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National Night Out

August 5, 2008

The Westview Community Organization, which Patrick and I are part of, participated in tonight’s National Night Out. The purpose of the nationwide event is to get neighbors out and mingle and get information about public safety. The WCO sponsored hot dogs and refreshments and passed out information ranging from fire detectors, to important phone numbers, to security video cameras. Lieutenant Deborah Cox, District 4 Councilwoman Cleta Winslow, and NPU-T Chair Kwabena Nkromo were some of the public figures that stopped by to show their support.

Neighbor Julie Orr chats with WCO Vice President Scott Smith.

Westview National Night Out 2008

Cleta Winslow chats with some of the community’s ladies.

Westview National Night Out 2008

Michelle Green passes out public safety information.

Westview National Night Out 2008

WCO Development Committee Chair Kenny Ellsworth and girlfriend Leslie Gage chat with Patrick. (We’re part of the Development Committee as well – so many projects, so little time!)

Westview National Night Out 2008

WCO President John Davis works hard behind the grill.

Westview National Night Out 2008

Patrick and I had a really nice evening. We helped put up some of the decoration and getting things ready for people to come. Then it was nice to mingle with our neighbors over some hot dogs (though it was sweltering hot!). The evening ended really pleasantly when it took us an hour to get home because we ran into neighbor after neighbor on the way home (and we only live about half a block from where the event took place!). After running into our first 3 sets of neighbors we were ready to continue on our way home. We had taken some left over helium balloons with us to give to our neighbor’s three adorable children. As we were walking down the street we realized the kids were at another neighbor’s house whom we hadn’t met…of course they were so excited to get the balloons. This homeowner that we hadn’t met was sitting and chatting with another neighbor that we know, so he called us over to meet the other neighbor. As we chatted with the two men the ice cream truck came by and our new acquaintance went to buy his little boy some ice cream – and came back with an ice cream for all of us! I’d only met this guy 5 minutes and he bought us ice cream!

So as we are drawing near our 2-year anniversary mark of being in the neighborhood (where has time gone?!) we were excited to realize how many neighbors we already know and how many new neighbors we keep meeting. It makes it a great community feeling when you can approach all of your neighbors and randomly get engrossed in conversation (and in some instances unexpectedly get treated to ice cream). It’s nights such as tonight that once again make us realize how much we love the Westview community!

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A New Light for the Hall

July 25, 2008

When we were picking out light fixtures for the house we forgot to include a light for the hall, so we opted for a cheap white light that was just laying around. It had been removed from either one of the bedrooms or the living room. For the past year and a half it served it purpose, but on our trip to Europe this year we stumbled across a Moroccan light at “Garten Tag” (Garden Day) in Steffi’s grandma’s town in Germany. We were really indecisive about buying it at first because we would have to haul it with us across Europe and back to Atlanta, but in the end the light won.

Getting it back wasn’t as bad as expected since the lady at the market took a lot of care wrapping it in bubble wrap. What proved to be more of a problem was finding a canopy to hang it from. If you go to Lowe’s or Home Depot the canopies they sell are attached to the lights, so you have to buy the whole light to get one little piece! Grr!

After looking at a number of lamp stores a sales rep finally pointed us in the right direction. If you are local to Atlanta we went to Lamp Arts on Howell Mill Road by the water reservoirs. They had just what we needed, and they sell parts for lamps and chandeliers. Apparently this is not very common. Who would have guessed?

We got back home and were all set to hang the light. We started working at around five – hoping to get it done before the sun set. Since we were replacing the light we had to cut the breaker and were worried about not being able to see what we were doing.

We did all the wiring, attached the chain, and took down the old light. Everything was going smoothly, and then we realized the rod that fastened the canopy to the ceiling was too long. When we screwed it in it was hitting the back of the metal box that houses the electrical wires. Doh! Off to Lowe’s we went to buy a deeper one.

We bought one that was 1.5 inches deep (the original one was about 1 inch deep), and we got back and screwed it in. Up went the light a second time, and bam – we had the same problem. After scratching our heads for a few minutes I realized the actual hole in the ceiling needed to be deeper. Since we have drywall over our old plaster (not our doing!) I was able to knock out the plaster and put the boxer deeper in the ceiling.

Five hours after we started it finally worked! (We ate dinner in between there, so it didn’t really take the full five hours.)

The close-up detail of the light.

Hallway Moroccan light

Here’s how it looked before. Borrrring!

Hallway light

Much better. Now we just need to paint the walls.

