And the list goes on...

Still working on the punch list here. Sorry, folks who are hoping for a big new project to start - check back in November or December to see us tear up our bedroom.

This weekend, we worked our fingers to the bone - or, more appropriately, wore the fingers off our gloves - tidying up the garden/yard. We're not quite done, but we:

• weeded all the beds
• mowed the lawn
• changed over annual planters to mums (yuck)
• turned all the compost
• raked leaves
• watered every dang plant in the yard
• pruned & deadheaded everything
• Ken finished the grape trellis extension, then he
• finished nailing the last few fence slats, then he
• cut the large corner fence post down one level (the aesthetics weren't working), then
• I built and installed a fence cap on it (made from scrap cedar + the lid of a cast lantern I got at a yard sale for $3 - which saved my life because I was sucking at cutting double miters to make a little cupola-type thingy).

This is me on my tiptoes, trying to get a photo of the little roof.

You gotta love these Autum Joy sedum - even though everyone else has them (usually I have to be different), they're still such a superstar.

Tidier!

Did I forget anything? I'm tired again, thinking about it. So the punch list is getting shorter. Here's what it looks like now, all in priority order & by category (at great risk to myself I post this, knowing that CAB is rolling her eyes and thinking, "You nerd").

Nerd or not, sh*t's getting done.

A lot done, not much finished

Today was one of those days when everything on your long list gets stuck somewhere - either it takes much longer than you thought, or a series of bizarre other things need to get done before your thing can get done, or things just keep screwing up.

Regardless, we managed to get the kitchen door sanded - thanks to Ken's awesome technique and moral support (I stripped it last weekend), stained, and up. It still needs tung oil, but I can do that in situ. It has totally changed the character of the kitchen - it's so much better than a cracked, chippy old white door. It has presence.

So, even though only really one thing got finished this weekend, the stuff that did get done was pretty good.

A little less inadequate

Often, on Saturdays, we watch the home improvement shows on PBS (we don't have 'real' cable so no HGTV here!). You know, things like This Old House, The Woodwright's Shop, the New Yankee Workshop. Good stuff, all.

But - especially with the New Yankee - we always feel a little inadequate. I mean, Norm's shop is UNREAL. And all his tools are all properly maintained. And he is organized, and has a special table/storage unit for everything. Oh, and he has every tool, ever.

One tool he's always using and that we've needed for a long, long time is a stacked dado blade. You know, so you don't have to make a million passes with the table saw to put a groove in something? Well - I found one the other day at the antique shop that has old tools down cellar - it's DeWalt and it was $10.

Now we can groove like Norm.

The last dresser

We've been replacing dressers in our bedroom so we'll be all ready to go when we finally re-do our room later this year. So - I found the final one yesterday. Picked it up from a person who does one of those perpetual yard sale things (pretty common around here). You know, there are always tables of stuff with tarps on them in the yard, like year-round? The neighbors must LOVE that.

They had already sanded some parts of it, saving me work, but we still have a bit to do.

And - most importantly -we MUST change out the hardware. Before the dresser even touched the ground here in the bungalow, these pulls were OFF.

I know, they sort of make you throw up a little, don't they? Bleagh.

The frightening thing is that I bet they'll sell right away in next year's yard sale!

Hedging...a bit

So, things have been slow. End of summer stuff, plus the scorchingly hot, sticky humidity was not particularly conducive to a lot of physical labor-type stuff.

This morning was cool enough to rip out the last dead hedge piece and replace it with two small new guys that will (someday) fill in. We got these guys at the less-expensive good nursery, on sale. And they were still a bit pricey. But a steal compared to what they charge for 5-6', balled and burlapped cedars for hedges. Since the non-dead section of hedge is in great shape, over 60 feet long and over 6' tall, we figure the existing hedge is probably worth more than the house! Crazy!

Grow little guys, grow!

Success - from the brink of disaster

So, we managed to make it through the rest of the weekend without any additional Three Stoogieness. Well, a couple of small things, but nothing as completely chaotic as Friday.

Fence?

Check.

Dresser*?

Check.

Homemade mini-pedi?

Check.

* Scored the dresser in unrestored - but never painted - condition for $37.50. Escutcheons (in the correct size and finish) were hard to find, but I got some great ones from Horton Brasses - the company seems great and prices are quite good.

Fencing, part two

Don't say it too loudly, but the weather has been fine lately. Our fencepost holes dried out (well, enough) for us to pour concrete on Thursday, then we started making and assembling our back corner fence. There will be four sections total - here are two of them.


The other two will be on the left side, in an L. This is the back corner of our yard, where the dead hedge grew (and where trash blew in through said dead hedge from the main road out that way).

The corner post looks odd now, but it should look good once we put a copper roof on it. It is pressure treated (everything else is cedar) because we wanted to sink it, so to make it look cedariffic, we clad it with leftover shakes. Kind of an architectural-type flavor to it.

A couple of more sunny days and we'll be done. If we can stand the cedar splinters in the eyes, that is! Even with saftey goggles on, they somehow always manage to get in there. Nasty!