I have been meaning to buy a coffee grinder for years. With COVID my grocery store no longer allows grind in store so I just ordered a nice burr grinder. (Unfortunately it's on back order so now I have to impatiently wait.) And while I was at it I decided to order a new smaller toaster in hopes that I can fit both of them and my blender base into my tiny appliance garage.

https://baratza.com/grinder/encore/

https://www.cuisinart.com/shopping/appliances/toasters/cpt-160/

It's probably not an upgrade, but I also put up a dog gate to keep my dog from accessing the front door where she looks through the glass and barks at people / dogs passing by. I found this is the only way I can stay sane with frequent video conferences.

@pricklypearcactus We will be getting the Baratza Encore too!

The first covid project I addressed was my front door/dog barking situation. It had been on my list for a while. I had a custom vinyl decal made with my house number and applied it to our full light door.

I ordered a foot massager from Amazon. 🤗 I haven’t had a pedicure since January so this is my little bit of home pampering.

We also got a couple of bird feeders, a hammock, and a lot of new plants for the back yard.

For our beach cottage, we just ordered a new sectional and chair, since that’s probably the only place we’re going this fall. Might as well make it comfortable!

Nothing new around here

I'm upgrading me, going to doctors to take care of some health issues that have arisen during the time that their offices were closed.

We moved into our current home right before the virus hit the States, so we have been busy getting everything in its place. I have finally organized one linen closet and have one to go, plus a walk in closet in the basement for christmas china and objet d'art that are (theoretically) going to be cycled in and out upstairs, and working on downstairs bedroom. Have gotten new bed and mattress also for one upstairs secondary bedroom, and I just ordered two new sets of sheets from Annie Selke for the twin beds in my mother's room.

Demo started today on the downstairs bathroom1 So happy to see the old tub/shower go. It is making way for a new Kohler shower stall that I hope will give us that clean, streamlined look.

Our new golf cart was delivered today! We ordered it in March, and it didn't get to the front of the production line until almost three weeks ago as individuals' custom orders took a back seat to the fleet orders We got the new Yamaha Drive2 Sport 2 + 2, and I could not tell you what any of that means, lol. Its much higher off the ground so because of bigger wheels and has a lot more power than our old golf cart. It will be able to pull DH's tall tennis ball machine that serves to him. We had to get that thing modified also so it could be pulled to the tennis courts via a trailer hitch to the golf cart. If that sounds complicated, you should see it (extreme eye roll). The golf cart is very Dark Knight looking, the chassis is all black and the body is a dark metallic blue, black seats and sunroof. It is ultra masculine, and I am thinking maybe it is somebody's push back against the cute red and white with red and white striped awnings golf cart that I picked out last year. And we still have both....we have two golf carts and my mother's car in the garage and our cars parked in the driveway......what is wrong with this picture?

Sueb20 - a foot massage sounds lovely

Ded- you will love your generator. I remember you posting about it, I didn’t realize you had pulled the trigger. Congrats!

Suero- best decision. Take care of you!

I immediately went out an ordered a new office chair; liked it so much, bought another. My burr grinder and coffeemaker (Bonavita) were a noticeable upgrade (but made some time ago).

Queuing up now is a house painting, backyard redo and perhaps a new TV or iPad. Perhaps new office furniture, perhaps, including a hutch/bookcase combo.

Sueb how is the foot massager working out? i have developed some weird foot problem in my old age with my feet hurting a lot and being numb. Might be arthritis or whatever, I can't afford to go to a podiatrist. Hubs is an inconsistent massager so I'm wondering about getting something like this. The "new normal" of my older years is my feet seem to hurt all the time. I'm not on them more than usual.

Painted a guest bathroom. The other day I ordered a Foodsaver in anticipation of all the veggies from my garden, something I have contemplated for a few years and for whatever reason, never got around to it. I re-purposed a corner of a spare bedroom with a new desk and chair. I really like it.

We decided to change up our backyard water feature and add a few feet to our existing patio, so that work has been ongoing the past couple of weeks. It is too hot to plant anything right now except maybe a few annuals, so the permanent stuff will wait until cooler weather, but I plan to add some soil enhancement now and mulch for the time being where the planting beds were altered. Fun stuff.

