Spring Color

Well, we have been doing stuff around the house, but mostly outside. Wally has pulled a significant portion of the HUGE trumpet vine off of one of our trees. It was SO big that he had to use a chain saw to cut the trunk. We've also cut it all off of the fence, but there is still more to go on that. We've put up the birdfeeders, planted pansies in planters, started broccoli, tomatoes, and peppers, and Wally has been trying to get the big garden plot cleaned up a bit...getting rid of tons of trash, rotted grape vines, cleaning off tomato stakes etc.

Inside, we put up smoke alarms (impressive, I know), primed the rest of the doors and molding in the fam room, finished priming the "baby's" room, mmmm, just odds and ends really. We hope to get the time and money to do the kitchen floors at the end of the spring, probably once Wally is done with his class.

I kind of think everyone but mom has given up on this blog, but I'll post some pics anyway. I had fun taking them ;0)

A bloom on our tulip? tree.

Scary bridge for mommies...we hope to put some kind of rails up eventually. There is a 5 foot drop to the creek bed below.

Mom wanted a picture of the creek. This is one side (Rhianwen's favorite).

This is the other side.

A violet near Rhianwen's slide.

Forsythia.

My favorite pot of pansies...I may even put this one up on Rhianwen's blog since she helped plant it ;0)

Go Tigers :)

Bradford pear.

Our planters that Wally found back in the woods and put back up on the deck. I can see these from the kitchen and dining room windows. There is one on the side that we will use for herbs later on.

Side view of the planters.

Broccoli sprouts.

Hurray for flexible molding!

So this weekend we took a trip to the Habitat Restore where we found a solid wood door for the pocket door between the family room and kitchen. It even already is ready for a good pocket door latch to be attached. We were excited about it being solid wood b/c it will block noise from our movies, music, activities from the rest of the house (from sleeping babies for example). Plus, since our fam room doubles as a guest bedroom, it will give much more privacy that a few pieces of wood nailed together to a too small door (which was there before to close kitty in at night). If our guests do stay overnight, we plan to keep kitty out of the fam room, but will have to find a temp place for her litter box and food since it is in a family room closet. But I digress.

I also painted the cabinets above the fridge and below the pass through, moved stuff into them (hard to figure out what to put in them! we have so much storage space for kitchen/dining stuff now!), managed to find 4 more boxes to put in the attic, and managed to make a plan for not using the huge ugly filing cabinets that we have. I just would hate to ruin the family room with them.



Wally put the doors on the cabinets above the fridge too, now we just need handles.

Lastly, we found flexible molding at the restore, which I brilliantly suggested might work for the arch. It did work easily, and Wally is SO thrilled.

Some progress

Wally got to work 3 solid days over Christmas and got a lot accomplished. I finally have cabinet doors on all of the cabinets on the bottom!!!! I am so happy to have them closed off to our little Rhi who is more into everything everyday! Now, if we could just get that one last drawer built and in place, she would no longer have free access to all of my aprons, dish towels, and oven mits.

He also built up the cabinets over the fridge and under the pass through. So now I just have to finish painting them. I can't wait to finish moving all the kitchen stuff in!!!




He installed a door to our utility closet and included a cat entryway. Eventually we will put a cat door in, but for now it lets kitty in and keeps Rhi with limited access. I can keep the kitty bowls far enough back in the closet that Rhi can't just reach through the opening to get to them. Now I just have to paint all of that stuff (you can see I have caulked).




Wally started putting molding up on the arched door, but can't figure out how to finish it up. If you have any ideas, he's all ears!




We got a bit of snow the other day which was nice to see. Rhi had a good time playing in the little bit that stuck around.




We've also been enjoying the really ugly bird-feeders that were sold with the house on the back deck. The feeders are designed to deny squirrels b/c the perch won't support a squirrel's weight. The perches are spring loaded, and if even a bird lands on it roughly, it will bounce. We're getting lots of cardinals, sparrows, tufted titmouses (grammar???...titmice?), and one towhee, a chickadee, and a finch. I love the titmouses. They're so smooth looking, almost waxy. One feeder can be seen from the dining room window and the other from the kitchen window.






SO, what is left? Major flooring projects in fam, dining, kitchen, figuring out molding stuff for the arch door, connecting the utility sink, painting the extra bedroom and cabinets, doing something about the way our washing machine is draining into our yard (Wally has a plan, but I don't know what it is), and of course, normal yard stuff...lots to do there. Also, we hope to replace our ugly shutters and eventually get new windows since they condense water all around the seams and leave lovely puddles on the sills for me to mop up every day. But the windows are definitely a couple of years down the road.

Hooray for an A- !

Wally's graduate class is finally done. He made an A-. So we are very excited.

Around the house, Wally has installed shelves in the utility closet, doors (we bought from Habitat Restore hence the color), a wonderful ceiling fan for the fam room (which has been incredibly dark), and the light fixture in the hallway. He also cleaned off the deck of all the surplus wood (I am so thrilled about that!) and installed the utility sink in the cat closet.

Double doors for the utility closet.

Ceiling fan for fam room (on sale at Home Depot...yay!).

Cute hall light.

All I have done is mail Christmas gifts and make an apron for Rhi. Otherwise, I spend a lot of time being tired and feeling fatter.


Rhi's apron on my Christmas gift, a rocker LaZBoy recliner that will eventually make its way to the nursery.

We also visited Old Salem where we got a pic of a HUGE holly tree (this is for mom, who is growing one outside her kitchen window).




Our Christmas centerpiece.


Beautiful sunset from the deck (now cleaned off!).