You go with your Bad Self! haha I wish I had your talent. My project is trying to finish our kitchen facelift. New window in, new granite countertop and sink, new faucet, painted cabinets, new hardware, new curtains, recovered chair seats. Now have to pick a floor and backsplash. I started another post asking for help identifying a backsplash.

Good luck!

It's way too hot already; I'm ready for fall. On tap here...

- The new fence is in and it looks awesome!
- Old landscaping is out, new landscaping will start going in today.
- I need to find a new transmission for a car but none are available locally...
- We are still in discovery mode regarding the crushed house. I get to talk to our attorney on wednesday... can't wait for that!

Shicksal, isn't that house deteriorating in the meanwhile? Have you even heard from the roofers? What did anyone actually have to say about that. It's really an incredible story.

I'd have loved to help you with your landscaping! :)

Checkerboard!

We have beautiful sunshine this morning, after an eternity (it seems) of storms passing through every few hours. Thank goodness the only ill effect is a soggy yard. Late daffodils are starting to bud--my favorite is 'Salome', which starts with a yellow cup that turns peachy, then fades to cream. It puts on a lovely display with the grape hyacinths and Jacob's ladder.

"What'cha doing?" I am ignoring the algae on the front porch railings, for the second (third?) week in a row. Because 'April showers' means that it will just come back, right?

@CEFreeman
Nobody is saying anything much because lawsuits were handed out like Halloween candy back in December. In a nutshell...
- Roofers blame the material supplier and their subcontractor that was actually doing the work (their roofers are subcontractors, who would have known).
- The material supplier blames the roofer and the subcontractor
- The subcontractor has tried to get out from under the claim of the subcontractor and that's really about it.

Annoying flippers want to buy the place. It's not for sale and I need to put up a sign or something. Wish I could say more but between opposing parties probably being quite good at trolling up information, and being generally in the dark about all the discovery that's going on I don't know that much anyway.

I'd say the nutshell of it all is someone slammed shingles down on a roof they shouldn't have. Roof caved in. Boom.
I look forward to the drama, er, resolution of the whole thing, because we all know the right thing to do is NOT leave the thing open to the weather and ruin.

The forecast is for rain but it looks like that might be wrong. It's not quite warm enough to garden so I'm going to sweep up and tidy our front and back decks. Oh and watch The Masters. Book Club is here on Monday so I really should give a lick and promise to the public rooms of the house. Tomorrow I'll make an Apple Cake and cheese ball for the girls.

Well, I just found out that I'll be defrosting the wine fridge today. I need wine for Monday and the racks are frozen to the back wall making the wine inaccessible. Drat.

shicksal - Your house collapsed?! How did I miss that. I hope it gets sorted out for you.

It's a rental that we own - not where we live. It happened back in August.

Unfortunately due to the amount of structural damage, just to make it waterproof is estimated to be about $100,000. You can't put a new roof on top of rafters that are all broken, and you can't put new rafters on a structure where the ceiling joists are no longer attached to the studs because the walls are blown outward, and the walls are that way because every stud was broken in the middle, and it sort of goes on from there...

Shicksal - I don't know what to say that wouldn't get me censored. My mind is boggled at the amount of damage.

Schicksal - Thanks for keeping us updated. We are all emotionally involved in this now and are pulling for you.

I'm having some productive days lately. I sold a jointer that I never use anymore and my old bandsaw is on Craigslist and I have a guy calling back later today. I'm doing some spring cleaning around the house.

I slept on our new latex mattress for the first time Thursday night. I did not sleep well. After sleeping in the basement for two years, it was like sleeping in someone else's house. The room was too warm, I kept hearing noises, and the bed did not feel right. Last night was much different. I slept better last night than I have for a long time and neither hip hurt for a change. I think the mattress is a keeper. Wife is not completely sure yet but I think it was money well spent.

We bought the curtain rod for the bedroom window finally today and I'm ready to put poly on the closet rod and then get it attached to the bronze hangers I pictured here a couple of weeks ago. After those are done, we can start moving clothes and stuff into the bedroom.

I still don't know what I'm going to do for projects this summer. I'll be saving money for the coming big phase of the remodel next year, so I can't spend much money. I'll probably end up doing little things like replacing a couple pieces of gutter on the shop that are worn out and maybe doing some painting outside. Little stuff like that...Oh, and planning the remodel...lots of planning. I never stop thinking about it.

Schicksal, I hope you're as calm as you sound about the rental roof. I.............wouldn't be. Count me among the followers waiting to hear the outcome.

Thanks for the support - I've sort of made my peace with what I feel the eventual outcome will be (liability is clearly on someone else's side). Wish I could share more but everything I write I say under the assumption that an opposing party will find and read it.

We bought a bunch of azaleas, loropetalum pixies and a vitex this afternoon and tomorrow after work they go in. I'm looking forward to the vitex the most since my first nice house had a bunch of those. They were mostly overgrown by the time I got there so that's all the more motivation to not let them take over.

Well we've had a pretty good winter and even better early spring,until yesterday...but today was better. Snow came to the mountains, even the foothills in the Valley were well dusted today on our way to Costco.

Daffs are done, grape hyacinths are almost done, tulips are coming and going. My roses have tons of new growth and a few tiny buds forming!

