Friday, August 26, 2011

Sheetrock Weekend!

Well, finally --- I'm ready to start sheetrocking. I'm no longer keeping track of how many days it's been since I've started this project. Because it's been forever ago that I started. However, I've become a patient person in my old(er) age and have weathered this delay very well. I think.

Last night my brother, who was a contractor in a former life, came over and spent 3 hours giving me a hands-on lesson in hanging sheetrock. Thank heavens for that. I now have just enough knowledge to give me confidence that I can do this myself. I'm going to start tonight (Friday) and work on it all day tomorrow. My plan is to get it done tomorrow, but that's probably too ambitious. On the other hand, I'm all about being too ambitious when it comes to DIY projects! It's my standard operating procedure.

Update on the dogs: it's been HOT here this summer, weeks of 90-degree weather and no rain. Which is good because this area normally has outrageous summer lightning storms that start some pretty serious wildfires in the county. But still, from a dog's point of view, this is too hot. Molly especially is suffering. All her thick black Border Collie hair is holding in the heat. She spends a lot of time laying on the linoleum floor in the bathroom. Sammie, on the other hand, loves the heat. She spends her days spread out on the rock garden path, soaking in the sun. I think she is saving up heat for the winter when she suffers from cold. Poor girls.

Oh, and here's a weird thing - Molly got into my fenced off vegetable garden the other night and pulled out a zucchini plant (roots and all) and chewed off a 6-8 inch zucchini, which was destined to be zucchini bread. It now is her baby and she packs it around with her and guards it from Sammie, who has absolutely no interest in it. Weird, huh?

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Taking a Break

Well, 41 days ago I started what I thought (ha!) was going to be an easy makeover for my bedroom. Of course by now it's clear that it was anything but. However, I have been making steady, if somewhat slow, strides towards the finish line. At this point, the demolition is all done, and the insulation is up. The next step is the sheetrock, something that I don't feel is do-able by myself (physically it's probably impossible). And since my son is in the middle of his own DIY project, I feel it prudent to take a break from mine and wait (mostly patiently) for him to become available once again. Far better this way than to try to install sheetrock on my own. LOL with that idea.

Meanwhile, things at my house are certainly not at a standstill. I have been working on curb appeal by doing some landscape work (that's my definition of weeding). And guess what? A guy came into the office today and remarked to me how very attractive (he might have used the word "beautiful" but that could be a figment of my imagination) my house was looking this summer! Yay! Woohoo! I have been working at it and it's paying off.

Oh, and one last thing: the hummingbirds have found my back yard. It has taken 21 years for this to happen; every spring I put out feeders and have high hopes. But this is the first year that they've actually found my place. And I am so happy about that. It makes me think of my mom every time I see a hummingbird. She loved them and her backyard was always filled with the sight and sound of them. It's one of my happiest memories of her. I'm glad to welcome the hummingbirds back into my life.