I’m trying to do a better job of posting my weekend happenings. Partially because I know the Grandmas and my mom like to read them (as well as several of you I’m sure), but also as a way for me to keep track of when certain projects were done and what still needs to be done! So let’s dive into the weekend of May 3-5th.
Friday night I was off at 4:30, no dinner plans (everyone is on their own) and the girls were supposed to have karate from 6:15-7:00pm. They were having fun playing with the neighborhood kids and frankly, we’ve had a jam-packed week and I just wanted to let them be kids and have fun and play.
I made myself a to-do list during quiet time, so decided to start tackling it. First up was a simple task, hanging the girls’ karate belts on their wall, like trophies I guess. I hung each belt so that the “knowledge” of the prior belt is surrounded by the newest belt. Here’s how that turned out:
Next I went out and watered all of our plants. Our drip system isn’t hooked up because once again, Nikita had fun chewing all the sprinkler lines and sprinkler heads. It’s going to take me a while to get everything capped and set, and not something I enjoy doing unless it’s SUPER hot outside because I always get soaked in the process (you don’t know where the leaks are unless you turn it on!). SO, good ol’ fashioned hose and nozzle time. That took a while. Some of our potted plants are not happy due to the warm weather and lack of water these days. On my list for the weekend: purchasing fertilizer stakes, fixing the drip system, topping off all the potted plants with more Miracle Gro dirt.
By the time I was done (and had spent a bit of time with Jim both of us hovering over a dish of Buffalo Chicken dip that I’d made earlier that day (dipping crispy celery sticks in it- YUM!!), I decided to go put a coat of stain on the arbor. It was probably before 6pm…maybe even 5:30-ish. Anyway- I didn’t finish until after 8:00. So two hours, not the three that I posted on FB, but I was still working all 3 hours! Ha! It was a much bigger task than I anticipated because there are so so so many boards that need all 4 sides stained. Ugh. It was horrible.
But it’s done. Well, except for needing a coat of linseed oil for added protection, but that should go on a lot quicker (with a brush rather than a rag).
Everyone wrapped up whatever they were working on, the kids came in, and we settled down to watch an episode of Grimm before heading to bed.
Saturday morning Jim left at 4:30am for his annual Rat Trip. Should be an interesting one this year as his dad and his dad’s friend Pete used to always coordinate the trip- where they were going, where they were staying, who’s fields they’d be shooting at, etc. Jim didn’t have any of those contacts (names or numbers) but remembers where they live, so this weekend is more a reconnaissance mission rather than a mission of rat elimination. Hopefully he’ll come home with a list of contacts for next year’s trip. Trevor is hoping to join them next year as well.
Anyway, he left, I got up around 6am, did my usual first-thing-in-the-morning-time-wasting of checking Facebook, reading the daycare forums, checking the blogs I enjoy following, then I took a shower and simply enjoyed the peace and quiet of the house while everyone else was still SLEEPING! They didn’t need to get up until 8:00. We had karate from 9-9:45, then I dropped the kids back off at home and headed to a friends’ house for a Garden Party. The main purpose was to make some concrete stepping stones and trade/exchange plants. Oh yeah, so I went out before karate and dug up a few of my overgrown plants that I’ve been needing to divide. I came home with some columbine, a couple purple iris, a clump of lily of the valley and a few other plants that I can’t recall the name of at the moment. Which meant a little bit of yardwork for me to do! Ha!
She had some yummy treats for us to eat- fresh fruit and some biscuit/egg/spinach/onion “muffins” which were really good. I ran out of time to make any stepping stones, or so I thought, also I wanted to make 3-4 more of the dragonfly style and it was the form in high demand, I would have only been able to make one, so I told her I’d come back the next time she does this- hopefully I’ll have more time then.
Came home, decided to tackle the front door project. I sprayed it with a TSP type spray, scrubbed it with a brillo pad, wiped it dry, then drove Trevor to a friend’s house, came back and got to work on the drip system (after all, it was 82+ degrees!). That took almost 2 hours to do the front and backyard. By the time I was done my poor little fingertips were extra tender and achy.
