Holy cow! Loooooong!

I guess it's a good thing that a lot of people don't depend on my blog to keep updated on me. Snort, choke......rephrase.....it's a good thing a lot of people don't keep updated on me...........period!!!

May 31, huh? Well, let's see...it's mid October now.....4-1/2 months between posts.....ugh! Good thing I don't have to account for all that time - my memory's so bad I have trouble remembering what I ate for supper last night - usually, anyway....though I do remember this time that it was English muffin pizzas (and I'll never use that store brand of pizza sauce again).

So.....the summer.....um....we had 6 or 8 weeks of "dead time" with the business and had a lot of stuff that had to be done around here, so we got to a lot of little jobs. Took down some spruce trees and had them milled out.

We also started a project to cut down on weedwacking time and weeding time, since Ed no longer has time to weedwack and I can no longer keep up with the weeding. By the time we're done, we'll have planted perennials all along the edge of the lawn where it meets the woods. Because we have this small viney s*it that encroaches onto the lawn if it's just grass.....strong, so tangles in the mower, Ed has always had to weedwack the whole perimeter of the yard. For some reason, that same stuff doesn't seem to encroach past most perennials, especially stuff like hosta, daylilies and groundcover (like bishop's weed, creeping phlox). With Ed's help, I broke down and put down mulch in my flower border....I HATE MULCH. I particularly hate red or cedar color mulch, so I chose black. We divided one of my cranesbill plants and had enough to plant around one of the apple trees (again, with mulch), so that tree doesn't have to be weedwacked around, either! It's a large project and an expense, but it's either that or let the weeds take over...and when you're running a business out of your home, that's just not a smart option.

Then, it's so much for the rest of the money in our savings account....most of it's having to go toward things we need done in order to keep the business running smoothly. Ahh, such is life. Here we go:

When the town decided to dig a canyon in front of our place (most of my crochet friends heard all about this ditch...I ranted!!), they took away access to where we were going to build a garage. So......we HAD to have access back because we HAVE to add some sort of storage - we've run out of room to put stock, etc for the business. Plus, one of the sheds that we now must use a lot for stock is set about 75 feet past the end of the driveway and you can't drive to it in all seasons with a vehicle (can we say "keep the plow truck at the ready to haul the van out of the mud" ??). It was either move the shed up to the driveway, making less parking space (and making the shed the view out my livingroom window!!) or make the driveway go all the way to the shed. Since we couldn't afford to build a garage after putting in culverts anyway, we decided to go the "add to the driveway and buy a big shed" route. That took the rest of the garage money....but the shed will be 12 x 32 and we can always add to it later, if we've money. We bought another Amish one - the waiting time is really long (4 months), but they're very well built and less expensive than having someone come build one on sight. Now, for the first time EVER, we're hope we don't have snow before Christmas, as the shed won't be here until December 8!!

Our livingroom window came apart on us this summer! So, we had to have it replaced...and we figured that, since the previous owner had put 3 other identical windows in when he put that one in, we probably should replace all 4 at the same time while we could afford it. So, we had 4 new windows installed and the trim put on them - boy is it nice to have trim in some areas of this house......it hasn't had much in all the years we've owned it, and what it did have we took down because it was......yucky! (old, reused painted-a-million-times clamshell molding). So.....of the 10 windows and 3 exterior doors in this house, we now have 5 windows trimmed out (one was already done - the one in the shower had to be done when we did that area a couple of years ago). The really nice thing about this trim is that it's all from our trees - we have a planer, so planed out what the carpenter needed for trim boards. They looked so nice in their natural state that we decided to just urethane them.....and Ed is doing that as he has time - a few coats of water base satin urethane, then a top coat of water base gloss, so I can just run the swiffer duster over it (hee hee).

We've been buying new window shades, too - Lowe's had a clearance on their Levelour brand cellular room darkening shades, so I took advantage....was able to get shades for all but two windows at the clearance price before they ran out of the size I needed. As we get trim up, I'll take them back and have Lowe's cut them to size for me - I've already had the ones cut for the 4 windows with trim. The kitchen window is all done, so that shade is up. The livingroom has one more coat of urethane to go, then that shade can go up. The other two windows each have 2 coats to go before the shades can go up. Can't wait!! (but have to....busy time now, Ed's not got time to do it and I can't...boo hoo!)

We are building a new office!! We're so cramped in the existing one, which was our little den (9-1/2 x 12). That room has nearly no wall space - it's all windows and doors. Once you have 3 desks, a bunch of file cabinets, chairs, shelving and dry erase work boards in that room, there's no room to move to work in it....especially with 2 people on occasion! Add to that the fact that, in order to get to the office, customers have to come in, go thru the front entry into my laundry area, down the hall (stepping over my dirty clothes if I was doing laundry that day) and then to the office...and then they have to stand in the doorway, as there is no room in the office for another person. It really stresses me out having them walk thru my laundry, I'll tell ya!

So, short version....our guest room (9-1/2 by 11) is next to our front entry area (9-1/2 b 9-1/2), so we decided to take the wall out from between them, making a combined entry/office area of 9-1/2 x 20-1/2 (remove a closet, rework a closet to make a storage closet). Once it is done and we've moved into it, the old office will be turned into a guest room (build a closet).

Mistake number 1 - didn't hire the carpenter at job rate.....he's also the burner man that works with Ed when needed so we trusted that when he concurred with our guesstimate on time needed, it would be within the ball park........when in actual fact he's so.....methodical (needs to think things over before doing them, which I didn't realize) doing carpentry......that at the end of the projected 80 hours of labor, we've used most of our money and have a new office area that is bare bones. I had a few 'set-to's' with the carpenter.....both of which ended up costing more money, of course. Now, before you blame the carpenter entirely, a lot of it is our fault. So....live and learn...if we get enough money together to hire it out to be finished, we WILL hire job rate!

I guess that's it for what we've done this summer and fall. Next spring, we'll need our kitchen/dining/livingroom area repainted......both of the colors I'd chosen several years ago were "off" compared to what we really wanted and I really hate them (I wanted sage and ended up with mint and some other light green).

I've discovered that I just can't choose paint - I'm always off on the color (too many choices combined with the inability to visualize the color on a wall compared to the itty bitty paint chip). However.....I also discovered that if I describe the color idea to my niece she can choose the correct color....in about 3 seconds flat, the brat! So, I have a new interior decorator. She's helped me choose the color scheme for the new guest room, if we ever get it.......since our futon cover is taupe-y tan and B had a piece of material in chocolate and aqua that would make a great pillow, we chose a paint color called "wading pool"....sort of aqua-y...and the curtains are chocolate brown. B's already made my valances for my livingroom and kitchen...she will be making the valance for the office window.....boy, do I ever appreciate all her efforts! I did, however, pick out the office wall paint color, which was chosen just for Ed. Every time paint color comes up, Ed says "how about yellow?" - always picking a pale shade. I've always responded "ick, I don't like pale yellow". Ed's response usually was "well, you're the one that has to look at it - I'm gone all day, so whatever you choose is fine." This time, when he said yellow, picking a shade that looked nearly off white, I grabbed a chip of quite bright yellow called "sunbeam" and said "if it's going to be yellow, it's going to be YELLOW!"...he looked at the chip and said "ya, that's ok". So...the office will be Sunbeam yellow....put your sunglasses on, folks!! The valance on the window will be medium blue....and if B gets fancy on me, it possibly will have a dark blue border of some sort.

Ok, so I've rambled so much that your eyes are bleeding. I'll try to do better about keeping up, but 'tis the busy season, so don't count on it - it's taken me two days to write this!!

Done ramblin!