The (Very) Slow Evolution of a Rock Garden

You may remember from this post way back in October and this post back in January that we've been working on a rock garden against the back wall of the house. Well, "work" is kind of an overstatement. We've been dragging our feet on it (um, I'm not really sure why) but with growing season upon us, we thought we'd better get things going a little before the bed gets taken over by weeds again.

Robert put down some weed barrier back in January but somehow little green buggers always find a way to pop up around the corners and seams. We thought a double layer of barrier and rocks would gives us a little more defense. So today we finally bought some rocks to fill in the bed. We got as many bags as my little Corolla could handle and were able to fill in about half the space:

We'll definitely need another trip to Lowe's to get more rock, but the exposed weed barrier should keep things at bay for another week or two.

Eventually I'd like the space to look a little something like this:

Once we get that first layer of small rocks down, I can start the hunt for some bouldery-type rocks and some good plants...

Making Your Own Household Cleaners

In an effort to be a little more green and a little less toxie, I've been experimenting with making my own cleaning products over the last couple of years. I started out making my own glass cleaner and just slowly added products as I found more recipes and ideas. They really aren't hard to make and can definitely save you some dollars. And the ingredients that go into them (for the most part) are common grocery store and household items: water, white distilled vinegar, baking soda, and liquid castile soap*.

Here are my favorite DIY concoctions :

glass cleaner (for windows, mirrors, shower doors)

• equal parts water and vinegar in a spray bottle
• spray and rub it down with newspaper 

all-purpose surface spray

• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup white distilled vinegar
• 1 teaspoon castile soap
• 20 drops lavender essential oil 
• (put it all in a 32 oz. spray bottle)

For years we've been using the Method surface spray, which we've really like. It smells great is just generally a good product. But I've been experimenting with this recipe (which I found here on Young House Love) to try to match the feel and smell of a store-bought cleaner. Until recently, I hadn't been adding the essential oil 'cause I just didn't have it around the house. A trip to Whole Foods revealed just how expensive this sh*t is. Am I the only one who didn't know about this? A small 15mL bottle is like eight bucks. I bit the bullet and bought it—I figured I can get a few batches of spray out of it. And the lavender definitely adds a little something something to the mix.

soft scrub (for bathtubs, sinks, and fixtures)

•  roughly equal parts baking soda and castile soap 

The first thing I do with this is gauge the amount of surface area I'm trying to clean. Then I pour out some baking soda in a little mound right into the sink/tub/etc. I add about an equal amount of castile soap...

...and then just mix them together with my hand until the it has a pasty consistency.

I rub it over the surface I'm cleaning and then scrub it with a wet rag. Then just rinse off the remaining goop. It really does make your porcelain all nice and shiny.

There are tons of recipes you can find out there for natural household cleaners. These are just some easy ones that have worked for me (I've gotten a lot of my ideas from that post I mentioned above on YHL and from this book a friend gave to me). 

* You may have to trek it to Whole Foods to get liquid castile soap.

Dining Room Evolution

Now that the mirror project is finally done and I've added a few other touches, I thought I'd give a little "360 degree" tour of our pretty-much-finished dining room. First, here's how the room looked about four months after we moved in (in June 2009):

 And here's what it looks like today:

The most dramatic change was opening up the kitchen into the dining room (which entailed removing the built-in bookcase on the right and the shelf that ran across the bookcases). We also repainted the entire dining room/living room area (way back in June when we were smack in the middle of the kitchen overhaul). It went from that kind of salmon color to a nice gray, which definitely goes better with the espresso table and the medium brown kitchen cabinets. We actually replaced the door going out to the backyard during the summer of 2010—it was the only big project we did that year while we were saving up for the kitchen. Painting the back of the bookcase and adding a pendant light over the table were easy changes that made a big difference.

Here's another view of the room from the kitchen:

And remember that bookcase we removed? It found a new home on the other side of the room:

I knew we'd have to remove it to get the look we wanted for the kitchen, but I just couldn't bear to throw it out or discard it. The bookcases are original to the house and one of the things we loved when we first saw the place. Thankfully the contractor who took out our wall was able to cut off the bookcase in one piece and move it. Then he added crown molding around the top to make it look cohesive with the space. It was great to salvage the bookcase and keep some much needed storage and display space. It's where all of our board games, candles, and photo albums live:

And although it's not dining-room related, I have to say that hanging up this little coat rack by the carport entrance has kind of changed my life.

Instead of plopping down my bag and keys wherever, they go right on a hook. If you're thinking about getting one, go for it.

Here's a larger view of the entire area so you can kind of see the lay of the land:

So I would say this turkey (a.k.a dining room) is pretty much done in my book. I'm comin' for you next, living room: