I can't believe what a slacker I've been with posting, but we've been busy enjoying the wonderful weather and working on projects.
When I last updated, Emilio had stepped on a nail within an
hour of the dumpster getting delivered (BOOO) and he was hobbling around. Luckily, he made a very quick recovery and
was able to start work just about two days (and an x-ray, and a tetanus
booster) later. He wanted to show off
the nail that nearly destroyed him so here ya go:
Just kidding. He’s
being silly. The actual nail was MUCH
bigger. He’s lucky to have a foot!
While he was recovering, I decided to go on without him so I
set him up in a lawn chair to watch as I emptied the garage. Yeah.
Remember this mess?
TaaaDaaaaa!
Once Emilio got on his feet again he dove right into
basement clean-up. This has been his pet
project for a while, because he is smart and anticipates things. The biggest obstacle in the basement was the “canning
room” or “root cellar” which had some bad wood and wasn’t particularly salvageable. Also, we really wanted the space back.
Here’s what we started with:
In progress:
And DONE! It looks fantastic now, but of course I forgot to get a pic. Next time!
Our dumpster partway full:
Yeah, it was pink. By
the time they came to pick it up it was full to the very tippy top. So nice to have all that junk gone!
In order to fuel our progress, we’ve been trying to take
good care of ourselves and each other.
The whole “home improvement is a marathon” mantra really rings
true. We were both starting to burn out
and so we’ve started to make some changes.
Look, healthy food!
It’s a good thing we’ve been eating well, because last
weekend we had an adventure that used up all of the reserves I had built
up. We went down to NY to pick up Emilio’s
childhood things (and LOTS of cool stuff his parents donated to our
cause). This involved renting a U-haul
and tons of packing. Maybe if you leave
comments Emilio will let me release some of the AWESOME teenage photos. By the end of this trip, we were heading back
to Massachusetts super-early on Monday to try to get back in time for work.
Tired:
Overall, it’s been good.
We’ve met some of the neighbors and I really like the neighborhood. We’re hoping to have a BBQ at some point to
introduce ourselves to a few more and get to know people a little better. Some mystery person left us beautiful pansies
on the front steps. Thank you to our
mystery gift-giver!
And that's not the only bunch of flowers we've received, turns out a few of the mystery
bushes in the yard were lilacs (and they smell wonderful). We’ve got a bit of a bunny infestation and
there are a few other invaders who I’m not too fond of:
- Carpenter bees. Eating the siding and buzzing about looking menacing.
- Possibly a bird in the chimney, but it’s kind of like when one of the smoke detectors is beeping from a low battery and you have to wander around like “I think it was in the living room” and then wait FOREVER for the next beep at which point you realize it’s farther away and… maybe upstairs? And then you wait again but get distracted and answer the phone and miss the next chirp… Yeah, it’s like that. I keep hearing a bird TOO CLOSE and yet can’t seem to find the origin of the sounds.
- These:
- And this:
- And maybe mice. :/
It’s not just outside invaders, either. Sometimes the terrorizing is perpetrated by
the humans in the house. For instance, one night
while Sully and I were slumbering away and Emilio someone decided to test the smoke
alarm. Yeah, I hadn’t even noticed that
the alarms were installed. Imagine my
surprise when the whole house starts beeping and banging and asking me quite
politely to “EVACUATE!” Sully and I
jumped straight up and then poor dog tried to flatten himself against the
floor. Maybe he was Stopping and
Dropping? As I was coming to terms with
the reality of the situation, I heard Emilio downstairs… Giggling. Guffawing.
Carrying on. I guess he didn’t
anticipate the spectacular and startlingly effective evacuation notice.
So, we laugh. We
surprise each other often. Sometimes, we
think about burning the whole place down.
I think it’s working out OK so far.
Keep cheering us on, it’s always nice to get a little
support!
Stay tuned to find out what the town has to say about this mess:
No comments:
Post a Comment