The entry room and other news ...

Those who have been to my house know and have seen the ~9x12' room that one enters on the road side of the house. It's been unfinished--apparently since it was built--a date I know not, but suspect it's been decades. Here are three views of what it looked like on the inside:



It has been a dream since I arrived here to have the room insulated (top, bottom, and sides) and sheet rocked. The dream came true a few weeks ago. I hired 2 local (cute!) guys to do the work and they did a good job. It only took them 2 days--they work fast! When they left, I primed and painted. Believe it or not, I've used 6 different colors in this small room. It wasn't planned... I intended to paint all the trim the same color, but once I started, I realized that the 5 windows and 2 doors makes for a lot of trim, and if all in the same color would have the effect of "shrinking" the room. So after painting 2 windows, I decided to paint 2 on another wall a different color, ditto the 3rd wall windows. Each door is trimmed in red. I still need to put a 2nd coat on some of the paint but I can manage that in my leisure time (if I get some ;) ).

Tada!:



I've temporarily painted the floor boards in a brick color, but will be ordering vinyl in this pattern:



I purchased a lovely cedar-lined coat closet from the re-purpose store on the cheap, brought my hall tree out there, and also have moved my work desk and laptop to this room as well. I can now say I leave the house to go to work! Ha! Although, in reality, the room now feels very much part of the house.

One more project checked off the list! :) Two other projects nearing the top of the list--and it's hard to say which I should consider first: 1) sump pump in the basement, 2) excavation work outside to build a drainage system that will divert the "stream" of water which heads directly towards my house off to the side, under the driveway (a new culvert), and towards the road. Since it won't be cheap, it won't be happening this year, but I'm starting to think seriously of ways to make it work.

In other news... Summer has arrived here. It was in the low 90s yesterday and high 80s today. I'm letting it permeate my soul, and I'm throwing myself into yard work every morning before it gets too hot. Today I planted a flowering crab apple tree that I purchased last month, set the tomatoes and parsley into the ground, and placed netting over my strawberries in what I hope will be a successful effort to thwart the berry raiders from confiscating the harvest! Yesterday, I put gladioli in the ground (some green flowering ones, and some yellows), and moved a pile of rubble. Over the weekend, the upper lawn got mowed for the 1st time and the lower lawn got a second cut. As you can see from this picture taken last week, the grass behind the flowers looks like a field! It's now sporting a more civilized cropped coif.



Still on the list: Finish digging the new deck garden; uncover the part of the labyrinth that sank over the winter; bring the garden furniture out from the cellar; figure out where new garden beds will go. Fiber projects are temporarily on the back burner.

The owl is around again and I love it's calls; soulful.