Not equipment per se, but painted the fireplace, painted window trim on south side, cleaned out garage, cleaned out shed, sold shed, sold odds and ends following purging of garage and DR cabinets, hung 20+ things on the walls, cut down and hauled off dead broom tree/weeds and suckers in dog pen, LOTS of weeding, planted fresh succulents in pots by front door, repaired/swapped security latches on patio doors, fixed wonky blind in guest room, started walking/exercise plan (dogs are super happy), lost 20#.

Those are the things I did by myself. I’m now on to the things that require hired expertise and/or strength: got hood painted on my 2011 daily driver, new water heater last week.

Next up on the DIY front is the kitchen backsplash. . .

Dedtired - What? no photo. Hope you put a big bow around it! You'll love the peace of mind that your generator will provide and when you travel again you won't have to worry about losing the contents of your refrigerator because a snowstorm took down the power lines.

Localeater - your door looks great.

Kswl - hope you post a photo when it arrives - and that definitely needs a bow.

After thinking about it for a year and reading lots of reviews I traded my 9 year old car for a new one. In a recent heavy rainstorm I noticed a wet spot on the fabric headliner in the car, then 2 days later the service engine light came on. I figured someone was telling me to get rid of it before the third strike.

Since we decided to stay here in Florida, we have continued our renovations.

Next up is the master bath and closet.

Then living room furniture. That is the most difficult for me, choosing everything from scratch.

The tornado hit here about the time the pandemic was in full force, mid April and I am still cleaning up the yard from it. Insurance has paid for the house repairs which are mostly done but none of the many downed trees, or huge stumps still left. Trees that were damaged are still showing signs, last week I had a huge tree showing splits half way up and leaning towards the house, taken down.

It feels very frustrating to spend so much money on this and some of it will be a wait.

Last year, btw, I bought a Barattza Sette after 30 years of a small Krups grinder, (which I always was happy with) and it has been a joy to use.

I’m working on transforming a guest room/home office. Gave away the guest bed that had attached cabinets/nightstands - one of those pier systems. I am In the process of changing out the paint color from SW Smokey Blue to Light French Gray so today I am priming the walls. Yesterday I cleared everything from the room and spackled a couple of spots where things had been hanging. Tomorrow I will paint. Today I will order the rug we’ve decided on. Once that is in place we plan on ordering a new desk and daybed from IKEA. This room sees very little actual ”guest” use, but hubby does like to sleep or watch tv there occasionally. I will have to shop for some big throw pillow for the daybed once it is all in place. And maybe a chair. Here is the rug and furniture we plan to buy. Rug is from esalerugs and the IKEA furniture is from the Hemnes line.

So many great projects going on. Lots focused around home office, and outdoor living improvements.

I am in full agreement with those of you who feel keeping up with the downed branches, suckers, etc in the yard is endless.

@l pinkmountain So sorry about your feet. I went through a period of chronic achy feet, I cant recall what solved the problem. I do know I started doing that exercise where you roll the tennis ball with your foot, and I started rubbing them with some foot lotion that had a lot of peppermint in it before bed.

@Gooster A good office chair is so important. I got one for Christmas a few years ago. Lack of ergonomic home office space is a common complaint on our virtual staff meeting.

@OutsidePlaying Cant wait to see pictures of your improved patio and water feature. Dont forget to share with us.

@jakabedy Way to go on the weight loss! Sounds like you have been very busy.

@Bumblebeez SC Zone 7 I am so sorry about the tornado. I am glad insurance has come through for the house.

@eld6161 - We will help you with your living room :)

@tannatonk23_fl_z9a that guest space/office is going to look lovely. Is there a color you are going to incorporate as an accent? Totally a personal choice but, to me, it's a little somber.

@localeater regarding an accent color I am thinking gold or orange but could go in any direction. Do you have any ideas? I was thinking about posting for help with that. I will need to purchase pillows and I am thinking about a fun (inexpensive) accent chair. I am terrible at choosing and appreciate all the help offered here.

One big project and a couple little ones. The big one is a new roof for our cottage. This picture was taken this morning. I hate spending money on such a pedestrian project, but it was years (1968 original roof!) overdue. We changed the color from 1968 tetherball court grey, to something with more natural tones.

We also put in cafe curtains on all the windows in the front. Nothing terribly exciting, just a light brown buffalo plaid to go with the barn siding. We call them "anti-bark" curtains and they work like a champ.

