Headway Slows, List Grows

Time to dust off the 'ol keyboard. Yuck. I hate going this long between postings. When I finally return, such as now, I have a hard time remembering where we're at, what's happened, and why I should bother writing about any of it.

Starting in present time, we just returned from a family trip to Baltimore. Nice trip, successful. (Because when you're a parent, you give yourself a grade on your trip as if it was an exam. Mine are improving each time we travel.) While we were gone, my dad came to our house and tiled the basement bathroom! We obtained a tile saw for him to use and set it up in the garage, brought all the tiles downstairs, and cleaned up enough for him to be able to work. When we got home, the tile was laid and two marble thresholds had been installed in the two doorways.

Beautiful. The only thing missing now is grout, which I hadn't picked out yet at the time. Hopefully we can find some time this weekend to finish the job - Sunday, most likely. Once the grout is done, we can install the baseboard trim, which we should have enough of in-stock.

Come to think of it, we could even start cutting and staining that beforehand.... Hmmm...

After that, installation of fixtures (lighting and plumbing) and all doors. It's so close, I can just imagine myself in that new bathtub now.

Before we left for our trip, we managed to stain our side-porch steps. (They were too new to stain with the rest of the porch last year.) We hope to get another coat of stain on the entire porch in the coming weekends... Sunday, perhaps? (I sense a list coming.) Also, we seeded the side yard where we replaced the old trash hut around Christmas time. Grass is beginning to come in, but boy could we use some more rain to help it along.

On the list of Spring To-Do's, there's quite a bit more to be done. (Bathroom is behind schedule, as usual. But we can't complain, as we didn't schedule for a new kitchen in the middle of it all!)

To Do This Spring

Fertilize Entire Yard - ASAP

Install canopy on Mikey's playground set

Replace and change angle of slide on Mikey's playground set

Some material for side-driveway (now dirt)

Rubber roof the kitchen (has been tarped for over a month now)

Gut the old bathroom (upon completion of new one)

My List

Yard Sale (get rid of crap and old furniture)

Get new rug and re-arrange office to be shared with new baby

Create backyard seating with cinder blocks (Pinterest inspired project)

New plants for farmer's porch

More house plants

Basement cleaning (upon completion of bathroom)

So, I'm thinking that all can be accomplished in the next few weeks.... or not. A lot depends on money at this point. We're down quite a bit from dental work, new tires, and the Baltimore trip on top of our usual expenses. Mike is doing what he can. And my yard sale should generate something. (Thinking Memorial Day Weekend on that one.)

Stay tuned!

 

Not Pickin Up the Call of Spring

Time marches on…. or maybe I should say, “April’s on.” Yes, hello, spring called a while ago and I seem to have forgotten to answer the phone.

Pretty much as soon as we had our kitchen organized and life back together, the boys were back to work on the bathroom downstairs. Our neighbor and Mike finished the drywall and paint in just a couple days. (Missed the “you need to blog about that” message too. This was ages ago… you know, like beginning of last week ago. Practically the stone age.)

And once that was done, we hit a brick wall. We have all the tile. Installing it is the next step. The problem? Mike’s thinking we should do under-tile electric heating. Apparantly, it’s super easy and inexpensive. The problem? We need to measure the square footage needed… no need to heat the entire floor, right? Just the traffic areas. The problem? Stoopid stuff. Laziness. Bruins games. Workin’ late. Excuses excuses.

I think we’re still in a state of epic come down from the whole kitchen re-do/bathroom drywall madness. Mike’s barely recovered from the workload and feels he needs an extended break. And I can only push so far too… after all, I’m tired too.

Weekend Ahead, Captain....

Looks like another hectic weekend for the onesixty crew.

First thing Sat we've got to hit the dump and then we're headed down Cape for a little tree removal and I've got to drop off some cat poop while we're there... While on Cape that is...At the vet's that is. Wow, what a bizarre to-do list, huh?

And then, if we can get our butts back home before dark, we'll attempt to prepare for and put in that other window. I was supposed to work on stripping and sanding the TA - but I don't know if there's going to be enough time to bother dragging it out of the garage!

Sunday's no better. We've got to get up early, drop off our old dresser at a friend's place and then high tail it back home so Mike isn't late for riding.

Don't you just love spring?!

Speaking of which, we went to the DeepHo on Tuesday and picked up some Lime and Scotts Step 1 spring stuff. Whatever it's called. Mike put down the Lime on Wednesday, although I don't think we can put down the Scotts yet. It's a little chilly still and I think it has seed in it. I can't wait though - maybe this year we'll have a real live bonified lawn! Sans weeds! That would be amazing....