Happy Workers…

I love workers that smile and we had 4 of them at our house yesterday.

When the workers arrived the head honcho asked me to come out to the truck and make sure the carpeting was what I ordered. I knew it would be a fun time after he tried to trick me and showed me someone else’s carpeting first. Funny guy!

They put a big tarp down on our front lawn for their cutting center. Good thing the sun was shining all day long and things are very dry around here. Mr. Shadow was smiling, too, at the crazy lady with the camera that kept snapping away.

I didn’t realize we picked carpeting that all the vacuum strokes will show up on. Oh well, at least you’ll know we vacuumed just before you arrived at our door. We also picked darker carpet than we had before with a deeper tone to it for a little contrast to the new wood floors. Or maybe we wanted the color of dirt so you wouldn’t know just how dirty the carpets are after a few years?

Do you vacuum before company arrives or after they leave? Maybe you are really organized and have a special day each week when you vacuum? Or are you like a client of mine that I had in the past that vacuumed everyday because she liked having vacuum lines on her carpet? Do tell…

So yesterday was another day that Dear and I plopped down exhausted at the end of the day with no energy left to burn. After the carpeting install, Dear and I worked very hard to get the two guest rooms set up so we could get the mattress sets out of our kitchen area and we got the master bedroom semi organized.

We also had added emotional strain with news during the day that my mom had 3 near death episodes yesterday. It was a rough day for 3 of my sisters and my pop who were at her bedside for these episodes but this is the progression that is expected. These “episodes” are expected but very hard to experience. Just wanted to give you all an update on my mom and to thank you again and again for thinking and praying for her and my pop and all of us as we wait on God’s timing for her homecoming. I love my bloggy friends!

Preview…

I will dedicate a full post of our floor projects when they are completely done but here is a small preview of some differences already.

The hard floors are 90% complete with just the stairs and a landing to be installed. We had a few glitches but that’s normal for major projects. The trim and baseboards still need to be replaced. On August 1st our new carpeting will be installed and hopefully we can breathe a big sigh of relief come August 4th after we move everything back into it’s proper place.

We are very pleased with the character of Hickory. I have to admit that this project has really taken a lot out of me and it’s not done yet. I’m looking forward to recovering in August.

What’s happening in your hood?

A Lovely Weekend…

This was our first true summer weekend here in the Pacific Northwest. The sun has been shining brightly since the 4th of July. We finally just puttered about the yard and stayed home.

After I finished my puttering inside I sat out in the shade to keep an eye on Dear while he was up on those high ladders.

He worked on the trim on the garage. Thankfully he was shaded most of the time.

I think pansies and violas are the sweetest little flowers. They make me smile.

I still have a few more pots that need some fresh flowers in them. On Sunday there was one more project I needed to get done.

Rosella reminded me that it was time to add our next layer of fruit to our topfs! Rosella’s is Rumtopf and mine is Smirntopf! We both added cherries. I know I have a cherry pitter somewhere that Dear’s mother owned but it’s probably tucked away in the attic so I improvised and used a fondue fork to pit my cherries. You were right Rosella…it’s not easy to pit cherries and it’s good to wash a load of dishes when you are done so you can get the cherry juice stain off your hands and fingernails! My blueberries aren’t quite ready to pick yet so they will wait till the next layer…

This is the beginning of a very busy week for me with travel to Canada for 3 days included. I don’t know how often I’ll be checking in. Still praying for those of you suffering in the hotter than normal temps and for the areas that are desperate for some rain. May God shade you and refresh you with his rain…

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Outside & In…

It’s that time of the week again to travel to snowy Springy Alberta to visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and join in with your favorites from this past week.

Here’s Dear surveying his new wall… It should be finished today with a few more levels of block…

Here’s what added to my joy this week…

1. Getting the dreaded boxes from the attic project done. Whoohoo it feels great!

2. Having work done on our yard. Grading and a retaining wall. Work should be done today.

3. Enjoying pretty fancy tulips that only cost me $2.50.

4. Bringing some of the Apple Blossoms inside to enjoy.

5. Having a good meal fresh off the stove.

Psalm 63: 3-5

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

Have a great day and weekend everyone!