Hallway Moroccan light

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General Updates

July 24, 2008

I thought I would post some general updates…

Westview Bungalow

Front of our house

It seems like it’s been a while since I’ve posted an exterior house shot. We installed some hooks this spring so we could hang up ferns – and I’m loving them! Otherwise our house is still pink, still has that ugly tree stump, and still has that beat up path. At least one of them will get worked on soon…but I’m not going to tell you which one! :)

I’ve talked about our kudzu musings and frustrations in the past (See photos from May 2007, June 2007, July 2007 I, July 2007 II, and September 2007), and took a photo of the neighbors yard last October (2007):

Lost in kudzu field

Lost in kudzu field

Well I’m glad to finally be able to present some change! Our new neighbor moved in back in April. He’s fought unsuccessfully with the landlord to get the back yard cleaned up so his kids could play in it. He has finally decided to take matters into his own hands and look at how far he got! I have never seen the back of that backyard cleared up since we’ve lived here, so I’m just amazed at the view – I’m not used to it!

Kudzu field removed

Kudzu field removed

So in the meanwhile back to our garden…

Vegetable bed

Vegetable bed

…I think we have a vegetable garden buried under those weeds somewhere! This year we had planted tomatoes, beans, zucchini, bell pepper, hot pepper, and cucumber. Our tomatoes caught some disease so we haven’t seen any harvest from them. The beans seem to grow at a steady pace, so we’ve collected beans here and there and are freezing them until we have enough to make something with. We’ve harvested a couple of zucchini’’s and were a bit disappointed with how hard they were on the outside (any tips?). The cucumber has yet to deliver. The hot peppers have had a few that we’ve collected and dried. And the bell pepper had one of decent size that was ready to be harvested when we found a squirrel had gotten to it before us! (Next one is growing now.) The weeds have yet to be removed…we’re still not quite caught up from having gone on vacation, and the torching heat, killer mosquitoes, and “convenient” rain only on weekends has hindered us from tackling the bed. (The ever-growing grass has kept us busy in the meanwhile too.) Oh yeah, and don’t we look classy with our pile of crap on the driveway?!

And more gardening…

Front yard landscaping

Front yard landscaping

This bed looked so cute last fall, but isn’t quite as cute this year. We haven’t planted anything new, but I was excited to see the fern overwintered since it indicated it wasn’t supposed to. The yellow annuals obviously didn’t make it, but I’m glad to see the mum’s have made a return. In the meanwhile I’ve been really disappointed with the boxwoods. I was really fixed on having them as the evergreen backdrop in that bed, but they’re not doing well at all. I think they may not be getting enough water – whenever it rains the water doesn’t go on the boxwoods due to the houses overhang. I was sooo determined to have them there! We already replaced one of the plants in the spring, but now only two of the plants have survived. Anyone know anything about Japanese Boxwoods? Is it worth replanting new ones? They only get morning sun and like I mentioned hardly get any rain water. I’m simply determined to have an evergreen that doesn’t grow above approximately 3 feet in that spot that will survive in Zone 7.

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Repointing The Brick

July 9, 2008

This is a project that finally feels really accomplishing. Not that we technically lifted much of a finger to do it. But it’s definitely a bigger house improvement project – getting the foundation’s brick repointed!

Two houses over from us a house had sat empty ever since we bought our house. It was a cute enough bungalow…granite foundation, several built-ins (kitchen, dining room, and living room), a number of fire places, and even some original light fixtures! Though Patrick and I have been able to see past the neglect we realized it was still a house in need of some TLC. Especially the granite foundation was looking a bit sad where blocks looked very loose. Finally after all this time of sitting there a “For Sale” sign appeared. It sat on the market for months, and just before we went out of town someone bought it. When we returned from vacation we were thrilled to see they had worked on the granite mortar – and it looked great! The workers also continued with the brick foundation on the back of the house, so one day I decided to walk over there and inquire who had done it. We have long realized that our brick foundation was in need of some new mortar as well, so we went ahead and got a quote.

We had previously researched about repointing bricks. Unfortunately the results weren’t so fun. Basically from what I’ve read it comes down to this: These older houses were built with a softer mortar. Shortly after the bungalow timeframe harder mortar mixes were introduced. All this eventually means that using the harder mortar can damage the old bricks. So what does this mean? “We need to get our mortar analyzed for some $500?! And that doesn’t even include the labor or figuring out how to get the materials for the analyzed results?!” I’m all for trying to do things the right way and respecting historic aspects, but we had to draw the line somewhere. Some of the bricks already had new mortar slapped on, so was this such a bad decision anyway? I’m trying to make myself feel better here – I hope the old-brick-and-mortar gods forgive me one day.

