This and that

Things have been going fast and furious here not leaving much time for blogging. Now if I could only remember what they were. Circling, meowing cats, who want a second breakfast, are making it hard to hear myself think right now.

I planted geraniums in front of the house even though I said I wasn't going to.
I was going to wait until we got the invasive vine under control in that bed.
For now, it has been pulled and mulched over, but is coming up again
everywhere.

I do know that we continue to work on the house and it is slowly coming together. We had some major painting done which caused things to be put back into boxes and furniture moved. The disruption was worth it, though. There's nothing like a fresh coat of paint to brighten things up. The walls hadn't been painted in several years and were worse for the wear.

Also, the entire house had dark, wood stained doors and woodwork which Ward loved, but we decided to change to white to lighten up things. The long, tedious process of painting stained wood made it well worth it to hire painters for the job. The dark wood got four coats of paint along with sanding in-between. Ward painted some moldings before we moved in and found it a very frustrating process. So much so, that he was ready to rip the molding off and go buy some new. Anyway, the painting is done and the furniture is back in place.

While moving the furniture back, we tried several different configurations. Some of the placements feel just right while others will do as we figure out what might work better. Sometimes function doesn't always jive with what looks best. (BTW, do you ever notice on the HGTV shows that have a TV in a room they're featuring, don't have any of the furniture facing it? Looks good, but how practical is that?) We've also started to hang some of our artwork and it's good to see it again.

In the meantime, our range stopped working. Thank goodness, we have a microwave because it was about a week before Ward was able to fix it. Luckily, it was an easy fix and we don't have to take advantage of the Memorial Day sales to buy a new one.

Also, a large window almost fell out of it frame and into the yard while I was cleaning it. Ward was around and came to my rescue as I was precariously trying to hold the window in place. The window is back in its frame, but not safely, so we've fixed it so no one tries to open it. I would really like new windows, but I'm not sure that's next up on the priority list. The list of major To Do's is still pretty long, but all it takes is time and money, right?

The cats have come back and along with the meowing, they are gently poking me for more food. Consequently, I've lost my train of thought, so until next time...

Here are a few pictures of what's happening at my house.

Before: You can get an idea of the woodwork, floors and walls when we bought the house. The picture does a good job of hiding the wear and tear.

After: New floor and paint with white doors and woodwork.

The office, which you can see on the edge of the above photo, did not get painted and still has the darker woodwork. Not sure what we'll do with this in the future. I like the doors the color they are. 

This is a my great grandparents' marriage certificate. They were married in 1902 and that's their picture underneath. This is one of the things we hung recently.

The middle window is the one that almost fell out.