be 'managed', they don't like to be bothered at all, and they prefer hot sun, iffy drainage, mediocre soil. Give them all that, and they go bonkers big and bushy... and that is exactly my kind of plant.

and for the front garden/entryway, I want to increase the privacy -- make it so you can't see the front door from any angle as you drive up (not until you get out of the car and are standing on the driveway), improve the drainage across the property, and use either a permeable material (like cobbles/pavers + grass) or a raised, wooden walkway. What'd be really neat, I think, is a raised walkway that has a dry creekbed running underneath -- then, when it rains, the water could overflow from a rainbarrel into the dry 'creekbed', following a specific, planned, path across the entry area and into a rain-garden at proper distance from house foundation.

Of the elements in there, my little stubble-headed minion could possibly:

• build up terraced area around front entry
  
• dig postholes for walkway
  
• dig postholes for fencing/visual block
  
• install fencing/wall around front garden (one idea, another idea)

Of all the tasks, this would -- design-wise, effort-wise, engineering-wise -- be one I could do easily myself:

• install angled, raised walkway (one idea, another idea)

I will have to hire a professional for some stuff, though:

• repair/replace (or remove?) brick facing by front door -- water damage
  
• design/build porch overhang for front of house
  
• design/build lattice 'roofs' over south-facing windows (example)

I can rent a powerdriver, or hire someone to use a fancy saw for the job:

• remove brick 'decor' wall
  
• remove concrete sidewalk & front step
  
• remove back patio
  
• remove back step at garage door
  
• remove driveway

That concrete, then -- especially if I get someone to cut it up in squares -- would then be hefted out and used as part of the retaining walls in front & back. I'd use those larger (1x1 to 2x2) slabs as base to augment the terracing, and use the local stone already on the property as the caps. I dont plan to build more than 2' high, doing gravity walls, since more than 2' and I'd need to deal with drainage. More than 3', and I'd definitely need a structural engineer. Ffffttt. My yard's not that steep.

I suspect I would need to talk to a concrete expert to find out if I could just take out the driveway except for four 1.5' strips that would follow the car's wheelbases roughly -- and then fill in around those with topsoil and put down buffalo grass sod. It'll take, it won't grow past 6", it'll love being in the front yard's full sun, it's native anyway, it won't want to be watered more than rainfall would give it, and it'd be letting the ground soak up that rain instead of washing it across the driveway into the gully and into the creek. Plus, even with a concrete-drive (as opposed to tar), that's still a huge amount of reflective heat bouncing up from the front of our house.

Besides, it'd look cool. I want it to be like: oh, suburbia, suburbia, wait, there's a house here? It looks like... woods! and wildflowers! and small trees, but no, there's a house tucked away back here! I like houses that are a surprise -- outside, as well as in.

You can see, though, how I'm still a bit baffled about the order of things. Do I take out the concrete first, and then do the terracing -- so I can re-use the materials? Or do I do the terracing only around the front, and have the sidewalk removed but driveway left, and get the front garden arranged and then start on the rest? Would that cost more, to have someone come out twice -- or three times, if the back patio's in there, too? It's like project management, wait, it is project management: what are the dependencies? How many do I need on the team for this task, or that one? What's the timeframe for each?

And, lest we forget, the side yard(s)... first, the western (non-creekside) path:

• mild terracing to increase slope away from house foundation
  
• use old fence boards + mulch to create 3' path
  
• remove 1.5' stone walls along property line
  
• slant ground into path, install upright borders (stone on end)
  
• mulch like crazy, plant shade-happy plants on both sides

I guess I'll be asking the general contractor company -- who should be calling me on Tuesday, I expect -- about a bid on the cost to raise the A/C unit onto a higher platform, get it at least a little bit higher out of the floodplain. I doubt it's possible to do 3', but at least another 1' is better than flat on the ground...

On the eastern side of the house, the shade is dappled, at most -- but there are three large, old crape myrtles alongside the house, and I have no intention of digging those up. That means, though, that I can't terrace the ground there, raise it up any, or I'd be dumping roughly 3' deep of fill & topsoil around the tree roots. Damn it! So the most I've come up with is...

• remove stretch of old wood fence (from no-longer-there house's yard)
  
• mild terracing to slope ground away from house
  
• raised beds between trees, for shade-preferring bushes or plants?*
  
• terrace up 2', facing house
  
• dump rubble & fill on creekside of terrace wall (to create a semi-berm)
  
• throw down a pound or two of wildflower seed
  
• cover with lots of straw
  
• use old fence boards & mulch to put in 3' wide path

* If only Cooper Canyon Daisies liked dappled shade... the one I planted last year, all of 6" in diameter, is now about four feet across. Wah! Now, if only someone could tell me the proper time to dig up & divide plants, when you're in Zone 8. Uhm, July? They'll all be dormant then, from the heat...

And, finally, the backyard.

• terrace an oval around the house
  
• rototill over septic area, steam out bermuda grass
  
• lay down buffalo grass (sod, seed?)
  
• throw down plenty of straw
  
• remove (most of) patio
  
• build up 2' deep curve along house
  
• put down slate/brick/pavers? for center area
  
• build low (6' high) platform/deck
  
• install waterless pond at western end
  
• run dry creek through patio area, and over to gully
  
• berm land, mild terracing on opposite side
  
• build out stone walls along neighbor's fence
  
• plant shade-happy bushes (or gamas grass? hahaha) to fill in line-of-sight
  
• install lattice block between patio & master bedroom window
  
• put up pergola over patio (echo front-of-house treatment?)

Things I can do outside, some of which I'm halfway there...

• put up string lights for fun lighting
  
• hang new candle-lamps
  
• get those nifty citronella hangers like JH&JF have

Inside, long-term structural things -- which are really just dining room & the planned W/D replacement/move:

• install bathroom vents to attic
  
• install solar tubes -- 2 or 3 in hallway, 1 or 2 in guest bath
  
• install dryer vent-line
  
• remove coat closet & bathroom pantry
  
• frame & enclose new W/D closet

Oh, and as a note as long as I'm listing, need to also remember Things For Awesome Electrical Guy to do:

• move hall track lights to library
  
• install second switch in library (plus dimmer) for track lights
  
• install much better, not-so-bright hall lighting system
  
• install automatic sensor on hall light switch
  
• check GFIs in kitchen (fuse blows when you push on the faceplate)
  
• install hard-wired light by bed
  
• add GFI outlets to guest bath
  
• add two GFI outlets to master bath*
  
• replace light fixture in guest bath
  
• install exterior light over garage doors, with sensor
  
• remove/replace front light
  
• add outlet outside at lamp-height (for light strings)
  
• add 2nd switch to inside plate
  
• add circuit to kitchen for soffit/task lighting
  
• add 2 outlets in garage along west wall
  
• add dedicated outlet for power tools
  
• move, possibly rewire, kitchen switches: pantry, garage, ceiling fan into a line by pantry door

* although this will require removing the overlarge mirror, since there's nowhere else to put any outlets, unless we have them installed directly over the toilet...

That should keep A.E.G. busy for a while, I expect.

The rest'll keep me busy for at least the next, uhm, year or so...

And I still need to get my haircut before Thursday... bleah.