Sunday, June 1, 2008

Spring is here and so are the projects!

Spring is here! Time to get the garden in. We're three weeks late this year. We aim to get the garden in on Mother's Day weekend. But this year we drug our feet. Why? We HATE painting. Really dislike it. Avoid it at all costs. We usually schedule a spring project. One year it was re-do all the flower beds. We took a year off so I could have back surgery two years ago and barely even got the garden in. Last year it was my husband's spring project so I could still recoup from surgery and he built a play structure for the grandmunchkins. And we could avoid what really should have been done...paint the house. So here goes the garden...the last on our spring project list for this year. Yes, this was last, but the most enjoyable, the reward for finishing the other spring projects. We like planting the garden. We don't like to paint. I managed to get a sweater done for R in the evenings working around the spring projects. It's crocheted with a size F hook from Bernat Cottontots in my stash. It called Pretty Picture Set and is in a Bernat pamphlet. The pattern called for an H hook but it would have been huge. It was a fun crochet and turned out cuter than I thought it would when it was about half done. I have started another in a bigger size for S.
Ok, enough of the fun stuff. Let's get to work and get it over with. Here are the "before" pictures.

Doesn't look too bad. In the pictures that is. But the teal trim is faded and really out dated. Did I mention I don't like to paint? And with painting, you can't just pick up a brush and go. My husband took off an entire week to paint and he had 5 days of prep work first! There was moss to get off the roof. The great Northwet is a prime area for moss to grow. There were gutters to clean. We love our trees in the back yard but they fill up the gutters. Then the whole house needed to be pressure washed and then let to dry.




Here we are happy in our work. The main color has been sprayed on but for trim, it's the brush! I'm only smiling because the paint is still on the brush and trim. Not on my clothes, not under my nails, not on every inch of exposed skin.






B is doing all the clapping that the painting is done. We're too busy washing our hands to clap!

And it's finished! And I've got the half empty Vicodin bottle to prove it! But it's done:
the gutters, the moss, the flower beds have a new coat of barkdust and two new hydrangeas, the deck flower pots have been planted, the garden has been planted and best of all the dreaded, hated, painting is DONE!
Here we are after the fact: clean house, clean roof!


Know what else I hate about painting? Everything looks so fresh and clean that you feel like you have to clean Everything inside and out. So the inside of the house was cleaned as well and all the windows washed, inside and out.

Looks great! Did I mention that I hate painting? But I love when it's done and the way it looks!
Sometimes when we have to do something we really don't like, God gives us a little blessing on the side. He let us see a little part of the cathedrals we're building (see last post on invisibility). Our one son came by when my husband was in the midst of painting just to see what we were up to. He ended up staying most of the day helping out. He didn't help out as Daddy's little boy either. He helped out as a fellow man with his own opinions and suggestions. Our other son also came by. Not to help, but in his defense, to take our youngest daughter with his family to the zoo for the day. While picking up his sister he commented that he was glad to see we were keeping up his inheritance. Kinda reminds you of the story of the Little Red Hen doesn't it?
Bring on the lazy days of summer! You know those days...canning green beans and peaches, weeding the garden, putting up applesauce...yep! Those Days!

1 comment:

  1. I am so envious of your vineyard and garden. Your house looks great and that little sweater and hat are adorable. But not as adorable as that little baby. How cute!!!!!

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