That’s what we did this weekend! We went to my work summer outing on Saturday but Saturday evening and Sunday evening we accomplished this:
And we got it all cleaned up and moved inside just before it started to rain on sunday! Unfortunately as I was denailing the siding inside I was dripping sweat so we called it quits for the day earlier than planned. I blame the humidity! I’m very happy with the progress though, I really didn’t think we could get all the siding off in one weekend, especially since we had to go slow and try to save as much as we could (did a decent job of it too!).
A Stitching Weekend in Maine
I just got back from a 3 day vacation in Maine with Sarah. The 3 days included the drive up and back which is significant (just over 4 hours) but we got a lot of stitching done. We decided to continue the tradition of stitching on Celtic Banner which we started together in Maine 4 years ago.
Progress was definitely made!
This is the picture I took after stitching Sunday and Monday:
And this is after stitching on Tuesday:
The piece is getting very long and it’s hard to show much of it since it is on scroll rods but it is 4 pages long and we are more than halfway through page 3!
While stitching we listened to Storm Glass by Maria V. Snyder (Glass series book 1). This is the same author (and many of the same characters) as a long time favorite of ours the Study Series. While the story was very interesting the reader was very distracting, mis-pronouncing almost every pronoun which was beyond frustrating. I was however motivated to go back to the Study series directly after and I’m happily more than halfway done with the first book in that series again.
Baking
Strawberries are in season so in June I made up a cake – it’s a basic vanilla cake with a layer of strawberries in the center. The frosting is actually plain whipped cream.
I made the strawberry center concoction with orange juice and it had a nice tang to it. This was a nice start to baking this summer as I have since made a couple more treats!
Family Weekend (4th of July post-poned)
A family filled weekend. Last week I managed to get all the sewing done that I had planned as well as the new door we ordered finished. Friday I baked the 4th of July cake which was great fun (I love decorating!).
Saturday the family arrived, my Dad started immediately to work on the new door installation with Ryan’s help and Sunday we finished it up. Now we have a lovely new door on the side of the house! I’m very excited and we have a plan for the coming weeks/weeekends for getting ready to install the windows we ordered.
LOTS of work ahead but things are happening so it’s very encouraging.
Plumbing weekend
Our brother-in-law was out this weekend (with my sister) to do the plumbing for the downstairs bathroom. We now have hot and cold water Pex lines running to the sink/shower/toilet and the drain lines almost done (they are in but not connected) as well as the vent lines.
We also pulled out what we could of the old phone and doorbell lines, effectively cleaning more of the wiring mess up in the basement.
Hopefully this weekend we’ll get a little more relaxing time but also some work done. The weather has got me really discouraged because my second rose bush is blooming and I’m missing it!
Blooms!
The very first blooms in my garden have started popping up! If we only had some sun this week there would probably be more, I’m hoping sun tomorrow will really open these guys up!
The first of the rose bushes to bud and then start to bloom!
The first of the asiatic lilies to bloom!
Now back to the regularly scheduled programming 🙂 This weekend we plan to continue work on the house – cleaning out some pipes from the basement, probably finishing off some aluminum siding removal (porch and one lower side of the house where we’ll be swapping out the windows). We also have to go buy windows tomorrow!
Another House Renovation weekend
This is what we enjoy now that we have a house – weekends full of getting projects done around the house! I know I enjoy them more than Ryan does because I can just go go go all weekend and feel satisfied going to work Monday, Ryan likes a little bit of a break in there somewhere.
This weekend Mom and Dad came out to help around the house. We started before they got there though, removing aluminum siding from the outside of the house (porch) to reveal the original wood details had been removed but can hopefully be restored with some patience.
I also worked on making sure there was a big garden ready for all the plants my mom was bringing me – lots of baby perennials which hopefully survived the trip okay. She planted them all for me and made me a map while I worked with my dad on various projects – the largest of which was updating some of the electrical in the basement. We got a good deal cleaned up down there and I have a better understanding of most of the circuits the house is running on now.
All in all I think this month will be a very productive month – but we do have some new plans involving replacing the windows which is a bit more expensive than originally planned so things may go a bit slower than originally planned as well 🙂
Wii Fit!
Somehow I managed to win something from a sweepstakes I just happened to enter! I won both a Wii and a Wii Fit. Now yes we already have a Wii however we are giving that to my husband’s sister and the Wii Fit – absolutely a treat! I hadn’t really been interested in them much, but after setting it up Saturday night with a friend who was visiting I found that I really enjoy it. I don’t think it will get me in great shape or anything but it certainly won’t hurt my progress of getting into shape 🙂
Currently without anyplace to set up our home gym (due to renovations), I can only go for runs or walks when it’s nice outside, this will give me something extra to do and I’ll try to do it at least 3 days (nights) a week. Plus it has some games so I can mix it up between some yoga/strength and some balance games.
The other plus side is that it got me to hook up our Wii (which hadn’t been hooked up since we moved)… not that I need something else to do in the evenings but at least it’s hooked up and not being neglected. Unfortunately the books I’ve been reading have captured my attention too much and I find them hard to put down any night of the week 🙂
A very special day – April 25, 2009
This past weekend my sister got married! The weather was amazing, the ceremony was beautiful, everything was truly perfect! My sister and her groom looked so happy, it really couldn’t have been better (well maybe a little cooler – who could believe in April it would be in the high 80’s!).
Now that the wedding is over I have no more sewing obligations that I know of! That means it’s time to focus on the house primarily and that’s what we plan to do… there’s so much to do!
Demolition Part I is complete
With the very much appreciated help of my father-in-law, my husband and he finished all the demo of the first three rooms we are tackling. The “Red room” and bathroom are now down to studs. Wednesday they demo’d the “red room”, then thursday we did the bathroom, revealing some pretty bad conditions in the floor and the wall studs. So Friday we put down a new subfloor and started re-framing the bathroom walls. This project is not yet complete but it’s close.
With the weather being just so amazing last week we needed to do a little outdoor work so we started a garden to plant my birthday rose bushes in. I really hope I can keep them alive! This weekend all work was suspended (except for cleaning) due to other plans and with my sister’s wedding fast approaching (this coming weekend) work will probably not resume until next week.
Next on the house to do list is to finish the framing and support beams. Then the electrical. We also have to replace the bathroom window. Then we’ll just get ready for the insulation people to come and do the spray foam. Once that’s complete we get to do the really fun part – drywall???