Home & Garden

When I got back from my trip to Utah at the beginning of June, I was happily surprised that Josh had fulfilled one of my "honey-do" requests.

Wait...I need to back up and give a little background information.

Earlier this spring, Josh had cleared a patch of ground in between the kids' dirt pile play area and the gravel driveway to plant raspberries in. He worked all afternoon roto-tilling and getting all the rocks out of the dirt. We have been working on the area surrounding our home for 2 years, ever since it was completed. When the foundation was built, the excavator and all the trucks created a mass amount of rocks and matted dirt surrounding our home, and we've worked a little at a time getting rid of the rocks and working in the dirt, creating the landscape that we wanted. This area was the last patch of ground that needed to be worked on. There was a ton of rocks that Josh removed from the patch. One day soon after that, the boys and I worked on our own project of transplanting the rocks and placing them under the deck. The ground under the deck was unpleasant to look at, but the rocks under it now give it a more cohesive and appealing appearance.

After Josh had rototilled the raspberry patch area, he bought and planted some raspberry plants. And then he got more raspberry starts from a friend, and planted them, too.

Well, we live on a ranch in the country. The deer are our constant enemy. The deer came in and chomped down on the raspberry starts, killing half of them. They ate away at several of the new plants we'd purchased, too. I was so frustrated! Not only that, but they also killed two apricot trees that Josh got for me last Mother's Day. The trees were planted by the raspberries, and I was so upset that they'd chewed and broken the branches so much that the trees never recovered and never came back to life this spring. I kept begging Josh to please put some netting around the raspberry garden area. He said he didn't want it to look tacky, and he kept putting it off. Well, after I arrived home from Utah, I saw that he'd finally put a temporary netted fence around the raspberry patch! I was SOOO happy! In addition to that, he had removed the two dead apricot trees. In their place, Josh bought and planted two new peach trees by the raspberries. It was a happy surprise to see green trees there once again.

(photo explanation: far left is the kids' play area,

inside the netting to the left is 2 small peach trees,

under the large tree in the center is 3 rhubarb plants,

on the right side of the netted area is 2 rows of raspberries,

on the far right is the gravel from the parking area in our driveway.)

Well, I had a surprise of my own for Josh. While I was in Utah, I went to IKEA and purchased a new china cabinet. There are a few flaws in the design of my kitchen, and one is that there is only 4 drawers total; another is that there is no good cupboard placement for the cups, bowls and plates. I love the giant island, but it decreases the amount of upper cupboard space. The dishware was placed in the cupboards above the drawers, but they were at the far end of the kitchen. It never made sense that the dishes were always being transported from the dishwasher to the far end, and then had to be transported back to the table in the dining room to eat. It was a lot of walking to carry the dishes back and forth. Unfortunately, it was really the only option to place the dishware because the upper cupboards on both sides of the stove have cooking/baking ingredients in them.

I'd been dreaming of buying a china cabinet for a while to place between the end of the kitchen cabinets and the dining room table. That way, it would be 3 feet away from both the dishwasher AND the table. I'd been looking at one design that I loved from IKEA that was $350, but I could never justify the cost. Before I went to Utah in June, I looked on the IKEA website to see if they were having any sales, and they were...and I found a different china cabinet on sale for $100 less. I was SOO excited! I kept it a secret from everyone (which I never do!). Josh is always keeping secrets from me so that he can surprise me, but I can never keep anything a secret to surprise him. I was so proud of myself for not blabbing my plan to anyone! The day after we got back home, I assembled the big furniture piece all day, and put all the items in its new place. I had to rearrange some shelving units in the kitchen, and move food and medicine items to different spots, and adjust the wall decorations, but it was all worth it: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE my new cabinet!!!!

The items placed in this cabinet came from 3 different cupboards, and everything fits so well now in this one unit. It also looks like a beautiful display of the items because of the glass doors, too. The kids can reach the bottom 4 shelves without any problem, so they can put away the dishes without climbing on the counter like they used to. There's no more walking the dishes across the kitchen, so there's less chance my newer dishware will get broken. The cabinet fits so nicely in the space, too! I was originally wanting a darker cabinet, but this brand of cabinet didn't have a coordinating color to my kitchen cabinet color, so I decided to go with white. I like it; it matches the white appliances, and it really brightens up the dark room. And thankfully, Josh liked my surprise too!!

Here's a view looking at the kitchen with the new cabinet

(the old cupboards for the dishes were at the far right of this photo--

above the 4 drawers, and to the left of the fridge).

Here's a view looking at the dining room with the new china cabinet

(the bottom right of the photo is the dishwasher...just steps away now)

Everything about these home and garden surprises made me so happy. I love home improvement projects! I love new furniture! I love rearranging! And I love being surprised by my husband with completed honey-do projects!!!