Thursday, March 3, 2011

On impulse

I did a bad thing this afternoon- an impulse buy.  I really, really try to not do that because it is easy to get into trouble.
But who could resist these:
Beautiful bulbs for summer flowers....
We had stopped at Paul's Discount- a local store (one of our favorite you-can-find-anything-there stores).  V needed a small bottle of propane for his torch for some plumbing repairs before we start the remodel (I'll tell you about that in a bit) But there, in the back, was an entire wall of flower bulbs and starts.  I don't have any lilies, even though I love them, and the blazing star are one of my favorites.  The yellow ones- the foxtail lily- I have never seen before but they are listed as hardy here so we'll give them a try.  They are supposed to be butterfly magnets.  There were also boxes and boxes of dahlias and cannas, but I know myself too well- anything that I have to dig up in the fall and overwinter inside won't last!  They also had some starts of Jersey Knight Asparagus that I'm contemplating going back for.  We have one lonely hill of asparagus that survived of the three my parents dug and brought for us and I'd love to have more.  And the price was right.

Anyway, the plumbing issue.  In the basement, in the walk out addition part- where the washer and dryer are located, we have a faucet with a connection for a garden hose.  Go figure.  It isn't new plumbing- it's copper pipe- so my guess is that it is original to the addition that was built for the dairy.  The addition that sticks out westward was the milk room.  And there are mysterious holes and drains in the floor.....  Hence, the hose, for rinsing the tanks.  But, it had a quick release attachment on it and when we tried to remove it (it was horribly corroded!) the entire faucet came off- fortunately below the valve. So, it needs to be repaired since we will be setting up a tile cutting station by the washer near one of the floor drains.  It will still be too cold to be cutting tile outside with a wet saw.
Yup, our property has an interesting history.  The house was built by a family who had a small farm (and we think they did much of the building themselves). They went into the dairy business and built the addition for the milk room (and the barn) around 1959.  It went through a bunch of other owners before it was the vet clinic that we purchased it from.  Pretty cool, huh. Unfortunately, except for (maybe) the first owners/builders- this place has received very little TLC over the years until we came along. So we're playing catch up.
I'm so excited to have tomorrow off.  I've got LOTS of plans and will be busy, busy, busy.
Have a great Friday and a wonderful, productive weekend.

6 comments:

  1. I'm so bad with impulse buys too! I just bought a whole bag of peony bare roots recently.

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  2. Those flowers look amazing! Can't wait to see pictures of them this summer. I've been debating over asparagus (and rhubarb) too lately, but I can't decide for sure where I want to plant them, so haven't bought any yet.
    Good luck with the plumbing! (and the kitchen reno!)

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  3. Who could resist, indeed?! Now get to work on that kitchen and stay off the seed racks LOL! (says the pot to the kettle!)

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  4. Wow, your house does have an interesting history! It's fun to watch someone revamp their house as much as we need to do to our house. One family owned ours for nearly 100 years. The last 40 they owned it they only did the very least to keep it going so we need to do alot of catch up too. If you have to impulse buy, aren't flowers the best thing to buy? I love the lilies I've planted, I just wish I could enjoy them this year.

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  5. Learning how to solder copper piping has always been on my list of things to know before building my own house.
    They make it look so easy on This Old House.

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  6. I love the flowers. Everytime my wife and I are around flower displays or stands we always come home with some.

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