Too Many Irons in the Fire!

Any dreams i might have had of sitting around in retirement eating bonbons and reading the latest hot new beach novel have been dashed, as my "To Do" list gets longer and longer.  The days of "Wednesday Workdays" have been replaced with "Everyday Workdays" as i try to catch up on all the things that need to be done. 

So, an update is in order.  The replacement floor was installed last week and, honestly, the three strong young men did all that work, so i can only lay claim to helping to box up all the books from many shelves of bookcases and then un-boxing them afterwards.  We did cull out some volumes and of course put everything back clean and dusted, but i think that is called "housekeeping" in most places ... no extra credit there.

But there are currently three on-going projects keeping me busy. 

Office Conversion to Music Room

Am waiting to give you the whole project when it is done - sometime later this week or early next.  The best you get today is a peek inside our guest room, which has been pressed into service as the staging area.  Slowly, very slowly, all the boxes are being unpacked and places found for the stuff. 

Storage central for the past three weeks.

 One more delivery and a bit of arranging and i'll be ready to show it all. 

Rehabbing the Deck

This was so not on my list for this summer!

If you have a deck, you know that it needs to be re-sealed at least in alternate years - annually would be better, but we have never found time to do that!  As i was thinking that it was time to do it this summer, i realized that this job will either get more difficult each year as i get older, or will become more expensive as i need to hire someone to do it.

Having all the furniture increases the choices of where to sit ... i think.

The alternatives are either to replace the wooden decking with composite material, or to put a more permanent finish on the existing wooden deck, so that it does not have to be done semi-annually.  I chose the latter, and so am now in the middle of stripping off the old finish so that i can apply the Behr Deck Over* product in a few days. 

Like all best laid plans this has taken significantly longer and more elbow grease than planned, but it is coming along.  We have guests coming next week, so i hope to have it done in time for a dinner (or at least drinks) on the deck the middle of next week. 

The good news is that the nice men in the paint department were able to match the DeckOver to the color of the composite that we just put in for our side porch, and when I get to it they can also do white for the railings so that all three porches and decks will now match. 

Finishing the Cutting Garden

I've never spent the time that i need to on the cutting garden.  It bloomed beautifully in year one, but i ignored it last year and this year have only planted a dozen dahlias - which are doing very well.  I've started digging out a clean border, and used a lot of the round rocks from the former fish pond for edging, but there is still a significant amount of grass left and i need to work in more organic material if i really want it to do well ... next year and in the future. 

The two piles of "dirt" are the last of the latest batch of "webb dirt" from the compost pile.  I need to work them in, along with a bag or two of commercial compost.  Then i'll be ready for fall planting for next spring. 

So, that's what's happening in my little corner of the planet.  Perhaps bonbons next week.  

Will keep you posted. 

* No money was provided by Behr ... i just like their products.