Lastly, I'm tinkering with another dollhouse. This one came from Facebook Marketplace and I am redoing it to lightly resemble the house I grew up in. It opens in front.

So far, I have removed the porch and the decoration on the top roof. I am trying to figure out how to remove the dormer without leaving a gap on the trim. Here is the house I grew up in. The dollhouse will focus on the front of my childhood home, not the driveway view. Without the porch, it looks like the house from Madeleine stories.

I've ordered faux wrought iron balconies from a man in the Netherlands, and I'll brick up the chimneys to make them look more like this one. I'll also make the exterior stucco, and pink, of course. My dollhouse won't be an exact replica, but I don't care. It is a nostalgic labor of love.

Jo! Another dollhouse? What fun. Will you paint it pink? Love your childhood home.

Did you get to see and smell the corpse flower at Longwood? Im guessing you are still,at your cottage.

Pink, the foot massager is no substitute for a human massage (my DH used to rub my feet all the time, now not so much) but it’s kinda nice. I have it in our TV room/den set up at the end of one sofa so it’s super easy to use. My DD likes it too.

Love that pink house! The dollhouse will be fun. So many cool projects. I'm putting up a wallpaper mural in my bedroom. Update is long overdue....I mostly ignore that room since I'm only ever in there with my eyes closed. But...I've got everything else where I want it house wise.

I’m so glad I upgraded the back pool patio landscaping a while back. Although I have hardly left the house since the pandemic started, husband has gone to work (masked of course). After all the precautions we are both COVID-19 positive. We will get retested on July 20th to see if negative. I’m sitting on the sofa right now in this open plan to the pool. It’s sunny and lovely looking out over all the new plantings. Very glad we did that .

I’ve packed on the pounds and have watched ALL of Netflix. Is there an award of some kind that I’m eligible for?

We did splurge on a new boat. Our reasoning being that we cancelled a big celebration, cancelled travel, cancelled most everything the last 6 months.

We paid off a car and did some landscaping with the money we aren't spending on travel this year. I guess I'm happy about those two things, but am going to miss the trips we aren't taking. Oh well ... there's always next year.

I've continued to use this time "at home" to improve my physical conditioning. I'm down 35 pounds since January, which probably doesn't seem like much, but I wanted to be sure to do it at a slow and steady pace. I feel so much better than I did six months ago, have much more energy, and just generally believe myself to be in a better place. So that counts for something good, I suppose.

No pampering and I wouldn't say we've really upgraded anything here. To be honest, since I retired and the Mr. works from home, it's not alot of difference for us. I am a homebody!

We did build a new firepit and bought (ordered) chairs to go around it, so that is nice. Just been puttering along with regular home projects although hubby has been slammed with work and hasn't been able to devote as much time to my/our projects LOL! I have bought a couple of antique paintings/prints during the pandemic and finally have my walls the way I want in our great room.

Ida, you are selling yourself short! Thirty-five pounds is great and I would think you don't need to lose more! Feeling better is great! I look forward to finally get things settled with my dad and I know my stress level will go way down. And paying a car off - nothing better than no debt!

Thanks so much, TM. :-)

We had our primary house painted and added air conditioning to our vacation house. We added lights to the perimeter of the deck at our Cape house and have been eating all our meals out there, quite a change from the dining out that we were accustomed to. Our master bath project is on hold for the summer. We postponed it back in March when we went into stay at home mode.

Wow, Ida. I admire your determination to improve your physical conditioning during the covid crisis.

@IdaClaire and @jakabedy need to be my weight loss coaches. I have only been successful in not gaining, I guess that is something.

@jojoco Cool new dollhouse project, I can't wait to follow your progress

@tannatonk23_fl_z9a It might be good to start a thread dedicated to your guest room updates. I love orange so that definitely has my vote as a cool accent color.

@just_terrilynn, I sure hope you’re not presenting symptoms and if so that they are mild. Scary times.

Wow, Jterri, I am so sorry you have tested positive. Hope you come out with only mild symptoms and everything is ok. You just never know.

localeater, I will be happy to post photos of our backyard project once I get things cleaned up a bit. I planted a few annuals I had received for free this morning while it was still cool and spread a little composted manure before that. It just gets too hot to do much.

I forgot to mention, DH traded his bigger Kubota tractor for a smaller one with a backhoe and some other implements he wanted. Men and their toys, but he has enjoyed working with it and it is more maneuverable..Like everyone said, the money we aren’t spending in travel and eating out is going for other things..

