Home and Garden Living.com

I moved into my house in 2005.  For the first year or so I had plenty of ideas of things to do around the house and garden but never really got around to it.  As soon as I got married that all changed. One of the first things that needed to change was the amount of space we had. Most women love lots of closet space and that was a problem. A second bathroom was also needed.
So began the journey of adding a master suite to our small 3 bedroom 1 bath house.

This of course also created a major mess in the garden which pretty much had to be started from scratch after the renovations to the house were completed. The addition took 4 months to complete from the time I dug the new foundation to the day we received a certificate of occupancy from the city. We only added a couple of hundred square feet and made the house a 3 bedroom 2 bath. The master bedroom is now bigger with more closet space and a master bathroom that is about 12 x 8.

I just have to add here that for some reason I had this overwhelming desire to do the renovation myself. Partly from a creative perspective and partly due to financial reasons but for the most part I just felt like I had to build something. Not having done any construction work before I had my work cut out for me. The first thing I did was purchase a few books from the do it yourself rack at home depot.  I also found some great bargains on ebay for the DIY handyman.
For the next month or so Home Depot University became my second home. Saturday morning classes on “how to” became my favorite place to be. I also found myself frequenting construction sites in various stages of development. It’s amazing how much you can learn how something is done by just looking at other people’s work. When I was ready to get started I hired a couple of day laborers and got to work. Fortunately one of the guys was studying to become a contractor so it worked out great. It was a win win situation. I found someone that had a good idea of what needed to be done with plumbing and general construction.

The picture to the right shows the new section added on. The front of the house used to finish at the railing, so it was easy to follow the same roof line and just extend it out about 12 feet. I would have gone further but that was all the city set back requirements would allow. This picture was taken about 8 months after completion so the garden had a chance to grow a bit. I laid about 2000 square feet of sod and planted shrubs and trees. In retrospect I probably should have planted more desert type plants and shrubs and not quite so much grass as the Southern California weather requires that you use a lot of water.

The back yard was just dirt as there is a very large pine tree that offers lots of shade so the grass didn’t grow there. I searched around on craigslist for freebies and I found a couple wanting to get rid of all these red blocks so I went and picked them up and there was just enough to create a planter bed at the base of the tree. I put in a few plants that like shade and they have so far done pretty well. I laid a small brick retainer wall next to the concrete slab and then filled the area with some pebble pavers and small red stones.

The side yard was also a mess after construction so most of it was then covered with turf. however I created a small garden bed along the fence which was originally just an ugly gray cinder block wall. I painted it a light green color which I ended up not liking very much so I bought a darker green and was going to paint over it. I started by experimenting with a sponge putting blotches of dark green over the light and it looked pretty good, so I ended up doing the whole wall like that. I think it turned out much better than having it one solid color. The queen palms and giant bird of paradise were a nice finishing touch. My wife also planted some herbs and vegetables there as well which have thrived in the hot sun.

I hope you find some interesting topics on here and maybe pick up a few ideas to use around your home. Make sure to leave a comment or ask any questions you may have. If I can’t answer them I will try to point you in the right direction.