Home improvement adventures

Even though we've decided not to stay another year in this house, and even though we're now actively looking at other neighborhoods, doesn't mean we're keeping our own decorating decisions on hold.

First off. This is disgusting. The previous tenants who lived in our house used the property as a dump. This is actually only a fraction of the garbage that's currently in Jim's truck waiting to go to the dump. It'll take multiple trips. Who leave car batteries, tires, an oil drum (a burn barrel?) yards and yards of pipe, at least two dog beds, rugs, bongs, oil filters, a compact fluorescent bulb (thankfully unbroken), garden oils, lots and lots of gallons of Wild Turkey, pork styrofoam packages, burned car parts, the blade from a woodsaw, etc. in the yard? Especially considering we're right on the lake. Good grief. The lawnmower they abandoned in the woods is working fine, now...

you can see Jim's shadow... ooohh

Repeated canning and sewing projects (with ironable mesh) means that our table was badly damaged (cheap-o laminate table).
Also, our stool had some water damage. (I have since learned to use coasters, thank-you-very-much).
And our bookshelf was just fugly.

This clearly needed remedying, on this most beautiful of weekends. (Jim didn't know I took this picture. I got paint on the camera, too. I am messy.)

Aren't they beautiful, now? You can see them from the other side of the lake. Bright colors are fun, though! Clearly everyone needs a bright green table, a bright yellow stool, and a bright orange bookshelf.

(see? just look at those coasters)

Now, that's just awesome.

Next up: the screened in porch. This is o of the best features of this house, which we weren't using, because a) bugs b) it was winter, so give us a break, c) um, it was a convenient place to store unwanted crap. Which was ugly.

We cleaned up the stuff we didn't want, brought it to goodwill or sold it, and then looked at some overly expensive furniture at Lowes and Target and other places before realizing thrift stores were plentiful. We found an awesome set of chairs (that fold! I am a big fan of collapsible furniture) and a 70's retro table that's growing on me (not literally).

We also found a rug. And then got some pretty candleholders and lanterns at Pier 1 (thanks SK & and JK!)

What's that gorgeous screen, you ask? It's hiding Miss Kitty's powder room. Normally $300, we screwed some hinges onto some shutters from Home Depot for a fraction of the cost, and now it's quite nice, if I do say so myself.

Lastly, the rug:
I am clearly an idiot. After grading for 6 hours on Saturday, I wanted to do something out of the house, so we went to the carwash and washed the rug in the carwash, because what ELSE would you do on a weekend evening? Foolishly we didn't bring enough money to rinse it there, so we had to bring it home (it's a very big rug, and very heavy wet) and then I got to finish rinsing it, in the dark and cold with water that is piped in from Antarctica. For hours. We rock at taking breaks. Anyway, while I was doing that, Jim built a tennis ball slingshot. Which works impressively well.

Then we went out to dinner.

We're so productive, we make my teeth itch.