@justerrilynn that's not an update I wanted to read about - you don't mention how you are feeling so hopefully you are experiencing little to no symptoms.

@just_terrilynn Hoping you and your husband both have very mild cases. Be well .

Does breaking my arm count? Freaky boating accident. Humerus bone but the ER doctor set it so well I don’t need surgery. DH has been an absolute prince at taking care of me. Pain has diminished daily and thank goodness it’s my left hand. im a Floridian who spends summers on Lake Erie. Use read about justterriiyn. I’m on west coast and it’s not as bad as Miami area. Trying to keep a good attitude about all of this.

Humerus bone does not equal fun!

@cmm1964 Breaking your arm does not count as an improvement! I am so sorry you got hurt. Hope you are feeling fab soon.

Idaclaire, 35lbs is remarkable! Congratulations to you and jakabedy as well. I don't know how much I've lost, but I was on a gradual decline since last summer and continued through the shutdowm. I'm down a size or so. I kind of plateau'd though the last month.

One thing I didn't mention is that I switched to body resistance exercise, including core training. That, along with some weight loss, has virtually eliminated any back pain. I find I am sitting more and the stretches and exercises have negated any negative impacts of not being in an office (where I would at least move from location to location).

I'm still in the process of redoing the guest bathroom, it was a lot of pink and the sink and toilet were in bad shape. I'm currently working on putting up the peel and stick wallpaper.

Before:

In progress:

And a new rug for my bedroom:

Ded, No luck on the Corpse plant at Longwood. I did see it the day before it bloomed, but when I was there today, the line was hours long. I decided instead to walk around and enjoy the empty gardens (since everyone was on line.) Would have been cool to see it, but not 3-4 hours-on-line cool.

Lpink, my Pilates instructor recommended these foot wakers many years ago. I bought a set and have used them off and on ever since when my Plantar Fascitis acts up or when my feet seem ‘tired’. They have gone up in price but well worth the investment imo.

The idea is to transition from the balls of your feet to the arches and then the heels, but you can also use them while seated. You have to get used to a bit of pain when standing on them, especially on your arches. It’s a ‘feels so good’ kind of pain though, as you become accustomed to using them.

https://www.amazon.com/Yamuna-Body-Rolling-Foot-Wakers/dp/B000PJTXT0

We’re replacing the scroll pattern on our porch support with the rectangular inserts and adding a iron porch railing. Still in keeping with the age of the 60's ranch house but more upscale. Painting the front door is my next plan, once I’ve convinced my 'you can’t paint wood' husband that it needs to be done.

My sweet DH bought himself a big, souped-up, diesel-fueled pickup truck in advance of us buying a fifth-wheel RV. We've been learning how to use all of it's many, many extras ever since. The "booklet" that came with it is 500 pages long, so you can imagine how many (NON-driving) mistakes we've already made! Left the automatic rear window open one night. Thank goodness no rain . . . or curious animals crawling in! Blanked out the dashboard's information several times. It seems to be never-ending, but it is something for us to do together in the safety of our own driveway. Annnnd, the darn thing is too long to fit into our garage until we can reconfigure everything else in there someday!

My big household improvement was a dry erase board to list what I have in the freezer. I can keep it on the side of the fridge, out of sight.

I have never been good about using the freezer for more than ginger or tomato paste or nuts. When I bought a protein, once it went in there I’d either forget it or couldn’t get it defrosted when I needed so it was easier to buy more. But now that I’m limiting trips to the store and planning 7-10 days of meals at a time, I’m using the freezer. A dry erase board will be easier to update than the little notebook I’ve been using.

I ended up ordering the board and 4 other items from Walmart, my first order there. There are 4 shipment dates for the 5 items. One item I could have picked up, 3 aren’t carried in the store, and 1 comes from another shipper. So the delivery truck will be here 4 times, it is ridiculous. This is why I usually talk myself out of ordering things, but I don’t want to go to stores so here we are.

I’m living large.

I bought a Pilates Reformer from the studio where I used to take Pilates. She had to downsize to spread things out to be able to social distance.

I am so so happy that I made this purchase. It was expensive but I used it almost everyday and my DS also uses it to stretch for soccer. I put it in my dining room and moved the dining room to the family room that is right off of the kitchen. We also put a large screen TV in the Pilates room so I can take Pilates classes on YouTube.

