Today is jackhammer day. Because it’s difficult to capture the jackhammer activity in a photo, I made this dizzying collection…

On schoolhouse electric’s website we like the following shades:




with this post (ignore the shade)

Which do you prefer? I like them all. Eric picked the post (I showed him a different one but he thought it was too mid-century modern for the house and I after I thought about it I agreed). I’m kind of thinking the third shade might be too mid-century modern for our house as well. And, as far as the post goes, I’m leaning toward chrome or satin nickel, but could be talked into antique black, and maybe even bronze. Anyway, we’re going to be painting the house, as you know, but the house has 5 very odd lights. Each one is basically a lightbulb covered by a shade that is made of terra cotta. In my mind they kind of seem like terra cotta pots with shapes cut out, and then hung on top of the lights. I’m guessing someone at some point was talented in ceramics and made these for the house. They’re quaint, but don’t go with the style of the house. So, when we paint the house, we’re planning on replacing the two on either side of the garage door, and then replacing the other three one-at-a-time due to budget constraints. None of the others are at the front of the house. Oh, and we’ll replace the flush mount over the porch at some point too.

(by request)

This weekend I finished painting the baseboard in the kitchen. Another project done! I am maintaining my goal of wrapping one thing up in the kitchen every week. And because I’m celebrating every accomplishment, no matter how small, here are some photos:

before

after (the color is correct on this second photo…not sure why the first is so bright)

And a picture of me enjoying our kitchen.

Eric did not finish his project because he went rock climbing–AND while he was climbing his friend’s car engine caught on fire! Looks like a little critter tried to build a nest in the warm engine of the VW van.

Well, we had a productive weekend! Amazing. Not only did I finish painting the blue in the kitchen, I continued into the hall to the garage, and the back wall of the TV room. Here’s a picture of Eric helping me by adjusting some light switches in the new blue hall.

And, here is a picture of the path to our front door. I’m guessing this path was made in 1951. Eric is going to jackhammer this path, and Trevor, from Stone & Cobble, will be putting in a new path for us using red pavers. You’ll also note on either side of the path there are red bricks that we’ll be pulling out.

And finally, Eric asked me to take pictures of the “piles of shit” around the yard that he created yesterday. This is probably only ¼ of all the “shit” he’ll be digging up in the next few weeks as we prepare to add paths, rearrange the trees and shrubs, etc.

Today I finished up the window shelf. Before taking a look, please note that the window is not done being painted - the peach is out of here as soon as the weather is warm enough to pull down the top part of the double-hung to paint white.

I found some herbs at the local cooperative. I’m wondering if I should keep the silver pots, or put plants in them, or replace them with more white pots?
And, today our new house numbers arrived. I’ve been looking forever for something we liked, and found it on ebay! Ordered them from Britain, and they’re here. I’m happy with how they look and recommend the seller: malcolm9990. Looks like he just started selling house numbers through ebay. We can’t put them on the house yet - that red against mint green would be a little - ew -. But, as soon as we paint the house, they’ll be going up!