How to enjoy a weekend
Aug. 29th, 2005 03:38 pmMy idea of a fun weekend: 14 hours of working in the yard. :-)
I do get a lot of time to think, and although I'm not expending a lot of calories, I'm out in the open air. So what did I do?
- Finished the primer coat on the underside of the deck. (4 hours) Of course, this made me realize how sad the old wire fence and obscenely overgrown ivy looked on the south side of the yard, above the terrace. And of course, it made me realize how much painting still has to be done.
- Finished cleaning up the bits and pieces of shingles from the north side of the garage left from reshingling the garage roof two months ago, weeded that area, and leveled it out with a hoe (2 hours). Of course, this made me realize that it needs some major landscaping along that side of the house, I haven't painted the new piece of soffit the contractor put in to replace the old water rotted one, and that gutters would still be a good idea.
- Slowly tore down the offending wire fence, the masses of ivy (7 hours), which entailed wire cutters, dust mask, and stamina. Of course it's all bare there now, but I do have a plan for constructing a trellis fence along that area, landscaping a new path, and putting in a drip system for vining plants. The temperature climbed to a very dry 92, and as soon as I finished the skies clouded and a five minute cooling rainstorm blew through.
- Random weeding and watering of the areas not on a drip system (1 hours)
And yesterday, the electrical contractor came over to give us a quote on redoing the electrical in the laundry room to accomodate a mini-refrig and a dishwasher downstairs, as well as new lighting and recepticles in there, rewiring the garage to accomodate garage door openers, new outlets all through out and lighting fixtures, and finally to lay out conduit and wiring to accomodate a hot tub in the lower terrace. Of course, all of this entails us having to pull out the laundry room drywall, completely empty the store room in the soon-to-be-real-garage-rather-than-a-carport.
Oh and of course Lynn McCasland sent me pictures of his totally remodeled kitchen, which we haven't even started yet...
So the lesson I learned is to NOT start any new projects. They never never never ever ever ever end.
I do get a lot of time to think, and although I'm not expending a lot of calories, I'm out in the open air. So what did I do?
- Finished the primer coat on the underside of the deck. (4 hours) Of course, this made me realize how sad the old wire fence and obscenely overgrown ivy looked on the south side of the yard, above the terrace. And of course, it made me realize how much painting still has to be done.
- Finished cleaning up the bits and pieces of shingles from the north side of the garage left from reshingling the garage roof two months ago, weeded that area, and leveled it out with a hoe (2 hours). Of course, this made me realize that it needs some major landscaping along that side of the house, I haven't painted the new piece of soffit the contractor put in to replace the old water rotted one, and that gutters would still be a good idea.
- Slowly tore down the offending wire fence, the masses of ivy (7 hours), which entailed wire cutters, dust mask, and stamina. Of course it's all bare there now, but I do have a plan for constructing a trellis fence along that area, landscaping a new path, and putting in a drip system for vining plants. The temperature climbed to a very dry 92, and as soon as I finished the skies clouded and a five minute cooling rainstorm blew through.
- Random weeding and watering of the areas not on a drip system (1 hours)
And yesterday, the electrical contractor came over to give us a quote on redoing the electrical in the laundry room to accomodate a mini-refrig and a dishwasher downstairs, as well as new lighting and recepticles in there, rewiring the garage to accomodate garage door openers, new outlets all through out and lighting fixtures, and finally to lay out conduit and wiring to accomodate a hot tub in the lower terrace. Of course, all of this entails us having to pull out the laundry room drywall, completely empty the store room in the soon-to-be-real-garage-rather-than-a-carport.
Oh and of course Lynn McCasland sent me pictures of his totally remodeled kitchen, which we haven't even started yet...
So the lesson I learned is to NOT start any new projects. They never never never ever ever ever end.