When covid hit we had already scheduled a full renovation of our backyard to entertain for the lead up to our son's wedding. The wedding was downscaled but we decided to go ahead with the renovation and are so glad we did. It is great for physical-distance entertaining.

Rory, I would love one of those reformers! I take mat pilates, but I may have to search out one of those machines.

My big upgrade has been walking with friends. Early on, it became my socializing time (walking 6 ft apart), and my county has wonderful trails all over. In the past 3 days alone, I've walked more than 8 hours. It seems like such an indulgence of time.

I also purchased a pilates reformer and am SOOO glad I did! I can now workout every day with the exception of one day a week for a scheduled class with my instructor at her small studio.

We also underwent a master bath reno during the quarantine. Very glad to have done that as well.... we are crazy in love with the new bathroom.

Lots of inspiring projects. Our deck was in pretty bad shape, so we hadn’t used it in years. When the dog got splinters from it a few weeks ago, I decided to get it cleaned up. Had it sanded and repainted to a yummy flagstone gray. A new orange umbrella arrived today and DD bought a pot of beautiful sunflowers to add more color. Now the dog and I can sit out there in the mornings while I work.

I’ve also started an update on our living room. I bought a new sectional which won’t be here for a couple of months and some new art. I need to make the space a little more pleasant to be in, I guess it’s more theraputic than anything. I’m also cleaning one space at a time, tossing junk and selling stuff on Facebook Market Place.

I had to get a new Ipad as my old one had problems with low battery life too. Most of my other projects are maintenance oriented, sealing the driveway, painting the shed, I going to add color to the front door and soffets outside. Not everything is fun stuff to do but it feels good to get things done that we’d put off doing while my DH was sick.

Jo, I figured you’d put on your employee badge and sneak in through a side door. I can’t think of anything so wonderful that I‘d wait that length of time to see ( or smell). Today was a lovely day to be outside.Going to Chanticleer on Thursday.

Rory-I would love to have my own reformer!

We had a toilet malfunction in early March right before Covid. The water ruined our engineered wood floors downstairs-it happened so fast! We finally had the floors replaced at the end of June-we had to live in a hotel for two weeks. I am really pleased with how they turned out. Now we have to have the replaced trim painted and some wall repair done, but the worst is over. Since we had to box so much stuff up, we also used it as an opportunity to get rid of lots of stuff. That feels so good!

Btw, I also redid the dining room. I finally ditched the Queen Anne furniture, moved our breakfast table into DR and bought new chairs and a cabinet. DH inherited the painting and clock when his dad died last year (they actually belonged to his grandparents), and I have a rug on order. He also inherited his great grandparents' dining table and we put it in the breakfast room.

After the flood-thankfully the rugs were picked up and cleaned by our great local rug cleaner and show no water stains.

During floor replacement:

My redone DR:

Pamhatten, great bath makeover, I am impressed!

Tannatonk, I love orange with gray and white. A cute orange chair and a few pillows would be great accents for your new guest/study. One of our extra bedrooms is also functioning as my study, with a desk and my laptop. I am using it far more than my dedicated study in the old house, go figure.

Fully2, although I find the wrought iron porch rails with the scrolls very nostalgically appealing, those new, straight sided porch railings are a very smart look and will update your house the Minute they are up.

Jojoco, love your new dollhouse project. That pink house looks like it was plucked from the south of France.

Jterrilyn, very sorry to hear you contracted Cv19 but glad your symptoms are mild. I know you and your DH have been very careful, and this confirms what I have suspected all along that it is much easier to get than we realize.

Hhireno, I am also keeping Freezer and fridge lists. A dry erase board is perfect for that, thank you for the idea!

Great job Ida on your weight loss! DH and I have both put on a few and have been discussing very seriously what we can do about it without changing what we are doing now. Obviously we have a ways to go....

Our bathroom project is in full swing. Tub/shower demo-Ed Monday, new toilet and vanity going in today and possibly wallpaper. I now realize it was a mistake not to replace the tile floor, but it was in good condition and I didn’t think (at the time) that it looked awful. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being totally unacceptable and 10 being the platonic ideal of a tile floor, I would give it a 4. 😢. OTOH I have never actually used that bathroom and have only been in it twice so I have Made Up My Mind not to complain.