We are living through a remodel right now. I'm not sure if some would consider finishing a basement a "remodel", but we're basically adding 1,000 sq ft of finished space to our home. It sucks. We have stuff everywhere on the first floor because everything had to be removed from the basement in order for it to be framed out, having new electrical added and adding a full bathroom (including the fun part of having the concrete floor broken and pipes added). It has been nearly 2 months and I cannot wait for it to be done! We have done everything we can to keep the dust and dirt to a minimum throughout the rest of the house but boy, is it tough. I couldn't imagine doing this on the main floor of our home. Everything has cost more than we originally planned. Part of that is that we definitely are part of the "while you're at it" club (but it was for things that made sense, like adding a couple of extra outlets). Everything is taking longer than we were originally told, and we have been lucky and haven't hit a lot of snags. You watch HGTV and see teams of 10-15 people working on a house - that's not reality. We've had days where we've had no workers (which I was told from others that this is normal) and days where they're at our house for like 12 hours. Since we are living here during this, our lives have basically revolved around the contractors because things have come up where we've had to make decisions on the fly (so basically one of us has had to be here). I talked to my husband very seriously about moving before we started this project. He felt it didn't make sense because the interest rate on our current mortgage is much less than interest rates now, plus we couldn't ask as much for our home as competitors just because we didn't have that finished basement. But now that we're going through it, I think he feels he should have given moving much more consideration. And we're not remodeling for more than the cost of our home. If I had a $160,000 house, there is no way I would put another $200,000 into it, especially with what you want to do. Removing a very long load bearing wall is no easy task. I don't even think they make support beams that long - you're going to have support columns in the middle of your open concept (we have them smack dab in the middle of our basement so we had to change where we wanted to put things). We had to remodel our master bath and bedroom due to mold when my kids were little. That was tough enough; I couldn't imaging being without say a kitchen or stairs with little ones. We had to have the water turned off when they were installing the pipes - try explaining to your teenage daughter that she has to shower at her friend's house before going out that night. Everyone keeps telling me all the hassle will be worth it, but I really wish we would have moved instead.

Yay for the violets, Nancy! And...you still have summer squash? The bugs killed ours long ago. Even the C. Moschata. I am pooped. So tired. We shopped today and I don't have to tell anyone that shopping is very unpleasant right now. However, Dillards allows you to try on clothes and I found a dress. It's not exactly the bohemian/fairy princess dress that I wanted. But it fits nicely and its a forest green color...and it's Robin Hoodish (not really), so I bought it. Paid more than what I wanted to pay, but it's done. DONE! Came home around 3 and sliced, breaded and froze okra. Then figured out how to use my pressure canner as a water bath canner and pickled some okra. On my own. The lids sealed so hopefully we're good. My house is getting to the point that I am very unhappy. I know a clean house isn't the most important thing in the world....but I enjoy a clean home. It just feels nice to me. However, a clean house isn't anywhere in my near future. I am hoping the robot vacuums are cheap this Christmas. That will at least help. We are celebrating Mason's BD tomorrow and that will be fun. It's at a very good restaurant that I haven't been to in a long time. Then grocery shopping and then maybe starting more lettuce seed. In between all of those things is animal care. Lots of animal care. There's always one of them doing something they shouldn't be doing or somewhere they shouldn't be hanging out. One of the fat buff orpingtons has figured out how to get out of the chicken yard. And she isn't swift. She is dumb--beautiful but dumb and wanders over by the dogs. So, I'm constantly leaving whatever task I'm working on to catch her or entice her back to the yard. And everyone is always hungry all the time. The 3 young pullets mingled with the main flock today. It went very well. Having a good rooster helps with that. They're roosting in their own coop, though. It will be a gradual thing as always. Momma Blossom will be tired of her chicks soon and those two chicks will need to move to the pullet coop at that time. Although, at least one of those chicks is a cockerel. Tom may or may not start doing meat birds and these two could be the start of it. They won't be THE meat birds, but they might be the parents of. I've named the one I think is a girl. Her name is Gwendolyn, which is sorta funny because Gwendolyn (actually related to Jennifer/Guinevere.) means white ...and Gwendolyn is a dark cornish. I'm simply rambling now.

While I generally agree with the 'decorate for what you love' crowd, some trends and styles always seem simply unrealistic or suboptimal, so I wouldn't ever consider them for my own home. That includes the ubiquitous barn door. The first time I saw one used as an interior decor option I rolled my eyes. They simply don't make much sense: as a door they fail to completely close off an opening so that alone is a huge thumbs down. Especially for a bathroom (ahem) or a bedroom, makes no sense. Not to mention the design closes off a large area on the wall which can no longer be used since the barn door will need to push over onto that portion so again, less utility. Same with open shelving in the kitchen. Many/most people don't live a life in which a minimal amount of tasteful monochromatic matched pieces can be styled on a shelf. Then let's get to the utility: open shelves not only look cluttered but things can easily fall off and break. Everything on open shelves is susceptible to kitchen grease, dust etc so that's certainly less useful. Moving on to outdoor showers-unless you live in the subtropics how useless is the opportunity to stand outside shivering for most of the year while you shower?!?! Who in their right mind will even want to do that? And even in the subtropics take it from me, you probably aren't going to enjoy your shower while dodging cockroaches (they love moist warm areas), lizards etc. Once again, simply not useful in real life. Sure some people may like having a place to rinse off after gardening etc but really how large a group is that? While not wedded to a non-aesthetic aesthetic, putting stuff in your home decor that looks good but either creates more work or simply doesn't work well makes no sense to me and never has.

I thought someone started an April thread, I don't see it? I wanted to say that it is 20F on my back porch this morning. Does anyone else find that shocking? It's still dark out, but I'm afraid to go out and look at what the garden has to look like. Anyone else having temperatures that low this morning? I just went out and checked again, to make sure I was seeing it right. Still 20F. I looked at the forecast and right now it's supposed to be 26F. I just checked out 2 more different forecasts. One that is embedded in the top of my search engine is reporting that it is 27F in my town right now. But the National Weather Service reports it at 23F so at least they are close, but what does that say about my property? Am I in some microclimate? I planned on working outside early and digging a bed out and some other things. Is the ground going to be frozen? I'm thinking I might get a later start than I planned. I'm feeling bad that I didn't cover anything or bring in my winter sown containers which would have been easy, but I haven't thought it was going to get more than a couple of degrees lower than freezing.