August 28-29, 2010

This weekend we finished a HUUUUGE ongoing project: the basement is completely organized and spider-free! (RIP 5,000,000 spiders we sucked up in the vacuum.) We bought spray that *allegedly* keeps spiders away. We are leery of such miraculous claims, but will hope for the best.

We also gave our windows some TLC by scraping off the excess white paint (did someone just throw the bucket of paint at the window and call it a day?) and we hung up blinds in the office and guest bedroom. Now that we live at the ground level and not on the 2nd, 6th, or 16th floor of a building, we've come to realize the importance of window coverings. It's also wildly important to have window coverings when your neighbors actually know you and have teenage sons. Just a heads up.

We started a new large project: removing 80 feet of useless chain link fence from our property. Not only was it hideous, but it also made it impossible to maintain the side entrance to the house and was enabling the poison ivy to creep its way up our stairs.

What do you need to remove a metal fence?

1) Pliers

2) Hands

3) A saw with a metal-cutting blade

That's pretty much it! There was no real need for us to dig up the concrete holding the poles, so we dug down to the concrete, cut the poles, and filled it back up with dirt. We we still have about half the fence to remove next weekend, but we are really happy with our progress so far.

Before and after:

Hopefully next weekend we can say goodbye to the rest of that fence!

August 21-22, 2010

This weekend was great. Mike's brother, Dave, came up to help us do some electrical work, but that never happened. Dave made something much more helpful - a workbench in the basement!

All of the weird stuff we had been finding hidden throughout the basement finally proved helpful. All the lumber and pegboard for the workbench was made out of stuff already in the basement. We paid a total of $11 for this setup:

Now all of Mike's tools are on the workbench and not strewn about on the basement floor, yaaaaay! I am also forever in debt to David for making my downstairs chore, laundry, much more practical. He made me a snazzy little shelf and hung an old closet rod by the washer and dryer so that I could actually wash, dry, and fold clothes all in ONE place. Life's simple pleasures...

We felt pretty accomplished for the weekend and headed to the beach to enjoy Francesca's last days with us before flying back to Italy. We went to the beach to fly his kiteboarding trainer kite, and it was a lot of fun. Mike made an amazing dinner Saturday night, and we enjoyed the cool summer night together (note: someday we will have lawn furniture... until then, the backyard stairs will have to do!)

August 14-15, 2010

We went away for the weekend to Connecticut to visit Mike's grandparents. We also had a special guest, my friend Francesca, who is visiting us from Italy and will be staying with us for 10 days. We are excited to have her as our guest... but even more excited when she caught her very first fish on a rod and reel:

I caught a little bass too:

We were happy to get another break away from the house, but we are excited for next weekend when Mike's brother, Dave, comes to give us a hand with some of our bigger projects!

August 7-8, 2010

This weekend was less about work, and more about play. Our family friend's children, Jack and Elizabeth, came home with us on the boat Friday night and had lots of fun running around on the beach Saturday morning with the dogs.

Jack and Elizabeth's parents came down later in the morning and we had a great time relaxing on the beach with them. But of course, work had to be done! Mike and I said goodbye to our guests in the afternoon, and we had a marathon weeding session in the backyard. These things are MONSTERS! I have never seen a weed root this big in my entire life:

We pulled close to 300 of these out of our backyard (it's only about 35'x4o'.) We are hoping that the grass will ACTUALLY have a chance to grow now.

Sunday was a productive day! This weekend's "Weird Thing Found in The Basement" were two old oars covered in nails, and an old fireman's tool that they use to poke through floors of burning buildings. They were shoved up in the rafters and hanging by little bits of string. Go figure.

We also ordered a double papasan today - yay! Our dining room/great room/whatever you want to call it was in desperate need of a piece of furniture that looked "beachy." Hopefully it holds up to two adults and two dogs (which, by the way, were in heaven the moment the papasan arrived.)

Tada:

July 31-August 1, 2010

This weekend we had a guest! Kelsey took the boat home with us Friday night and she helped us pick weeds in the front yard (and yes, there's still much, much more to pick) and we enjoyed an afternoon at the beach together.

We spent the rest of our weekend in the coolest part of the house - the basement. We bought two more shelving units to create more storage area, and also grabbed more giant Rubbermaid storage containers. Mike jokes that we will have 50,000 Rubbermaid containers someday... he's probably right. I love those things.

While working in the basement, we saw light. The bad kind. The light that says "Look, you have a crack in your exterior walls and there's nothing stopping bugs, rain, and snow from getting into your basement!" We discussed some options (spray foam the entire basement? Patch the visible holes with concrete and get an energy audit?) to solve this dilemma, but thankfully it's summer and we can take some time to think things over before we make a decision.

On a happier note, Mike found a huge oyster shell on our Sunday morning walk. It's on our mantle now with all of our other beach finds.

Oh! and I got frustrated that I couldn't find a compost bin (well, that's not true. There are plenty of them online. But they were expensive AND I would have had to wait for it to be delivered.) So I went online and found this article on about.com and made my own!

I never knew how fun it was to use a drill bit. It got kind of addicting. Hopefully we will have some great compost for our garden next spring!