Weekend Warriors...

We have not stopped moving this weekend. You'd think that we would have moved everything back into the basement but alas, we didn't. You see, the weather was just too perfect for working outside to bother with jobs in the house. It rained Saturday morning so we were able to get the bookcase all put back together and that night we reinstalled the desk. Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday afternoon it was all work outside. The list of jobs to be completed outside is getting less and less so if the weather cooperates we should be, "maintaining and enjoying" by the end of next weekend.

I didn't take any "before" pictures but here is what we accomplished this weekend:

The ghetto trellis that was behind our garage is no more. After a substantial amount of nagging and convenient home projects by my brother and cousin, Brian was finally willing to do something about the disaster that was behind our garage. Granted, our garage sits almost right on the property line so there isn't much space to do anything which means little motivation on our part. There is still a disaster behind our garage but it's clearly not on our side of the property line. There is a rock wall that separates us from the guy behind us...can you see it in the picture?

This project should make my mother happy. Our neighbors and I cleaned out the entire back of our properties (I only took pictures of our side). I moved some grasses to the back of our property line and divided some hostas to fill in the empty spots. Pots full of impatiens are scattered around. There are still a crap load of weeds in the back but those are not on my side. Plus, in some circumstances weeds are better than the alternative. The disaster is behind those weeds too.

The area around the pergola and planters all got cleaned up and filled. In the background you can see my new chair, with a pot of wave petunias on it, for visual interest. The old chair had sat outside for at least 4 years and was falling apart. In fact, it fell apart into four or five pieces as I threw it away this afternoon. I might paint this one, I haven't decided yet. It very well might stay right where it is for 4 years.

This area, affectionately referred to as the "Great Compromise" by Brian and I, looks awesome so far. I thinned out the grasses and hostas and moved a planter/trellis to this side of the garage. I had a hard time getting things to grow where it was before so hopefully this location will be move successful. Right now there are some gorgeous peach colored putunias and morning glories planted in it.

We moved our little bistro set to the back door. We've actually had it here for a few weeks and I love it here. I can't believe I didn't think of this last year. The pots next to the stairs have my herbs in them. This seemed to be a good location last year so hopefully we'll continue to have luck. New this year is the hibuscus on the left.

Butterfly garden is growing...the delphiniums (in the back) are getting ready to open. Sadly, I think the butterfly bush is dead. The person at the greenhouse last year told me to be patient, that these plants look dead for much of the spring. Well, I'm giving it three more weeks and then I'm digging it up and buying a new one because I'm pretty sure it's dead. What's in three weeks you ask? The end of school!


Finally, our lilacs are blooming now. They are gorgeous.

Slight Change in Plans...

1. Carpeting is getting installed/stretched on Thursday

2. Carpet cleaners coming Friday morning

3. WE MOVE BACK IN THIS WEEKEND!

Two weeks ahead of the schedule we set for ourselves.

A few major things will still remain: molding and doors, but who cares! We are going to be able to move all our stuff back into the family room!!!

The Home Stretch

This post is long overdue but better late than never, right?

Last week Tuesday my uncle Frank came over and painted our basement. He made the offer to help months ago and trust me, this was not an offer I would easily forget. It's not that I hate to paint, I just don't think that I'm very good at it. Plus, it takes me days. Maybe if we had better equipment or if I just had a better attitude it would go faster. I don't know but I'm very grateful for Frank's help last week!

Here are the new colors! Flash photography doesn't really do the colors justice but you get the general idea. The color scheme now should flow nicely with the rest of the house and we already know that it looks awesome with the carpet. And speaking of carpeting...the carpet is going to get a new pad and be re-laid June 5. The carpet cleaners are coming June 6 and on June 7 we are moving everything back in. I can't wait!

This past week we also reinstalled the bookcase. Sort of a funny thing happened with this. Shortly after we had it screwed to the wall and it was clear that it was flush with the wall I made the comment that I had never noticed this slight gap that now appeared on the side. Brian looked at it and then it hit us both at the same time. Originally, the bookcase was installed PRIOR to drywalling. Now the part that was sunk inside the drywall is clearly exposed because the drywall came first this time. Oh well, this is what molding is for, right?

The first time we did the basement (five years ago) we took the doors that lead from the stairwell to the laundry room off and put them on the new closet. This way the doors matched the other closet right next to the new one. To solve our unsightly door opening we just hung a curtain. It was never meant to be a permanent solution but five years later we still had that curtain. Now, we decided to finish this they way it was meant to be. Brian and my dad are going to work on doors sometime in the near future. Due to scheduling, it probably won't get done until after the carpet is fixed but that's okay. Really, the doors are just aesthetics. You can see the difference in wall colors in this picture. the yellow on the right is the old "light" color in the basement. The other wall is the new color and the color on the left of the door is the color of the stairwell. The yellow wall will eventually be painted that color. I just didn't want to paint it knowing that work was going to need to be done and we'd probably just have to paint it again.

Finally, for this post, I'd like to leave you with some pretty pictures of my flowers!

Last year we didn't actually get to see this forcynthia bloom because it was done by the time it got planted. This year we got to enjoy it. I wish I would have taken a picture at it's "prime." This was taken the last week in April.
If I remember correctly, these are some tulips from bulbs that were brought back from the Netherlands. That was probably illegal but they got through Customs!
Our crab apple...all the flowering tress are so pretty right now!
And finally, my newest find: a bottle brush hanging basket! We had to get it, it reminded us of San Diego plus it's just so unusual! This was my little souvenir from Green Bay this weekend.

Quick Update

Tonight Brian finished priming the walls while I started putting things away. Now that we are painting the whole freakin' basement there was a pile of our stuff that needed to be moved to gain access to the pony wall. Tomorrow I plan to prepare the other walls to paint, we need to make a decision about the bookshelf (push it all the way into the corner or keep it where it was), and we need to move a few more pieces of the bookshelf. It's a big bookshelf if you remember.

Figures

Ok, so after learning that I needed a 14 inch taping knife, another coats, some pressure and a little patients, the walls ended up turning out good. I'm satisfied with them. The textured primer went on, albeit with help from Andi, a little slow, but looks good too.

Now we come to the problem. The color. We would have sworn that we had both colors of paint sitting with all of our other paint. As it turns out, we only had one. In a feeble attempt to get that paint, we headed to Menards hoping they were a little "Big Brother" and kept those records. They didn't. We have resigned ourselves to the fact that we'll need to finish priming all of the walls and Andi is heading to Ace right now for new paint colors.

!@#$

I think we'll be taking Uncle Frank up on his offer to help.