Merry Christmas to us...

Living in a wreck warps ones sense of normal. At work on Friday, everyone was exchanging plans for Christmas Eve - Shopping, cooking, family visits, and for us, replacing the sewer stack. I think most of my coworkers think I have inhaled too much lead dust.
This was the first full day I have had off in awhile, and as I thought, it took all day and three trips to the hardware store. I started by cutting below the main crack, and after cutting all the way through several hundred pounds of cast iron came down and pinned the blade. Steve ended up having to sledgehammer the rest of the thing to bits, and then I had to go through our bedroom closet to cut the vent pipes , but overall it was not too bad, just very tiring. It is going to take us awhile to get used to having a bathroom sink now. We have been using the kitchen sink only fo r the past few months. Now if only the bedroom doors would close...

Breaking the silence...

Its been awhile since my last post, and I would love to report massive progress... but the truth is we are just worn out. We had the family for Thanksgiving in our newly painted dinning room. its come a long way!
That lovely weekend was followed up by an ugly flu that dragged on for two and a half weeks... ICK!!


I am now back up to speed and got the house decorated for Christmas,
and have started back on real projects - the front bedroom closet. Its the only room in the house
that has not been painted in decades, and is really gross, plus, it lacks shelves, so the front bedroom is still a wreck three months (ahem) after we moved in. Steve surprised me by patching all the holes in the plaster and clearing out the junk, and I am building miles of shelves with wood I have laying around the house, and I spent the evening cutting and priming all the new wood. Not fun.
Other than that nothing new, although I have my landscaping almost figured out. I am going to plant California Sycamores as the Boulevard Trees, put a low boxwood hedge along the sidewalk, and intersperse iceberg floribunda roses (white) with Hydrangea bushes. We were at Lowes last night looking for screws and I noticed that they have bare root roses for 5.99. Too bad I don't have the beds prepared yet. I started researching the type of watering system I am going to install. I have been happy with the low pressure one I installed in Long Beach, ( In five years the only thing I have had to do is replace a battery), but this is a much bigger lot and I am thinking of putting in a more heavy duty one... I will make up my mind soon on that one, as I am so anxious to get the outside up to snuff, as the exterior improvements make the neighborhood better.