So over the last few days we’ve had Victor and his crew work on repointing our bricks. Since the old crumbling mortar (can you even consider it crumbling anymore when it’s really just turned into sand?) was a reddish color we opted to die our mortar with the “Terra Cotta” liquid cement color. On most of the house they simply scraped out the loose mortar and replaced it with the new one. However in two locations the condition was so bad (they were able to pick out the bricks by hand!!!) that they rebuilt the entire section. We think they did a great job and are so excited how much better our foundation looks!! (Now we just need to get rid of that god-awful pink color!)

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick after

After

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick after

After

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick after

After

This was one of the walls they entirely rebuilt. Imagine how scared we were when they just picked out bricks near the supporting corner by hand!

Re-pointing brick before

Before

Re-pointing brick

Patrick going “”Can you believe that”?!”

Re-pointing brick

In the process

Re-pointing brick after

After

Yay for another completed project! :)

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We’ve been busy, busy, busy!

May 11, 2008

We have really been slacking on the blog lately, but Steffi’s parents were in town visiting so we have a good excuse! Of course we did continue working on the house (and the neighborhood) while they were here. We have made some great progress in the garden. We enlarged our vegetable garden, came up with a garden plan, laid out a path, created some new flower beds, weeded the old flower beds, and started a compost pile.

Westview bungalow garden plan

Garden Plan

It took us a while to come up with the plan, but it really helps to have a clear vision of the garden.

We also finally put up the Westview street toppers yesterday. We have been working on these since October (Steffi was the lead on the project), so it was very rewarding to finally see it all coming together. We had a small unveiling ceremony at Ontario Park, and then neighbors drove around with ladders installing them. The street toppers are very important for Westview since people often think we are part of West End.

Westview street topper

Westview street toppers

Months of hard work finally paid off!

Lastly, a couple weeks ago (when Steffi’s parents were visiting) we went to the Inman Park tour of homes. Inman Park is a beautiful old neighborhood on the east side of town, and it holds a lot of historical significance to Atlanta. Their tour of homes is always one of our favorites.

As we walked up to house number six on the tour Steffi’s dad headed inside while we remained outside reading about the house in the handout they provide you. Her dad promptly returned with a huge grin and informed Steffi’s mother she was in for a big surprise! As it turned out Steffi’s younger sister had gone to school with the homeowner’s son. Surprise, surprise! They had recently built a traditional Austrian Weinkeller (wine cellar) in the basement using old bricks, so the conversation turned to where they acquired the bricks.

I’ll pause the story here to explain why old bricks are significant. We have been looking for old weathered bricks since we bought the house. We want to tear up the front walkway, which is currently broken concrete, and replace it with brick. We specifically wanted old bricks to match the old house. New bricks just don’t have the same character. Unfortunately we haven’t had much luck. It seems that when a building is torn down these days a lot of the time the bricks are sold, recaptured, and then re-sold. Additionally, we don’t have many connections to the demolition industry in Atlanta, so we had no clue how to go about trying to ask for bricks that are headed landfill. This has been a very frustrating situation for us.

Okay, so back to the story… Sandi told us she would have to check with her husband, but they had a pile of old bricks left over in the backyard from the construction of the wine cellar. Could it be true?! Had we finally found the elusive bricks we were looking for? We got her email and phone number and left with our fingers crossed.

We waited for the weekend to be over since we knew they would be occupied with hundreds of people touring their home! Steffi sent a couple emails back and forth with Sandi, and finally the email we had been waiting for came through. She told us to come and get them!!!

This morning our neighbor Carl from West End rang our doorbell bright and early (10:30am) and offered to help us with his truck. We made a trip over there and filled up the truck and the trunk of our car. Then we headed back to the house to drop them off. We probably were able to move at 1/3 of the bricks on this first trip. (THANKS FOR THE HELP CARL!) Steffi and I then returned four more times by ourselves and were able to move the remaining bricks in our car. In the end when we stacked them up they look like a palette of bricks. Lucky for us it seems as if it is going to be exactly the number of bricks we need for the front path. Hooray!

So we have to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU TO SANDI AND KEVIN for giving us the bricks!! It means more to us than we can really express in words. They also put a lot of hard work into removing the mortar from the bricks, and we know that is no easy task. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

We had a lowrider with all those bricks in the trunk.

Trunk full of bricks

Trunk full of bricks

Pile of bricks

A big old “Pile-o-Bricks”

Steffi with bricks

A girl and her bricks have never been so happy!

Old Bricks

Check out the beautiful old bricks!

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