life lately
Has been a whirlwind! Here's a few things that have been keeping us occupied over here at the Holmes home:
+ Yard. We bought a brand new house last year, complete with . . . no yard to speak of. No sprinkling systems, no grass, no plants, just dirt. We had hopes to put it in last spring, then last fall, and now this spring. But it's a tough project! There's a lot that we don't know how to do and a lot that we don't have the right equipment for. Right now we're trying to find the balance between doing what we can ourselves and hiring out other stuff. The problem with hiring out is that it's spring! Aka, busy season, aka, no one is available! We have a tentative want-to-be-done-by date of June 4, but so far, we haven't managed to check off any of our tasks in time! We're about to end week 3 of our 8ish week plan, and I think by the end of the week, we'll have accomplished . . . one . . . week's worth of tasks. Bah! Recommendations welcome. I really want summer BBQs! Aka, we have to get this stupid yard in.
+ Laundry room. I painted our laundry room right after we moved in, right before we had a washer and dryer delivered. It was a brilliant plan, except for the fact that we really chose the wrong color. I wanted the top (lighter) color, and Russ wanted the middle color (on the sample sheet), and I decided to cave and go with Russ's color. Unfortunately, I've hated it this entire past year. It's just too dark, and not the subtle color that I wanted. So now that we were getting ready to install some cabinetry in there, I decided it was now or never to paint, and I went with now. So during the last week, we have pulled the washer and dryer out of the room (so that they are now crowding our hallway), and I have primed and painted the room. Although I painted a square of it in an inconspicuous place and decided to go for it, I got nervous after I started cutting in the color. It still seemed too dark! But after finishing up, I'm much happier with it. I still could have probably gone even lighter, but the new color is leaps and bounds better than the old color. We'll hopefully be installing a cabinet and a bunch of hanging rods by the end of this week, and then I'll finally get that room checked off my list! Post with pictures to come soon.
+ Cars. There has been way too much car talk in my life lately. First, Russ was looking at trucks and other cars, even though we weren't in the market for a new car. I basically told him that we can't afford a new car until he's able to sell the Volvo. But somehow, we ended up buying a car last weekend. It's a car that Russ has wanted since high school, and it was in decent condition for a good price. My deal is that he's not allowed to spend too much time on it until the yard is done :)
In the meantime, Russ also said he'd replace an engine for someone (and they'd pay him), but after the long process of having the car delivered, Russ found a lot of unexpected kinks and decided it wasn't the right time for this project. Unfortunately, we had to tell the guy we couldn't do it anymore, which we felt really bad about.
Then it was time for our car to get safety and emissions done so we could get our new registration. We've had a check engine light for ages, and we finally had to face it -- for $340! Add that to the $25 for S&E and $70 for registration and there goes our state tax return! We were really hoping to use that for something more fun, but I guess at least we had the money for it.
+ And although we haven't started working on it really, the nursery has also been on my mind. I can't wait to finish up the laundry room so I can get started on the nursery! :)
+ Yard. We bought a brand new house last year, complete with . . . no yard to speak of. No sprinkling systems, no grass, no plants, just dirt. We had hopes to put it in last spring, then last fall, and now this spring. But it's a tough project! There's a lot that we don't know how to do and a lot that we don't have the right equipment for. Right now we're trying to find the balance between doing what we can ourselves and hiring out other stuff. The problem with hiring out is that it's spring! Aka, busy season, aka, no one is available! We have a tentative want-to-be-done-by date of June 4, but so far, we haven't managed to check off any of our tasks in time! We're about to end week 3 of our 8ish week plan, and I think by the end of the week, we'll have accomplished . . . one . . . week's worth of tasks. Bah! Recommendations welcome. I really want summer BBQs! Aka, we have to get this stupid yard in.
+ Laundry room. I painted our laundry room right after we moved in, right before we had a washer and dryer delivered. It was a brilliant plan, except for the fact that we really chose the wrong color. I wanted the top (lighter) color, and Russ wanted the middle color (on the sample sheet), and I decided to cave and go with Russ's color. Unfortunately, I've hated it this entire past year. It's just too dark, and not the subtle color that I wanted. So now that we were getting ready to install some cabinetry in there, I decided it was now or never to paint, and I went with now. So during the last week, we have pulled the washer and dryer out of the room (so that they are now crowding our hallway), and I have primed and painted the room. Although I painted a square of it in an inconspicuous place and decided to go for it, I got nervous after I started cutting in the color. It still seemed too dark! But after finishing up, I'm much happier with it. I still could have probably gone even lighter, but the new color is leaps and bounds better than the old color. We'll hopefully be installing a cabinet and a bunch of hanging rods by the end of this week, and then I'll finally get that room checked off my list! Post with pictures to come soon.
+ Cars. There has been way too much car talk in my life lately. First, Russ was looking at trucks and other cars, even though we weren't in the market for a new car. I basically told him that we can't afford a new car until he's able to sell the Volvo. But somehow, we ended up buying a car last weekend. It's a car that Russ has wanted since high school, and it was in decent condition for a good price. My deal is that he's not allowed to spend too much time on it until the yard is done :)
In the meantime, Russ also said he'd replace an engine for someone (and they'd pay him), but after the long process of having the car delivered, Russ found a lot of unexpected kinks and decided it wasn't the right time for this project. Unfortunately, we had to tell the guy we couldn't do it anymore, which we felt really bad about.
Then it was time for our car to get safety and emissions done so we could get our new registration. We've had a check engine light for ages, and we finally had to face it -- for $340! Add that to the $25 for S&E and $70 for registration and there goes our state tax return! We were really hoping to use that for something more fun, but I guess at least we had the money for it.
+ And although we haven't started working on it really, the nursery has also been on my mind. I can't wait to finish up the laundry room so I can get started on the nursery! :)
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