32_Hurricane Florence

Our house was being tested with Hurricane Florence on mid September 2018. In the beginning, this hurricane would cause minimum effect to Fayetteville such as a few days of raining. However, along her way she became bigger, from Category 1 to 4; making the cities along her path would expect severe damages.

The hurricane was expected to reach Fayetteville on 14^th – 15^th September (Friday and Saturday). However, schools and businesses started to close on Wednesday afternoon. People stormed supermarkets and hardware stores to stock on canned food, bottled waters, portable stoves, generators, torches, etc. We couldn’t get generator because they were sold out. We saw some people tried to make fortune, selling generators for almost 3 times of regular price; but we decided not to be impulsive. We had a lot of canned food and store water in a big new trash bin; that should be enough.

House-wise, it was a test for everything we had done. We installed new roof when we bought it a year ago, and we built a shed and outdoor shower. This disaster would test the quality of what we had installed and built. Not only that they might fly away from their place, but the big pine trees around the house might fall and crush them.

Day 1

On Thursday, the wind started to blow even though inconsistently; trees started swaying a little bit. But towards the evening, the wind started to escalate. It blew constantly in a faster pace; sometimes raindrops followed. When we went to bed, everything still OK. Nothing flew or broken. Power was still on, as well as water.

Day 2

When we woke up Friday morning, everything was the same like before; the wind still blowing constantly. However, when we were about to make breakfast at 10 AM, the power went off. It’s getting real now. Nothing we could do but just watching the wind blew and the trees swayed from the back window. Of course we also kept snacking all the food in the fridge before they went spoiled. But surely time flew slowly.

At one point I went back to our bedroom, I realized that the tree in front of the window had fallen. It was a medium size tree; luckily it didn’t fall toward our house. It might be a different story if it did…

Day 3

We woke up pretty early on Saturday and the power still off. But we were so grateful that the water line never went off. Later on I heard some houses around my neighborhood had no power and water for days…

Anyway, at this point we had cabin fever already. Being stuck in a house without really doing anything had made us bored. We noticed the wind had slowed down, so we decided to rake up garden waste. While we were doing it, light rain started to pour; but we stayed working until we got totally soaking wet, around 1.5 hour later. We were pretty happy that we could go out from the house and breathe the normal air, instead of AC.

A fallen tree in front of our bedroom.

A few of the neighbors were also outside for a while. One guy helped my husband in cutting the fallen tree with a chainsaw, when he saw my husband was going to do it with an axe. What a nice gesture! One of the neighbors went out to buy meals; so we knew that some restaurants were open. We then drove around to see the current situation. Almost all of fast food was open such as McD, Wendys, Hardees, Waffle House, etc. and they were all full! I even never seen Hardees’ parking lot full with cars before…

But driving around after the peak of hurricane was dangerous. Many traffic lights were not working and the roads were slippery. Yet many people were outside, storming these restaurants. It seemed they all had cabin fever too. I felt like a character in a movie where it’s dangerous outside but still s/he goes out anyway; and the audience thinks s/he is stupid in making the decision to go out. I guessed now I understand why…

We didn’t go to any restaurants; we just bought some snacks. Back at home; we kept staying inside because the rain was getting harder. At around 3 PM, finally we got the power back. Thank God!

Aftermath

The weather got better in the following days. On Monday, we woke up early because we heard noisy sound from a lawnmower. Apparently the weather was nice and the neighbors started to clean their yards. We were then motivated to do the same.

Our flower bed before and after the hurricane.

I know it sounds weird, but the disaster aftermath was the best chance to meet the neighbors. We were helping each other in cleaning our yards, from just lending out tools to literally help in cleaning. We spend the whole day to clean the yard and afterward everything started to go back normal.

In the end, we were lucky to have no damage to the house. The roof was still intact and nothing flew from the shed and the outdoor shower. A neighbor had her roof a bit open and leaked. Another has tree fallen into a pool. A big tree nearby fell and crushed electric cable, some of the houses had no power for more than 2 days. Again, we were lucky and grateful for it.

