Monday, October 10, 2005

Another Productive Day!

Another day in which I did not have to take an afternoon nap! Since this is a holiday for Bob, we had originally planned to go camping this weekend with the L's. But all the rain and cold weather put a damper on that plan, literally, so then we decided we would just go hiking for the day up in Maryland. But still . . . it was so cool and cloudy, so we decided not to that either. When Bob and I woke up this morning, we really didn't have any specific plans for the day. Bob decided to start stripping the paint off his dresser. It's been in our garage since we moved because, well, it's painted a lovely maroon color, but this bedroom is a beautiful shade of light blue, and it clashed horridly. We have a ton of shelves in our closet, so he's just put all his folded stuff on them. It has certainly not been a priority to do anything with this dresser, although I had bought all the stuff we needed back when we first decided to strip it. So he applied the "goop" to it, and then he searched around for something to do while he waited for the paint to soften. He decided to trim some of the trees in the backyard which were hanging way down. I went back there too, to give helpful advice as to which branches to trim. We really went to town! The yard looked so good, and it was so nice not to have to stoop down under low-hanging branches to walk around the back yard. So we kept right on going. We have this little area of trees that has developed quite a case of poison ivy, as well as a scraggly look because of all the underbrush and puny little saplings that have grown up. I told Bob that I thought we should clear out all the scrubby, scrawny weedy-looking trees, and then maybe we could see to get rid of the poison ivy. He started chopping, and a few hours later, wow! What a difference! It was like reclaiming our yard! There are still some areas of poison ivy, but it looks so bright and airy in there, instead of spooky and icky, like bugs were going to drop down on you since you were all the time brushing against low branches. We left the big trees, and now you can actually see their trunks, instead of all the weeds! We need to rake out all the nasty dead leaves, and then hopefully we can put some mulch down there in the spring to help keep down the poison ivy. After all that tree-chopping, we had to cut everything down into 4 foot sections and bundle it together for the trash men. Bob did go back and scrape off the top of the dresser, but there were I think 4 layers of paint on there, so it needs a few more applications of "goop". Definitely an on-going project. The yard was the most dramatically improved thing today, however. I am looking forward to waking up and seeing how good it looks out our back windows!

2 comments:

Dy said...

Ooo, it sounds like you're nearing The End of the First Trimester (triumphant music blares in the background)!!! It's like getting a few extra hours in every day, isn't it? ;-)

Had to LOL @ the spooky yard. Zorak told me he wanted the bush hog guy to "do enough so Ben won't be afraid to walk around the property". Ben is one of our Wonderful Neighbors who is from the desert, and he feels like this is pretty darned close to Cambodia - wants to salt his entire property so it won't be so creepy. LOL.

Enjoy your newly reclaimed space!
Dy

Bob and Claire said...

Dy, I was thinking about you while we worked yesterday--you're my new hero for pregnancy! LOL! Our minor yard renovations pale in comparison with your huge house undertaking! I'm 16 weeks along now, so I kept thinking I'd be through with the first trimester stuff a few weeks ago . . . but I'll take it when I can get it! It is SO nice to be able to actually use the afternoon, instead of having to just nap!