Before and After ~

Like BooMama I had high hopes to show you some before and after photos from the big project at our house…the basement. But alas we aren’t anywhere near the “after” stage yet so I defaulted to this smaller project that I’m working on.

These are some of my many tablecloths. This type of storage makes them hard to get to, to see, and to stay wrinkle free. I’ve been wanting to change this for a long time.

Now this is much better. I can see them more easily and they don’t get wrinkled. I’m still in process. I have lots of tablecloths. The next stage to this process is to arrange them in sizes. My table has 6 leaves so I use several different tablecloth sizes depending on how many people will be seated around my table.

I’m going to leave you with a photo of the stage our basement is in even though I’m not the one working on this project. My involvement includes feeding the crew and keeping them hydrated. Once in a while I have to make a mad dash to the Home Depot for a needed item. :0)

For more Before and After click on BooMama above…

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I posted on my blog from 2007-2015 hostage and replaced them with big black and grey boxes with threats. So discouraging…as I’m slowly trying to clean up thousands of posts!

Fun with Friends and Family

We have had some fun and fulfilling days this week with family and friends. Yesterday we headed to Dave and Jody’s house in Edmonds overlooking the Sound for swimming and food.

I had a little stroll about Jody’s garden and watched the bees enjoying it.

Finn charmed us with his cuteness. At one point in the evening, when no one was watching, Finn went into the bathroom and had fun with lots of toilet paper and grandmother’s lipstick!

We met and held sweet little Josee (pronounced JoeZay). She is 2 weeks old.

We also met for the first time, sweet Juliet, who is 4 weeks old and Josee’s cousin.

As if with all this sweetness we needed the desserts I brought (Recipes to follow soon)

Creamy Cheesecake and

Fruit Pizza (thanks Bernideen for the recipe) The recipe will make 2 round medium size pizza’s. I chose to do 1 large rectangular one.

Dave and Jody served Soft Fish Tacos made with barbecued Tilapia (Yummy) and Jan brought fruit. We always eat well when we get together.

The Sun going down beyond the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Penninsula. Thank you Dave and Jody for another wonderful time in your company!

Besides all this fun the guys have been busy, busy, working on our continuing basement project. I love it when my 3 guys are together working, laughing and just hanging out…

Dear and Dan assembling the new wheelbarrow they needed for mixing cement.

Josh mixing up the cement…

Dear and Dan pouring the cement down into cinder blocks with limited access.

Time flies when you’re having fun.

Photobucket is holding all my photos from 2007-2015 hostage on their site and have replaced my photos with black and grey boxes of ugliness. I’m slowly deleting those boxes from my blog and trying to update so many posts, very frustrating.

BooMama’s Before and After ~

It’s a before and after project. So all you have to do is post about something you want to re-do, re-decorate, clean up, etc. and then do it before July 25th and re-post your before and after results. How cool and motivating is that. To get the official scoop click over to BooMama.

Here’s what I’m going to try to do.

1. Create an inviting atmosphere on my deck in Seattle (I’m in our condo in So. California right now but I get to be at my home in Seattle from July 1st – August 15th )

2. Do a thorough cleaning of my Seattle home since my adult children have been “taking care of it” while I’m in Southern California.

3. Show some photos of our huge project…redoing the basement. My husband only has 3 weeks in Seattle so I don’t know what we’ll be able to accomplish but I will show the progress…

Here are some photos of the torn up basement. We had some water issues so this was a “have to do” project! The hard part about my husband completing this project is that we are living 1200 miles away right now because of his job.

So I hope to show you some great changes July 25th!

Photobucket is holding all my photos I stored with them from 2007-2015 hostage. They have blacked out all those photos on my blog posts. OH BOTHER! I’m slowly cleaning up my posts.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Projects