Now I'm Luvin It

My painting from last weekend...

Mike sometimes just knows how to make it happen. And boy did great things happen between last Thursday and last Sunday.

Wednesday night, as you recall, Mike picked up all the lattice.
Thursday night, we had a small cocktail party for a friend's birthday - going out on a weeknight, I know! Livin on the edge over here.
Friday was our first big lattice day.

Mike first dug a trench in front of the porch, then stapled up the screening. The lattice came next. And so on and so forth for each section of lattice, each section of porch. He finished the entire front side that evening.

You may recall that I was going to purchase a tree on Friday. But I didn't. Turns out, Morrison's prices and selection were so good, I could afford a bigger and better tree then I ever imagined! (Plus I had my 25% off coupon.) Unfortunately, such a nice tree would not fit in my driver's seat. So I borrowed Mike's truck on Saturday to pick up the tree - a beautiful Japanese maple around 8' tall.

I must say I was also very satisfied with my tree-buying experience. A helpful dude got the tree for me, loaded it into the truck, suggested the type and amount of planting soil, rented me a free tarp to protect the tree from the perils of driving, gave me a How-To-Plant sheet, and he was kind and courteous about it. The tree was $189 - add in my coupon and a couple bags of soil - total of approx $169. I think that was a fabulous deal. I will shop there again, for sure!

Saturday night, Mike planted the tree for me - on the left side of the house (if looking from the street.) It's awesome! I can look at it from my chairs on the porch and I just love it. When it grows up a bit, the shade will really help the grass on that side. (It needs all the help it can get.)

Sunday Morning! It's the big day - the day of Mikey's 2nd Birthday Party, and boy do we have a lot to do. (I'll save you from all my food-prep and cleaning/decorating tasks and stick to the house blogg'dness of it all.) Mike begins the morning by latticing (is that a word?) Fail, try again. Mike begins the morning by applying the lattice to the right hand side of the porch - at least up to the soon-to-be-finished steps.

Then, off to the dump. He trashed all the old wood and gutters that we had previously been storing under the porch. (Yeah, they all got wrecked when we stained... should'a thought'a that.) He also trashed all our coon-munched trash and he even trashed our huge, impossible-to-dump-cause-it's-too-heavy-when-full trash can.

Upon the return home, Mike grabbed a chair from our mudroom to return to a friend of ours. (Yes, we had a chair on loan... best not to ask questions. Long story.) But we needed to return it ASAP to make room for the coming piano... I've been taking lessons. Another long story.

So he dropped the chair off, picked up all our party rentals, returned home just in time to get it all set up, and the party went off with very few hitches.

And now that the madness is over, we have a beautiful new tree... beautiful new lattice... no chair.... Things are good! This Sunday, weather permitting, we'll be picking up the piano. Oh, and I may have neglected to mention that our two porch railings that have been on back order? They were delivered on Wednesday.

Wouldn't it be great if Timmy could come by for a bit on Sunday to install?

Next on the List: (because Memorial Day Weekend is right around the corner)
Finish the railings and the steps.
Trim over the lattice.
Loam and seed the back yard.
Finish the kitchen drywall and paint.
Paint out all porch trim and the porch ceiling.
Purchase and install a porch ceiling fan.
Rip all the siding off the left hand side of the house.
Install the octagonal window.
Install new siding.

Not in that order. I'm not sure about Timmy's schedule, but we plan to at least do the loam over Mem Day Weekend. The small things like paint and fixtures, I will keep pushing for myself to take care of. Beyond that - I can't forecast.

But I think we've caught up with ourselves from being sick, at least.