Exterior

We picked up two ‘white’ plastic chairs that were fairly black.  I thought I could just scrub them clean but heavy duty cleanser and scrub brush hardly did anything.  I sprayed bleach on and the black washed away with a hose spray.  The chair on the left was cleaned with bleach.  The chair on the right was scrubbed and one spot sprayed with bleach

The town wanted us to take down this tent which was totally full of building materials and Steven’s Dad’s carving wood, plus other things.  Steven went through it all – took all the carving wood home, gave away some things, and organized the building materials into a pile which we covered with a tarp and then ‘disguised it with some fencing.  Hope the city is happy.  We sold the tent for $40, taking it down in high winds.

We added flower boxes under the windows of the garage and many flowers to the beds in front of the house.

We had a couple of piles of metal that we wanted to get rid of.  Put an ad on Craigslist as free and got someone right away. It looks so much better and I am sure our neighbors are happy.

We are taking a break for the holidays.  The cold keeps us from doing too much as there is not heat in the house.  We will be getting estimates on materials and labor.  We will also need to remove plaster and get all headers over opening up to code.  Right now it seems there are only double 2 x 4s over openings in load bearing walls.  We will also need to put supports under joists in the basement for support walls above them.

We have put up a ‘pine’ tree in the dining room bay window and added lights with a timer so that motorist passing the morning and evening hours will see a lit holiday tree.  We are approaching the shortest day of the year and we hope to add some light and cheer to passers by.

We have finalized our plans for the house.  Here are the exterior plans:

I finished digging out our rain garden along the street and then it rained.  It washed out part of the barrier along the street and filled completely.  Lipstick plant is planted in a back corner.

It was too deep so, after it drained, I added fill and rocks along the street.

A neighbor (from across the street) surprised us with this lovely pot of flowers!  She expressed appreciation for the work we were doing, knew we had many delays from rain and hoped that we would get our painting done before it rained again (I did get the painting done!)  She said she hoped it would brighten our day for us!  So kind and thoughtful! It definitely did brighten our day!

I started painting the back of the house the light rose color. The middle section was a bit scary as I was painting around high voltage wire using a metal ladder.   I wasn’t able to finish as I am running out of paint.  We used flat paint.  Steven wants us to experiment with satin/semi-gloss to see if it looks better.  I am still debating what color to paint the basement cement.  I think the darkest color to ground the house.