November: The Money Pit, part 3

In one day, we went from this:

to this:

Don't you just long to go rollerskating on it?

The house is still supported by magic and good intentions but at least the groundwork has been laid. Now we have to let the concrete cure for a few days.

November: The Money Pit, part 2

It sure doesn't take long for Murphy's Law to kick in, does it?

The pathetic excuse for a load-bearing post that I pointed out yesterday?  Not load bearing.  Not really touching anything at all.  What is keeping this entire corner of the house from falling?  The downspout?  I feel like I'm living in a Simpsons episode.

Bart Simpson: Ah, I wouldn't take it down if I were you. It's a load-bearing poster.

Maybe this explains why the back bedroom floor noticeably slants, and the walls have decorative features like this?

Anyway, the demolition is finished after one day, including the removal of the concrete.  Plans have been made to properly shore up the corner of the house, and the project has suddenly become more expensive and kind of scary.  However, the prospect of not fixing this problem is even scarier.

November: The Money Pit, part 1

It's been a while since we've had any work done on the house, but rotting porch steps, a roof letting water into the house, and oceans of standing water on the patio have forced us to take action. We met with our Guy on Saturday and tomorrow some burly men will start tearing off parts of our house. Eep!

BEFORE

Porch steps on their last legs; back of the house, including porch and roof and crawlspace to be rebuilt and patio to be replaced (it's not really that crooked, it's just the photo angle)

Another view of the porch; a hodgepodge of concrete forms our patio

The patio, which a tree root has broken into four pieces

Roof pulling away from the house; the post that supports the entire corner of a two-story house looks like this? and we never noticed??

Outer wall of crawlspace, exposed for the first time after we removed some overgrown shrubs this summer; shingles on the roof disintegrating

Inside the crawl space (yes, the paneling is held on with duct tape, and no, we didn't do that, but we didn't try to fix it, either); another part of the patio, including a sidewalk that doesn't go anywhere

Fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong!

October: North Park Village

On the advice of Mr. McGregor's Daughter, I made time in between Home Depot and Bears game last Sunday to go see some fall color at my favorite neighborhood place, the North Park Village Nature Center. Located in Chicago at Pulaski and Peterson, it is a lovely place to unwind and experience forest, wetland, and prairie all at once. I always promise myself that I'll go more often and so far this year I've done a little better. This time, I took my camera...

This praying mantis reminds visitors that smoking is bad for your health (unless you're a male mantis and your long-term health isn't really an issue); "hands" sculpture that used to be buried in the undergrowth but is now a prominent feature in the next section of woods to be restored

American basswood trees; basswood sapling in a cage (they can be vicious, you know!)

View across the wetland; more basswoods

Buck snacking on savanna grasses, I'm sure to the irritation of the habitat restorers; the female of a pair of twin fawns that were nursing until mom got nervous and walked away, leaving both fawns looking rather bereft

Again with the basswoods! Basswood leaves, just starting to turn (basswoods turn a lovely bright yellow in fall); red oak leaves

Bur oak and big bluestem - a classic Midwestern savanna

October: In a hurry

What happened to my sunny, crisp October? We seem to have zipped from balmy September straight to blustery November. There is even a touch of snow in this weekend's forecast. Snow!! I try not to be a weather whiner but this is just silly. Last weekend, I had just one day to purchase and install some late-season bargain plants (and to watch the Bears game; very important). My spring fantasies of transforming my yard into a carefully planned drift of purple salvia a la the Lurie Garden by October were distilled to their most basic essence: "Home Depot has cheap salvias. Let's buy some and stick them somewhere!" This is how most of my gardening is done so I guess it's not all that noteworthy. Plan? What plan?

No, but seriously, where to put all these salvias? With daylight waning and a lot of busy weekends ahead of me, I didn't have the luxury of pondering the decision for long.  I had decided this summer that I'm tired of the overgrown spireas in front of my garage, so I took action:

Instant garden space!  In a flurry of activity that lasted two hours, I transformed the garage garden from this:

into, well, this mess:

But somewhere in there is the groundwork for future success:  four salvias, two snowcap daisies, veronica, amsonia, and a daylily that appealed to me. Pretty much everything else was also dug up, moved, divided, or otherwise manhandled so it wouldn't feel left out. Then the sun set and the rest of the garden was spared. For now. Mwah-ha-ha.

Next year should be very interesting.

Assorted pretties from the McGarden:

Obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana - a surprise bloom, hidden under the baptisia; aster NOID

Another aster NOID, possibly ericoides; Chelone lyonii 'Hot Lips' turtlehead, still blooming happily next to the brown-eyed Susans

My one surviving mum, demonstrating just how obnoxious the spireas were getting.  This knockout shade of orange makes me so happy every time I see it.

For the record, plants I installed on October 4 or 5:
HOME DEPOT
Leucanthemum superbum Snowcap Shasta daisy (1, divided)
Salvia nemorosa East friesland
Salvia nemorosa May Night (x2)
Salvia nemorosa Marcus
Veronica 'Goodness Grows'
Hemerocallis Pardon Me
Asclepias tuberosa butterfly weed (in wayback)
PRAIRIE NURSERY (wayback garden)
Eryngium yuccifolium, rattlesnake master
Amsonia hubrichtii (garage)
Ruellia humilis
Ex-aster novae-angliae
AMERICAN MEADOWS (front garden)
Hepatica
Bloodroot
Bluebells
Asarum/wild ginger
FROM GRANDMA'S GARDEN:
white irises (foundation garden)
FARMER'S MARKET (late september sometime)
Tricyrtis 'Empress' (south edge border)