Um. So much for timely posting.

I'm trying to get better.  I swear it.  Somehow the last half of the year got busy - Jaimee moved in, I got a dog (Loki) who takes up a bunch of time with training and play, the holidays were the usual month and a half of scramble...  He's cute though, right?

Anyway, things did happen.  I just didn't quite FINISH any of them, which is why no real posts about them.  I put up a backsplash behind the stove.

 

Why is it not done?  Haven't caulked the top line and the corners.  There has also been a request to extend it further, and I haven't done that yet either.

I made a light (translation - hung crystals from my dad's mom on an Ikea light) and hung it in the dining room - which caused the electrician to come again because I hated it being off center, so I had him move the ceiling box (and now we have a junction box in ceiling where the old one was).

Why is it not done?  Haven't finished patching around the old ceiling box and painting the junction box cover.

I also made and hung a light in the kitchen.  No pics yet - because it's currently level only by virtue of some fishing weights taped onto it, needs an extra cover for the wires to the ceiling, and persists in hanging at an angle through the kitchen instead of parallel to the walls.

Additionally, I've spent time making the basement a more workable area.  This got a big leg up when yet another part of the main waste line had to be replaced in a hurry, and as part of the process the plumbers kindly lowered the basement sink drain for me (allowing it to actually be at a normal person's height, not up 2 stairs).  I installed an old kitchen sink as the new basement sink, which is a huge improvement.  We had to get a new faucet though, as the old one turned out to be leaky.  I built a platform for the washing machine, making it much easier to load and unload it (thanks to 2 and Jaimee for the muscle to get it on the platform!).  Jaimee also helped me do some organization in the basement, and it's actually getting functional! Progress pics soon.

BUT.  R2 is moving out this month (I miss our little family already.  Luckily it's just expanding geographically!), so there will be a bunch of painting and rearranging to be done.  I'll try to be better about posting about that.  I'm also trying to have some themes for each month so I feel like there are mini goals that I can actually accomplish and feel good about.  Small wins.  January's goal - purge.  Not in the puking sort of way (how do people actually do that?  so gross to me), but in the get-it-out-of-the-house way.  We've had a pile of stuff that needs to be eBay'ed, a pile to donate, some to Craigslist, and stuff to just throw out/recycle.  

The basement jumpstart was a big motivator - it's just so much more pleasant to be down there - and I've gotten rid of a bunch of random construction bits.  I've sold some stuff on eBay, have listed more, and am hoping to do an electronics recycling drop-off this weekend.  It's a bit late, but anyone else want to join the Jan purge for motivation?

The deck is done!

Last night I stained the stairs and the top portion of the deck, and the deck is officially done! It looks great, and it's really nice to be able to run out barefoot (barefooted?) without fearing what you're stepping on. In the past few years, we've gone from this: 

to this:

Right?  Amazing!  There's still plenty of work to be done - the walkway needs to come out, there's still some grass to be replaced, I need to do something with the railing and paint the little door - but the deck is done.

Really, the deck and the fence have made an amazing change to that scrappy backyard I started with.  The pergola has also been pretty key, not only as a framework for the grapes, but also as a sturdy hammock holder.  The other day I actually fell asleep in a peaceful, pretty backyard on a hammock with lovely plants around me - and had a grape off the vine when I woke up!

I brought the decking up the stairs (evening out the stairs in the process), and covered the upper concrete "patio" with cedar as well.
 

There were lots of amusing interim steps (pictures are on the Tumblr site, http://ahousegrowsinbrooklynblog.tumblr.com/) - cutting a stringer for one side of the stairs, figuring out the blocking for the rest of the stairs since there wasn't enough room for another stringer, Home Depot being out of lumber two times in a row when I went for more cedar, causing me to have half of each step done on July 4th, meaning tipsy people were dealing with tiny stairs...  But at the end, there have definitely been more frustrating projects, it looks great, and I've already gotten to apply all my lessons learned to fence and deck for a friend.  Onwards!

Poll

Fix the glass on the top one and keep them or give a nod to their history (my final project for photo minor in college) and toss them?

Thoughts?

The first grape harvest!

And they are good!

Playing with technology

Ok, we all know I'm bad at timely posts.  I do the things, I even take the pictures, but then I procrastinate getting the photos off the phone and into the web...  So I'm playing with technology to make life slightly easier.  I've started using Instagram, and loading the photos up to a Tumblr site, and hopefully I can make all these things play together...

The Tumblr site is http://ahousegrowsinbrooklynblog.tumblr.com/.  For those of you on Tumblr, go follow me there!
 
I'll bring the Tumblr pics/posts over to this blog, but the Tumblr post will be the most cutting edge (see the saw pun I worked in there? ;)).