Madison Square
Two married architects living in an 1870's brick rowhouse on a garden block in Center City Philadelphia. We work, we work on our house, we take pictures with our iphones and try to write a little something that makes sense. What you see is what we did… it’s just how we roll.
A Success
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- Published on Friday, 01 June 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
We woke up this morning to the chirping of birds…
They apparently like our new bird feeder,
And brought along all their friends!
We saw Sparrows, a Cardinal, and maybe a Finch.
Unfortunately city birds are pigs and they cleaned us out!
...
Night Work
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- Published on Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
Continuing with this week’s gardening theme, we planted the deck tonight.
Here is the before:
And the after:
The plants are a combination of sedum & dusty millers that survived from last year, and annual flowers. The flowers include germaniums, marigolds, ageratums, and celosia.
We also hung our curtain, which shades us...
I Like … Birds*
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- Published on Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
Luckily Rob likes ladders! We picked out a metal bird feeder this weekend for our garden, to hang from our tree:
Rob created a pulley system so we can easily raise and lower the feeder from the ground when we need to refill it. Filling it up!
Raising it up! Smart cookie:
Oh- we planted a few more liriope (green spiky plants)...
Garden Update Part II
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- Published on Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
This year we went plant shopping with our neighbors to the new-to-us place with amazing prices called Produce Junction. They had most of our favorites. Also, everyone there thought Rob worked there – if architecture doesn’t work out for him he can always try his hand at flower garden designing. We filled two carts...
Spring Clean!
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- Published on Sunday, 27 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
Last weekend we organized a block clean up that went great!
We had over 20 neighbors (of all ages) come out.
We swept and weeded the sidewalks,
Weeded the garden,
Trimmed the hedges,
A few people did house maintenance,
And Kelly even made a friend in the garden.
We then wrapped up the cleanup with beers and lunch in front of our...
The Basil Blog
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- Published on Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
Kitchen Herb Window is back in action… Let’s just hope it’s more productive than last year’s!
We’re starting out easy with basil, one in one of the pots we designed for our wedding:
And a few in a lovely pot from my sister.
So grow, basil, grow!
I know these are terrible pictures of the basil itself...
Berry Bombs
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- Published on Monday, 21 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
What comes from a tree in May, smells sweet, lasts three weeks and squishes?
Mulberries.
We love our garden tree but three weeks of the year we get quite the treat… Our current crop of treat started May 12th and should ease up around the first of June.
So we add sweeping the front walk to our schedule twice a day to keep...
Paint-Free Mantle
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- Published on Sunday, 20 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
Presenting: the paint-less mantle!
… after many hours of chemical stripping, sanding, and picking with random tools at the details. I had already spent a lot of time on this project in 2010 and then I also tried to remove the paint near the top when the stone was installed in 2011. So 2012 was the year to wrap it up....
Cased Up
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- Published on Sunday, 20 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
We finished all the Living Room door & window casings this weekend!
Here’s the entry from the front hall just waiting to be completed:
And the after:
The door to basement:
And the front window. Do you recognize anything in the picture? How about those corner blocks? They are the ones that we recently stripped in the...
Bike To Work Day Recap
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- Published on Saturday, 19 May 2012
Authors: madisonsquare
Fun times with bikes and the mayor!
We’re lucky to live in a progressive city with a mayor who fully supports bikers and bike lanes! We bike to work most days, year round, but Friday our route was a little different. Here’s a few shots from the ride. Mayor Nutter led the way from Boat House Row, past the Art Museum:
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