Maid Service
On a summer break from college, I worked as a maid. Literally, either my title was “maid” or the cleaning service used the word “maid” in its advertising – I can’t remember. It was a taxing job: equipment to haul and manipulate, standards to uphold, schedules to keep. But I learned a thing or two about how to effectively and efficiently clean a house.
Now I don’t imagine I’m admitting an original sin here, but I have various standards of cleaning depending on the guest. Let’s say a girlfriend is coming over for tea or a glass of wine. I’ll try to reform the clutter into piles, vacuum up some of the dog hair and clean the bathroom (after all, I live with guys). The theory is that my girlfriends have seen me (and my house) at its best and worst anyway.
Now let’s say we’re having a BBQ and 12-20 people will be here for 5-7 hours. Clutter moves to piles in rooms not intended to be seen by the house guests. Floors are swept and vacuumed. Special attention is given to the kitchen (after all, we’re serving food) and bathroom. The lawn gets weed wacked and raked, the gardens get weeded, and we apply for good weather and no mosquitoes. The theory is that we’ll be outside, and no one will notice if I forgot to clean the crumbs out of the toaster or dust the bookshelf. And most importantly, no one will walk into a room that has the door closed!
And then there’s the ultimate level of cleaning. All of the above plus: the clutter gets sorted, and (gasp) things get put away where they belong or donated appropriately. Cupboards, drawers, closets and the refrigerator get cleaned and reorganized. I mop. The house is dusted, floor to ceiling. Linens are rewashed to smell fresh and clean. The yard gets a makeover by the yard doctor (aka Dave). Guess who is coming to visit? Family. And not just any family. The mothers.
So that’s what is on my mind this morning. Dave’s mom arrives tomorrow. My mom will be here in July. I treasure their visits, both for Dave and I, but especially for them and Garrett. And after all the effort, I treasure my very clean house too. And so I’m off to mop (scrubbing on my hands and knees people – the only way to do it properly).
Warm & Toasty
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Our new pellet stove is in and running. We decided on the Mt. Vernon insert from Quadra-Fire . Previous to our pellet stove was a wood stove insert that was far from efficient. In fact, we think most of the heat in our house was escaping through the flue. Due to a series of pipes in our chimney we couldn’t vent our wood stove properly. Because the pellet stoves uses a smaller diameter exhaust we could vent to the top of the chimney by going between these obstructions. We like the idea of using our boiler less due to the increase in fuel costs.
Gettin’ Dirty
All I have to say is someone’s got to do it. As part of our efficiency upgrades to our house we’re having our crawlspace insulated with spray foam insulation. Prior to the spraying I’ve been spending the last few days removing everything that’s not needed. The list of removed items includes rotted wood (shown above), bones, defunct pipes and MANY sheets of plastic. The idea of a vapor barrier is to have a continues sheet of plastic to keep the humidity of the ground below the plastic. Needless to say these separate sheets are being removed as well. As with any home project, it always seems simple till you dive into it!
Who let the dogs out?
Another project completed! Under mostly sunny skies, Dave and Garrett put a deck down for the dog pen this past weekend. Garrett cleared the pen of spider webs, helped secure the boards and tested the new pen out by pretending to be one of the dogs. It has the Garrett stamp of approval! The pen stands at the edge of the forest, near a game trail where we’ve seen deer appear. The sun shines on this elevated spot in the late afternoons/early evenings, when the sun shines. They now officially have a nicer deck than we do!
For more photos of the project view our gallery .
Mud Days
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The excavation has begun! In the course of three days, we now have ten times the backyard we used to. And 100 times the mud. We assumed that starting this yard project while the ground was still hard would minimize the mess. Boy were we wrong. We caught a lucky break, though. Our weather has been clear – freezing at night and cool and sunny during the day. I can’t imagine trying to do this in the rain.
Dave’s been helping our friend George with the project, and each evening Garrett gets to help clean up and park the equipment. Then, he and Dave strip down in the garage, leaving as much mud as possible outside the house.
It’s exciting to think about what the finished project might look like, now that the piles of dirt are taking shape. This could stretch into a two or three year project though, so stay tuned!
A Late Start in the Spring
What’s summer without some new garden photos?. We’ll it’s been a late start with nothing happening earlier in the “dare I say” spring. A few things struggled but didn’t make our late spring, other’s seemed to thrive that didn’t show any signs of life last year.
The New Fishing Hole
Over the weekend Lori fashioned Garrett and fishing pole complete with a dry fly (pom pom). Today during my day off I removed a tree from our yard that was getting out of control and replaced it with a stump. This stump now serves as Garrett’s fishing platform.
The tree was quite healthy so I relocated to the back of our yard. It now sits between the hot tub and our neighbor’s house… a good location. Willow are a dime a dozen here but they provide a nice screen for most of the summer and turn a nice yellow/orange in the fall.
Lock ‘em up
When Lori has enough – this is where they all go!
First completed home improvement project of the spring – Dave “enhanced” the dog pen to provide Cedar and Autumn shelter from the rain (and snow) and sun (what’s that?). This way, they can be outside during the day when we’re at work, even in the nastiest of weather. Garrett enjoys “playing” in the pen. He makes all kinds of racket, barking and growling, and often enlists one of us to join him. I’m not sure how much Cedar and Autumn enjoy it, but G sure has a good time.
New Addition
No, we’re not pregnant! It’s just this great mirror that has found it’s way “back into our lives”. Let me explain…
There was once this great store in Juneau that had many items from around the world to include mirrors, sinks, rugs and furniture. Lori and I spotted a mirror that at the time was too expensive. After months had passed following our initial spotting the store closed its doors to business. You snooze you loose… or so we’d thought. Missed their closing sale and everything!
Just the other day a co-worker showed me an email she’d received about the store having a last sale where the owner had taken a few things home and was needing to clear the clutter. There it was… the mirror we’d spotted for our bathroom and at 1/3 the cost!
Bedroom “Remodel” Begins
BEFORE SHOT… after coming soon!
Not sure to call it a remodel or a face lift. It won’t be anything like Garrett’s room but quite an improvement when completed. We’re going to brighten things up by painting over the paneling. The original idea was to hang dry wall similar to how we did in Garrett’s room but due to the mess and not to mention the expense we’re trying it this way. Three out of the four walls will be painted with Sepia Tan while the accent wall is August Morning. The accent wall will also have its grooves filled with dry wall cement to see how this might look and to see if it’s worth the effort when it comes time to do this in the front room.
All the dark trim was also removed so that it could be replaced with Hemlock or something else light in color. The last stage will be to replace the closets and to remove the carpeting and install laminate flooring. The laminate flooring will be the same that is in the hall and back bedroom.