The Single No Show

So we've had a few house guests through the year. Not a lot mind you, but the occasional guest here and there. We've been warning most people away until we put in proper flooring, but some close friends and family have been by.

That is why the absence of Kevin's best friend and nephew, PJ, is rather noticeable as a "No Show." Granted he lives in Florida, but that never stopped him from visiting before. I guess he just doesn't want to visit us any more since he's living the single life down in Melbourne.

Yes ladies, if you're reading this, he's single has a Boxer named George and is approximately 33. Drop me a line for his e-mail. (Jeez, I really should start a dating service on this blog!)

Holes in the Wall

I really am starting to feel for Kevin. Not only was his office the last one painted, not only is his office the last one to have a new floor put in, but he now has to contend with two 12" x 12" vents in his wall.

I rejected the "louvred" door from earlier and have decided to go with the vents, which are less intrusive and cheaper. Unfortunately for Kevin these have to go in his office. Terry will be visiting soon to help with the installation. Some days I wonder if we'll ever finish Kevin's office...

Poison Ivy

I suppose it was inevitable, even with the gardening gloves. I have poison ivy. I've been treating it with Calamine lotion incessantly like the crazy hypochondriac that I am.

There are weeds, weeds, weeds and oh yes, more weeds to be pulled all around our house. When I say I'm elbow deep in weeds, I mean it...literally. The poison ivy, clever little plant that it is attacked right where my gloves cease to cover my skin on the inside of my arm.

This will look real good when I start my first day of work!

He's Single Too!

Yesterday afternoon my brother came over to help me finish off the pieces around the outside area of the laminate floor. The pieces that each needed to be cut three different ways with three different saws to fit. We managed to finish almost all of them in a little over 3 hours.

Terry, my brother, has allergies to pollen and he's been in agony for the last few weeks. Even with his pounding head, he left work early to come up and help me finish the floor. He's amazing. He brought his saws and we worked and sawed and pounded and anaylzed. And do you know what his price was? Absolutely nothing. You really couldn't buy a brother this awesome if you tried.

And Ladies, yes, as I mentioned, he's single (he'd kill me if he read this.)

Weeds

Somehow neglecting the outside of the house for over a year has created these giant avalanche of weeds that have consumed the grounds surrounding the house.

Fortunately for me and my organized ways the outside is arranged into areas that are separated by paving stones. We have the future garden area, which is our largest area that we're still working on weeding, turning the soil and removing the stones from this area. The next two largest areas are the stones next to the house, which I cleaned out last week by raking, removing weeds, spreading newspaper and returning the stones. (I still have the blisters.)

Then there's the patch of stones, recently removed and mulched around our only tree in back. And then of course, there are all of the nasty little weeds that decided to spring up between the paving stones. I think I got most of them.

All of my work in the back led us to the side of the house, which I started working on with Kevin. I'll admit pulling weeds, because every other method is ineffective and getting to the root of the problem (pun intended!) is not fun. I usually chat on the phone while I do it, because honestly 2 hours of wedding on your hands and feet would get to anyone who's actually paying attention to it.

Friday, Kevin and I attempted to do this together. Um, bad move. Kevin ended up yankng out giant swatchs of the old matting under the old mulch and throwing it in trash bags. So much for delicately pulling each weed, uncovering down to the mat ,laying newspaper, recovering and mulching. His approach is much more straightforward. Throw it all away and start over...sigh.