Crunch Time

So I might be a little MIA for the next couple of weeks - there's a major crunch time both at work (mountains of paperwork...) and at home with finishing projects. With my focus elsewhere, I'm sure the blog will suffer a bit - but don't despair, I'll be back on track soon!

Interior Progress

Remember the room with all of the built-ins? The one that I've labored over the floor? Well, it's now patched, and (mostly) primed.

You know what this wall needed? One more hole.

 

The one cabinet I decided to keep is installed

paint (or primer) really does work wonders, even half done

My Big Boy

Max will be three soon. This excites and terrifies me all at once. It's little things now that I'm trying to remember, like -

He has amazing bed head - he gets this from me.

He has giant feet - he gets this from hubby.

Yard Progress!

This last weekend I hired four members of a local college's rugby team to come help with yard work. Dad came with his tractor, and between all of us (with Max supervising), the garage and shed are scraped and awaiting paint (sprayer is on order), I now have a rock garden covering an old trash/burn pit (thanks, previous homeowners), the pool hole is mostly rescaped, and the yard trash is all in one pile awaiting removal from a local refuse company. Woo-hoo! The young men (Max corrected me several times that they are not boys or guys, they're men, which they loved) were working as a fundraiser for the team, so I paid $10/hr/person, totaling $40/hr. Way cheaper than professional labor, and they were very dedicated. I actually had to convince them to stop for lunch!

scraping paint and moving the trash pile

getting rid of the landscape fabric around the pool hole

moving dirt (and Max's stick)

more dirt moving...

and more dirt moving!

rock garden progress

scraped and ready for paint!

rock garden, awaiting some topsoil to fill the cracks

more paint scraping - and note the two squares where there used to be nasty trash bins

removing old conduit that had wiring for the pool

Sensory Play

Sometimes you just need to play with lentils.

Pretty Polish

I "splurged" the other day and picked up some new nail polish at the drug store for a whopping $2.50. Totally worth it. :) It's my favorite color, lasted 5 days, and is super pretty. And it matches my kitchen walls!

Floor Update

drying after the scrub-a-thon

So, you know how I said I was going to rip out and replace that floor instead of refinishing it? I thought that if I wrote it down it would happen... not so much.

SO.

I scrubbed the beejezus out of it with an odor-neutralizing solution (baking soda, peroxide, dish soap, lots of water), and sanded it all down.

I'm happy to say - the smell is completely gone. Thank goodness, really, had it still smelled and I would have had to rip out the floor after all of that I would have been pretty cranky.

Now I just have to fill in the cracks and holes in the walls, ceilings, and floors - then on to paint!

sanded