We just bought our first single family house! A fixer upper (to put it mildly) on the eastern edge of Oak Park, that has seen some better days and needs someone to help it. Jen and I think we can be those people.
Recent posts
Earlier this spring I was working with a Habitat for Humanity green building project, and one of the project members and I had a discussion about growing Hops. I mentioned I'd like to do that for a type of greenscreen if nothing else, and perhaps one day get into homebrewing.Well, later that day, the energy rater colleague happened to stop by his father's house, who had extra hops plants growing....read more
Posted 5 weeks 1 day ago.
Last weekend, our annual block party was scheduled. We had a hand in helping organize a few events and were excited as our niece and nephew were coming over to join the fun.However, heavy rains Friday night and Saturday morning threatened to put an end to this....read more
Posted 5 weeks 4 days ago.
I can tell you one thing. Putting together a garden during a hot, humid summer day is no fun. So after the initial landscape was in place in the front yard, I took it easy. Off tangent thought... if there no longer is any grass, can it still be called a front yard?...read more
Posted 6 weeks 2 days ago.
Sometimes the best things evolve and happen organically. Other times they don't.Our front yard had evolved organically over the past 5 years that we've been in Humphrey House, almost like a nursery rhyme, "here a plant, there a plant, everywhere a plant plant." And you know what? It wasn't working. In fact, it failed miserably....read more
Posted 7 weeks 5 days ago.
We've been experimenting with a new thing at our home this summer - a dead lawn! Just look at the wonderful progress we've made on killing off the grass.But why... Is this the lazyman's approach to "lawn care"? The latest form of a "no-mow" lawn?...read more
Posted 9 weeks 5 days ago.
For those that recall, our home has a number of rain barrels around it. Well, the ones we installed last year were great - until we had a massive intense rain event on our small urban lot....read more
Posted 11 weeks 4 days ago.
The last few months have been too busy to blog, but we're going to try and carve out specific times to update the blog to let you know all that's been happening at (mostly outside of) Humphrey House.We'll start with something actually made before winter: A raised bed planter box in the backyard....read more
Posted 11 weeks 6 days ago.