I came in at 4:00 and my parents called saying to be at their place to help move furniture (and have pizza!)…which was about 2 hours from then. So I cleaned up the outside projects and tackled the front door again. I spent about 40-minutes sanding it and using a chisel to clean up the extra chunky parts, and after about an hour I was beat.
I think it needs a little more detail sanding before I can paint it, and I still don’t know what color to paint it. But my fingers/hands were DONE working by then. Ouch.
We got to Mom and Dad’s just after 6pm, ate dinner, then started moving furniture. We were there just over an hour and a half, finished early enough that we could hit Petco and Lowe’s before going home. I picked up a variety of color samples for our front door.
I also grabbed more plants to add to the group I brought home from Jodi’s. Creeping Phlox, Dianthus, Primula and Poppy’s.
The girls wanted a “reward” for being such good helpers, and because we didn’t get to end up having our “girls night” so I took them to Dairy Queen. Yep, at 8:50pm we all ate Blizzards. :)
We were all exhausted when we got home, so off to bed we went! I haven’t had time to read my book the past few days and only have 60 pages to go, so tried to read for a bit but couldn’t keep my eyes open! Brooke slept with me and we both slept hard.
Up at 7am (didn’t even peek my eyes open before then!), Brooke and I ate cereal, then I started my to-do list for the day.
First up, replacing our shampoo dispenser in the shower. We’ve had this one for about 15 years and 2 of the dispensers were broken and it had permanent soap scum/mildew on it and it was plain gross. I’ll spare you the picture. But look at this new beauty:
Not sure what will go in the middle yet, probably another shampoo, but I can’t find my Tea Tree Oil and Rosemary Oil drops (I add 6 drops of each to every bottle of shampoo before we use it because I swear it repels lice. Our schools have a huge lice problem and ever since I learned this trick and started doing it, the kids have not gotten lice again! I actually found a live adult on Brooke once (down her hair shaft, not on her scalp) right after she came home from school one day, and I think it was trying to escape her “stinky” hair! No lice for us!)
Next up was more door sanding. My poor fingers!
Then priming, then using wood filler, then priming again.
OH, I’m trying a new primer, too. It’s designed to use over ANY type of paint and surface, dries in MINUTES, can recoat in 45 minutes, is sandable and you can paint with ANYTHING over it! So far I’m loving it!
Meanwhile…. I decided to tackle the kitchen cabinet recoloring…..using the backside of the bathroom cabinets as test run since they are the exact same finish as our kitchen cabinets. Let’s just say that was a trial and error type of project that took hours. There will be a full post on how much fun I had. You can read it here.
But for a sneak peek….here’s what I came up with using what we had on hand. Is it enough of a difference?
In the midst of all the front door and cabinet door recoloring, I also grabbed a can of teal spraypaint and did this:
My mom gave me this watering can several years ago, it used to be a bright red color, but the sun has faded it considerably.
I decided to jazz it up a bit- especially since it sits by our front door (collecting rain water) and with the new door being it’s new color- maybe it’ll pop! OoooOOoOOoOohhh I can’t wait to see how they look together. The color of the door is still a surprise….hang on!
I needed to wait until 4:30 to put my next coat of paint on the front door, so I sat down to write this. Then worked on those cabinets some more, then went outside and planted all those plants.
And for more detail on how the door has gone…..today alone…. it’s been sanding, removing hardware, primering, filling, sanding, primering, sanding, painting one coat, sanding, painting another coat, painting another coat, painting another coat….still needs one more but I’m outta time. Thank God for warm sunny weather with high winds to speed up the drying process! Supposed to have 4 hours between coats but I was able to do about 2.5 hours between coats. Door knob was back on at 7:45 and photos taken!
Here’s the new door in all it’s glory:
And with the screen door shut it’s barely noticeable that it’s RED…but look at the pretty teal watering can next to it!
Anyway….8:00 marked the official quitting time for today’s projects, and time to get the house ready for daycare Monday. I still need to do my sign in sheets and menu and calendar for the week- guess it won’t be too early of a bedtime around here. That’s OK, I can’t shut my door anyway! Ha!
So yeah, basically worked 13 hours today, who knows how many yesterday, and tomorrow will be much of the same!
Elisa's Ramblings 