Late Summer Americana in the Den

by admin September 2, 2021

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

Just a reminder, I will be posting on Wednesdays and Sundays every week so be sure to check back on those days to see a new post......

With Labor Day almost upon us, today I want to share some New Buys that Joe picked up awhile back and where I have used them.....

Happy September!!!!!

Even though some Bloggers have already started to decorate for fall, I am holding off until after Labor Day......

But in my book, Fall has started today!!!

I LOVE the "Ber" months!!

A few Personal Notes first...

After the rain from Hurricane Henri last week, the house on the other side of me ( where my neighbor recently passed away) sustained some water damage in the former patio area which is identical to where our Den is......

The house is rented out and actually owned by my neighbor Caled, who lives with his family in the end townhouse on our row.....

So the house that he owns and rents out is between us....

Initially, his Roofer said that the problem was caused by overflow from our downspout which was "missing" a piece.....

This what the back of our house looks like in regards to this...

This has been the gutter configuration in this development for 43 years so we are not "missing" anything....

My argument was not with my neighbor Caled , who is an Imam at the local Mosque and an electrical engineer for the US Patent Department, but with his Roofer...

So I took a few pictures of our townhouses in our development similar to the type of situation with my house and his rental.....

These were just 2 of those pictures showing that there is no downspout connection between the upper and lower roofs....

After Joe told Caled that it has been like this for over 43 years, Caled also looked at the other houses and realized this....

His damage looks as if it came from ice build up and the fact that the previous owner replaced the main roof but never the lower back roof as it was only a patio back then.....

You can see where the roof is "caved" in.....

Long story short, Caled replaced not only the back roof on the house he rents out but also on his own house as he discovered that both roofs were over 44 years old!!!!!

I got the biggest kick out of watching a team of 3 roofers put this new roof on, even replacing the rotted plywood that was the issue causing the leak, at record breaking speed of 6 hours on a Sunday afternoon!!!

They worked like a well oiled machine!!!

When they quit for the day, Joe came out, looked , said "Nice Roof" and went back into the house to watch countless episodes of Criminal Minds, Law and Order, SVU and NCIS......

Even though he has seen them at least 10 times a piece.....

This is exactly why I have always been the one who took care of anything having to do with the house.....

Caled insisted on having a connection put on our downspout from the upper roof to the lower roof and that he would pay for it himself.....

I was shocked and after many objections from me and offers to pay for it ourselves, we came to an agreement because Caled was not backing down....

So to return his generosity, I offered to spruce up the landscaping on the slope and front flower bed of the house that he rents out that is located between his house and my house .....

So yes, Barna Landscaping is back in business one more time!!

Caled was thrilled....

We had intended to put some mulch down and do some trimming for the previous owner who had lung cancer and was not able to take care of the front of his house over the last 2 years or so.....

But he passed away in the early Spring and the house was sold almost instantly as it was Caled who bought it....

These are some before pictures......

Now this is not from years of neglect like the house on the other side of us was from.....

Our previous neighbor always took care of the slope but was not able to replace the mulch on it by himself which was why Joe and I were going to do that for him....

And he always kept the shrubs, though large, trimmed in his front flower bed....

On Monday, Joe weeded the slope and took out 3 dead shrubs while I weeded the top area and graded it.....

This is what it looked like, waiting for the mulch to be put down.....

These are all sedum plants that reseeded from my sedum in my yard......

I am going to add a bit more from my back yard to this area that slopes down from my yard to my neighbor's yard as it will provide an excellent ground cover there..........

In my next post, I will be sharing how the slope looks.....

But here is a quick sneak peek.....

After the remnants of Ida hits our area today, we plan on just trimming the shrubs in the front flower bed and adding mulch by the weekend....

This is the new downspout that my neighbor Caled had installed on the back of our house and paid for!!

And in return, we are doing the landscaping in that front yard.....

The Remnants of Ida are dumping a LOT of rain on us now as I write this post.....

I live in the 5 inch range and right now we have already gotten 3.5 inches and we have about 5-6 more hours of this to go!!

I Thank God that I do not have a basement that can flood and that I do not live anywhere near a body of water!!!

I hope anyone else out there being affected by Ida is staying safe......

Since Labor Day is this coming weekend, I thought it was an appropriate time to do this post....

Joe shops Big Lot's several times a week because of their great rewards program.....

They had all their Patriotic decor on sale for 75% off.....

He called me right away and this is what I had him buy......

Not only were they 75% off but he had a $5 off $15 coupon which they applied to each item....

This truck was originally $14...$3.50 with coupon $2.82

Originally $14....$3.50...with coupon $2.82

Originally $12....$3.00...with coupon$2.42

Originally $10....$2.50...with coupon $2.02

Originally $8....$2.00...with coupon $1.61

These all have the darker deeper red and not the bright red making them perfect for my Patriotic Americana Decor in the Den...........

You may remember that I decorated the china cupboard in the Den like this for the Patriotic Summer Holidays, even adding a new Tree.....

I filled the inside of the china cupboard with some pieces of my transferware collection......

Click HERE if you missed that post......

This is how it looks now with the addition of the new pieces....

They are the perfect match to some of the other Patriotic pieces that I already have......

And I found the perfect place to hang these 2 signs......

I think that I may give them a coat of polyurethane.....

I do like the natural wood in these pieces.....

The heart on the sign echoes the hearts that this sweet doll is carrying!!!!

The perfect place for this USA "Land of the Free" sign is right here in front of this wing chair with a Patriotic Bear sitting on it.....

It also goes well with the "Let Freedom Ring" sign

Over on the other side, hanging on the open door to the china cupboard, is the truck sign......

A great place to hang it as my truck with a crock filled with flowers is directly below it!!!

Just a few simple changes here with some new items......

This will stay decorated like this until November when I decorate the Den for Christmas......

The Den is decorated in a burgundy, blue and ivory color theme......

On the door to our storage room......

I made the wreath several years ago and recently added some of the buffalo checked ribbon bought at Dollar Tree to the bow.......

I hung the new bicycle underneath it.......

Just a quick look around the Den as this is the time from May until November when all my "normal" decor things are out on display......

Above the TV in my corner.....

Where I sit and watch most of my shows......

Joe sits in the Living Room watching the largest TV in the house so I come and sit back here to watch what I want to watch as we do not have the same taste in TV shows or movies anymore as he views everything on TV as a Political statement anymore.....

The back door out to the Patio and my little Cottage Garden which is now quite water logged!!!!

I thought this was a great place to hang the new Patriotic metal flower......

Ivory lace curtains have been on the windows since the Spring......

They will be changed before I decorate for Christmas once we take the air conditioner out of the window.....

More transferware.......

Between the windows on shelves is my little collection of Home Interiors Denim Days figurines.....

I think they just scream Summer.....

There is even one for going back to School!!

Over on top of the computer armoire......

A tea stained flag tucked into a floral arrangement......

And a Dollar Tree lawn stake tucked into this hanging basket.......

Next to the armoire......

A birdcage......

And Nelson Crest still all decked out in her Patriotic Summer finery......

Nelson Crest will be decorated though for Halloween soon!!

Joe also picked up a few other Patriotic things on Clearance at Big Lots......

These I plan on using when I decorate the front porch for Labor Day.....

So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......