31_Outdoor Shower

Our next outdoor project was building an outdoor shower. We wanted it because North Carolina mostly had hot and humid weather. So whenever we had to work outside, either for gardening or workouts, we would end up dirty and sweaty. It would be nice to clean ourselves up before entering the house. Beside, it would be refreshing too.

From the start, we wanted it to look natural with bamboo or wood. We didn’t want another brick building outside the house. We browsed around on the Internet to look for designs, and we liked one with spiral-shape bamboo chamber. So we went to Home Depot to buy bamboos, as Lowes didn’t have it. Apparently the bamboos were sewed together into an 8’ bamboo row. This made us a bit difficult to get the spiral shape as we wanted. And if we pushed to get it, we need a little bit more bamboos; but we couldn’t buy it a piece. So it was a dilemma.

In the end we had to adjust our design. We looked around again on the Internet and decided to have a ‘normal’ square chamber. The bamboos even had to be cut in order to avoid the use of excessive cement. We put pebbles for the shower floor and drew a new hose line from the garden plumbing line. In the end, we put plants around it to make it looks more natural.

Front part of the outdoor shower.

A side from the shower.

Inside oart of the shower, with pebles floor.

Another side of the shower.

30_New Shed

One of the eyesores in our home is the shed in the backyard. I don’t know what the shed made from; it looked like a tin can for me. This shed probably had been there for decades, cause it was full with rust since the day we came. One of the sliding doors was detached from its rail, so we had to put a brick to hold it from being collapsed. The doors couldn’t be closed as well. Actually, I put a padlock to make it looked lock.

So when the weather got warmer, we were ready to tear the shed apart and build a new one. My husband liked to do woodworking and he had plenty of tools along these years, so he designed a shed that suitable for his needs. He chose to make it from cedar wood to make it last long and to look beautiful. He also used the same roof color with the house to match. But not everything was new. For the door we used our old kitchen door; we replaced the kitchen door with a new one. And for the window, we bought it from ReStore for $2, and my husband made the shutters from scrap wood. 

The work took some months, though. First we just installed the foundation in late April and left it. We collected the materials as we wanted it, before we continued. Because once we started, we couldn’t stop and left an open shed. The rain might damage it. In the end we spend over $1,000 but this included new tools such as extension ladder. 

Demolition of the old shed.

Demolishing the eyesore in the backyard.

Once we started to work on it in early May, it took us around 3 weeks to finish it. We demolished the old shed and built a new one behind it. Now the new shed looked like a cabin in the woods. On the area where the old shed was, we put a pull-up bar and planted grass around it. This pull-up bar was also homemade. Our backyard looked better and better and we increasingly enjoyed it.

The new shed.

The new shed from a side.

Garden tools in one of the sides.

A pull-up bar stands on the old shed area.

29_Gardenings

In late October 2017, my husband decided to test his inner green thumb; so we started to plant various plants to make our yards prettier (see also Farther Beautification). One of the plants we planted was Tulips in late November. In late February these Tulips started to pop out and bloomed. Having seen the pretty results, we got more motivated to fill in the flower bed even though we got different result from the Tea Olive that we planted in October. It suffered from the cold snap and looked dying.



Some of the Tulips started to bloom.

 

We also planned to fill in our garden bed backyard with fruits, veggies, and herbs. To do all of these, we prepped the soil by adding top soil that we bought from a local company. However, after we filled the barren spots and layered the existing soils, we still had a lot of leftovers. We advertised the leftovers for free, and in 2 days they all gone.

Leftovers of the top soil.

Outdoor

First, we looked for perennials and evergreens to fill the back and middle part of the flower bed. Since our first gardening experience, we religiously visited local nursery called Dunn Nursery. The service there is suitable for our needs. The people there always informed us about the best plants to pick and how to take care of them. Furthermore, they always gave us discounts whenever we bought in bulk. So, for filling up the flower bed, we went there again in mid-March.

When we told them about our Tea Olive, they said that their Tea Olives suffered the same problem. So I guessed, we weren’t bad at all in taking care of the plants.