I've filled "gifted" terra cotta pots with large tomato cages and planted beans, peas, spinach, shallots, lettuce mix and small carrots seeds in them. I hope some things grow. :) I also saw this great pallet "planter" idea. Requires a nice sturdy pallet, some hose clamps and terra cotta pots. I will head to the store tomorrow for the pots and clamps. When it's together I'll head to my mom's to remove some of my strawberries from the garden over there. A "wall" of strawberries!

There is way to many tree roots in the back yard to "till" a plot for a garden.

I was going to do and may still, put in some planter boxes. All of those would require some kind of fencing or covering to keep NASTY cats out of my food dirt! (I actually love kitties, just think in neighborhoods they should live inside!)

So containers it is for now.

I am back to playing with kitchen ideas. I reminded hubby that the cabinet over the peninsula still need to be removed. :) so I can get a feel for that missing.

Shicksal, I love my vitex! It died way back last winter (it had been about 7 ft tall) but came back -- I expect it to have died back again this year but hoping it has survived. In past years I made an elixir of the seeds to tame my hot flashes. I do believe that it helped.

Speaking of roofs, I just found out today I can get my roof done much more inexpensively than I thought. Nothing is over until it's over, I could always end up being the next shicksal, but right now it looks promising. For now, good luck to you shicksal.

I went to IKEA to look at kitchens. Learned a couple of very important things I would not have without having gone there. At any rate I got new dishes and new table and chairs which I am thrilled with.

Schicksal- I don't know the exact area you are in but the way you always write about the weather I can't help but question when you will be moving back to an area you find more tolerable.

I feel that it isn't truly the temps that are the problem (I KNOW temp swings and extremes) but rather the fact that you aren't accustomed to the temps and don't want to be in that environment. Unless you live in the Sahara desert, outside work, attic work, etc is not unmanageable ANY time of the year.

Basically, you seem unhappy in your current climate. Obviously your job is flexible, the blog you linked to in the past indicated that you had already moved cross country once.

Are you absolutely set on your current location or are you looking to "move back home" as it were to an area you are more comfortable with in the long haul?

As for me and updates, I posted an update on last weeks thread but the site was being buggy and I'm fairly certain no one was notified or saw my update. I'm lazy and have no desire to retype everything so feel free to check my history and/or look at last weeks post to see an update.

Unfortunately, though my job is somewhat flexible my other half isn't. She was always unhappy in the northwest. Career and business opportunity is much greater over here so I don't see a move ever happening.

It's not so much the heat but the humidity from when it arrives in May to when it breaks in September. Right now it's actually pretty decent outside, but until it heats up the bugs are active and they're all hungry. We have horseflies, biting gnats (no-see-ems), small and big mosquitoes. Bug spray keeps everybody away but the horseflies. So, I guess I get a little frustrated picking between doing outdoor work in the hotter/brighter parts of the day or becoming someone's dinner.

@terri - aren't you worried about it being too dry this year? I heard that there was next to no snowpack.

Terri, consider looking up no-till gardening/farming for the area over your tree roots. Even making a raised bed one or two boards high can give you the space you need to plant, and the plants' roots will take care of themselves.

I prefer raised beds, actually, and will be building 3 more this year. I hate the messy edges of directly in-the-ground planting. Got those beds, but I think they look like crap. I think I showed you the raised bed I made last fall, where I used Hugokultur and lasagna gardening methods, didn't I?

Hugokultur would be perfect for all the untreated scraps of wood, saw dust, and even brush from cut-down trees. That's why I decided to try it. Can't wait to dig into my new bed to see what turned to dirt over the winter.

There's also a preservative called Ecowood ($about $17 on Amazon) that you can spray on any wood. It's nontoxic, environmentally friendly, blah blah. It does weather wood, which I like. It's purpose is that it changes the make-up of the wood so it doesn't rot. It's not a sealant, in that it'll still draw water, but the wood doesn't rot. I used this on my new bed and the giant potting bench I built. I figure what the heck. It got great reviews from long-time users and if it makes my outside stuff last a bit longer, great.

Shick, our resvoirs are all right due to the rainfall. However living where I do, my water is well water and comes from the ground. I find it amazing that I live surrounded by salt water, yet there is lots of fresh ground water to be had.

Christine, I have lasagna gardened before. Used coffee sacks and seaweed. ;) .

I will have to look into the other things you mentioned.

Todays accomplishments are coconut cream cupcakes, baked off molasses cookies, made hubbies english muffin breakfast sandwiches for the week and am about to make broccoli cheddar soup and sour cream chicken enchiladas for dinner. (Soup is for my lunch this week.)

Trying to be patient as no work is happening. It's a dangerous thing as it's giving me time to ponder the other bathroom that needs doing and the laundry room, which I got partly done with plans to revisit that project in a year or two.

Hoping to hear from my contractor tomorrow or Tuesday about getting the bathroom going.

I made gnocchi today, they came out really well. They're an easy and super economical meal.

The weather was fantastic today! We did a 5k charity fun run. Well, my older son ran while I stayed with my younger son who partly ran and mostly walked the "out" and mostly rolled down hills on the "back." He really enjoyed himself. :) He's done a couple of 5k before but I think he has to be in the mood. When we got back, we set up most of the trampoline, just need to do the safety net, and put out the patio table and chairs. I put up the swing cushions and canopy yesterday. Both yesterday and today I had to lay on the swing a while to make sure it was still working nicely. :)

Christina222 those look delicious!