Crafty garden

I have two new posts up on my craft blog!
I also have a lot of gardening in my future, but for now our big reveal is a bit underwhelming, even though it represents hours of hard work (mostly Paul's) over days, culminating this past Sunday when we finally finished moving all the compost from the driveway to our garden:

That beautiful wooden border?  is Paul's weeks of hard work and skill, and by turning our garden into a raised bed, we're hoping to take our veggie growing to the next level.  And also overcome the problem of lots of grass creeping into our garden.  And above when I said *we* finished moving all that dirt?  I really meant Paul.  I pushed a grand total of one wheelbarrow full of compost from the driveway to the garden, and Paul did the rest.  But on Sunday, I raked it all out.  And as soon as I can, I will be planting  the lettuces and cabbage, asparagus, spinach, and kohlrabi that are ready and waiting to keep the lonely rhubarb company.  Can you see him in the corner?  Here he is:

This is his second year in our garden, so we should be able to harvest stalks for pie and other yumminess!

AFTER we had worked in the garden and the rest of the yard for hours on Sunday afternoon, I used the remaining daylight to finally repot all my houseplants, and they sorely needed it.  I had moved the three biggest plants into big white pots from Ikea a couple of weeks ago, but the rest were waiting patiently, and now they're all happy in their new homes:

I really love all my houseplants!  Can you believe the pointsettia still has so much red?  It seems pretty happy in my north-facing picture window, so hopefully a real pot to call its own will make it even happier!  The peace lily in the middle has yet to perk up, but I'm still hopeful.  And my favorite are the succulents on the right:  the giant aloe, and the trumpet jade from a clipping my mom gave me over two years ago.

Lots more gardening pics to come, hopefully this weekend if the weather cooperates at all!  Are you planting anything this spring?  Edible, decorative, or both?  What's your favorite veggie, and if I grow it in my garden, will you help me eat it later this summer?

Inspected

The home inspection went very well, and we really liked the guy that did it. He's in business for himself, and also is an electrician and does a lot of other home repair. He did a great job.

We'll be asking the current owner to install GFI plugs in the kitchen and bathrooms to make our home compliant for the FHA assessment, and there is also a secondary electrical panel in the basement that has a major recall and needs to be replaced.

The only other issue is radon. We're going to have to shell out around $800 for a mitigation system, so I've been reading up about it online. We're going to ask the current owner to share the cost with us, so hopefully that will help.

Other than that, the home inspector said our house was "immaculate" and was really impressed! He even gave us some good tips for stripping the wallpaper. So we're feeling happier than ever about our new home!

I've been continuing to think about what colors to paint, and have even been reading some design blogs, like this one that my cousin Katy recommended.

I took some pictures of the outside and a video tour of the inside, so I'll post those this evening hopefully. I think the video might be too long to post all at once, so I have to figure out how to split it up. But once it's up, I'm open to any and all decorating suggestions! I just want to get rid of the wallpaper!!