After having discussion based on what we read online and their expertise, we ended up with a Gold Mop False Cypress, Drift Roses, and Hostas and Azalea for the shady areas. We also bought Jasmine to crawl on a steel trellis in front of the main entrance. None of the Roses and Azalea had bloomed. So these plants just added green and yellow colors.



Planting greens and yellows. 

After this, we still have some space in the front part of the flower bed that receives full sun; so we looked further for annuals that have bloomed to add more colors. For this purpose, we went to Home Depot because it has nice collection of plants.

We ended up with annuals and perennials of blooming Pansies, Daffodils, Candytufts, and Phloxes. They were so colorful, I couldn’t resist them. I added a clump of bud Lilies, hoping to give continuous color in the flower bed.

Result from a trip to Home Depot.



Planting colorful flowers

Our filled flower bed.

For the backyard, we moved the plants that we planted from seeds. They consisted of fruits, veggies, and herbs. Not all of the seeds grew, of course. Most of the tomatoes and peppers survived but not the onions. We had to buy new sprouts of onions to replace them. A few of spaghetti squash were also survived; while the herbs were still struggling. We also planted sunflowers on the side of the house and bamboos for privacy.

Indoor

Once we started planting, we couldn’t stop. Well, at least my husband couldn’t. He decided to have indoor plants as well. So far we only had an Aloe Vera from Dunn Nursery as a token. And after a trip to Home Depot, we ended up with a lot more plants.

Another trip to Home Depot.

We bought a Majesty Palm, Sago Palm, Pachira Money Tree, Fig, Ponytail Palm, and Anthurium. We put them in coordinated clay planters and placed them all over the living and family rooms based on their needs of lights.

Indoor plants give tropical feelings to the house.

Now, not only my house looked tropical but it also felt like a tropical area. Whenever I entered the house, I could feel the humidity from the plants. It would be interesting how it feels in the coming months after all the indoor plants get settled.  

 

 

28_Unexpected Renovations

On February 24^th, we were forced to have a little renovation project. On this morning, I found out that my toilet was leaking. We didn’t know what cause it because the night before, everything was just perfect. The leaking had made most part of the floor wet as well. We were then realized that there was a crack on the tank around the flush handle. This meant we had to replace the toilet.



Leaking from my toilet caused the floor wet.

A crack on my toilet.

Although this was unexpected, we realized this was the best time to have a little bit renovations on the bathroom. We should repaint it and change the lighting and the wall mirror. After all, the paint job was poor. When we took out the toilet, we could see whomever painted it, s/he just painted around it. So we could see an old green paint surrounded by brownish color.

Bad paint job.

Actually I didn’t really have a problem with the wall mirror. But once, I went to a McDonald’s restaurant nearby and saw that it has exactly the same mirror as in my bathroom! After that, I was so motivated to change it. I hoped the mirror in my bathroom was not stolen from there…

As for the lighting, now I had the chance to choose, I was thinking to have a wall mirror surrounded by row of bulbs like in the vintage actress rooms. However, I couldn’t find it around here. So I chose a similar row bulbs light and matched the mirror with it. Both had to be in bronze finished, to match with the wooden vanity. When I looked on different stores online, they all had prices above $100 for the size I wanted. We were lucky to find the matched mirror on discount while we shopping around at Lowes. It was unplanned but it turned out good.  

Changing the toilet, of course, didn’t take long. On the next day, I got a brand new toilet installed. It is a dual flush toilet, to save water, and of course, money. I was surprised that dual flush toilets are still uncommon here compare to Europe. When I talked about it to some people, they didn’t know that such thing exists.

My new toilet with dual flush.

 

The renovation took about a week to finish because I have to paint the walls and let them to dry overnight before I put another coatings. I used crème color for the wall because we already had this paint, so we didn’t have to buy something new. As for the accent wall, I chose yellow to contrast with the wooden and green tiles vanity.

Initially I wanted a mild or pastel color yellow, and the color sample looked mild on paper; but when I put it on the wall, it was pretty bright. In the end, it is still a good contrast. And now I have a comfier bathroom.

My new wall mirror and lighting were inspired by vintage actress rooms.