Okay, so I've been meaning to post this little update for ages but I keep missing my chance to get the pictures to accompany it. I thought perhaps if I just post it, I'll be motivated to finally take the pictures and wrangle them onto the page here. So...
We've been doing some little updates and upgrades around the house to tide ourselves over for the big things* we'd like to do... and maybe someday will do... but not right now. So here are some little things:
Updating the chandelier in the dining area by painting the white plastic "candles" black and swapping the "flame" bulbs for globes.
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| I could have done Oil-Rubbed Bronze but I had black on hand and from afar it's not a big deal. I think it's less jarring than the white sitcks at least. |
Updating the rust-colored front door and matchy-matchy shutters with some life and color:
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| I promise I haven't killed the entire garden (yet). It's already much greener than it was when this picture was taken last month. |
Moving two leaning, creaky, held up by icky cinder blocks log holders in the back yard to a more central and hopefully less unsightly location (and starting to find and organize the plethora of bricks strewn around the perimeter of our yard...?):
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| I did this wood pile between the trees mostly to hide the weird electrical box and satellite dish . |
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| We had two log-holders in the yard and now they're both up against the shed. You can see some of the bricks and cinder blocks I found around the yard stacked up there too (and an old rusty 50-gallon drum and some broken plastic patio furniture... this is all behind the shed so we can pretend it's not there). |
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| Another view of the long wood pile beside the shed. Never have I wanted a wheel barrel more than when I moved this stack an armful of logs at a time. My back hurt for a week. |
Swapping old, leaky, held together with electrical tape shower heads with new (and perhaps a bit GIANT) ones:
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| 8-inch diameter for an amazing shower. Aaaaaaah, so nice. |
Moving the the last remaining BILLY bookshelves from the office to the master bedroom, and organizing the kids' books and some toys on reachable shelves:
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| I will admit that sorting books by color looks awfully nice, but makes locating specific titles just a bit tedious. Until I learn all the spine colors. Then the world is my oyster. |
Moving some of the kids' stuff out of the living room and into the office/playroom/guestroom:
(Specifically, creating a kitchen area in the guest room instead of the living room.)
Swapping the orange velvet curtains in our bedroom for some red ones I had around from when I lived in Topeka (they're not really wide enough for the window, and I'd like white curtains in here, but I can live with these for a while in the interim):
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| Not orange! And Sydney loves the open windows. |
And I think that just about covers the little tweaks around here. We thoroughly enjoyed the two days of beautiful spring weather that preceded the pollen season we're now experiencing. We had the windows wide open and aired out the house until everything was coated in a layer of fine yellow pine pollen. Evelyn, who still confuses blue and yellow, is constantly saying, "It's all blue!" about... everything... these days. So. much. pollen.
Our neighbors just finished building a play set in their backyard, so I was reminded/inspired to do the Craigslist hunt for a swing set and this time I was successful! We paid a very kind family $60 for their really sturdy and seriously GIANT swing set. Once we get it home and assemble it, we hope it looks like it should:
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| Horse, 2 swings, and trapeze bar included! Sets like this go for something crazy like $500 if you buy 'em new. |
And I think that pretty much covers it, for real this time.
Next time I'll update you on the kidlets. They're keeping us on our toes these days.
*On the someday wish list: fake wood floors, french doors to the patio, shrubs to hide the chain link fence... Perhaps one day.
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