Chronicling accomplishments

One of the things I like about blogging is the 'diary' aspect of it - the opportunity to put out little markers of things you've accomplished or memories you want to celebrate so that you have them recorded, more for yourself than anyone else. And today we just finished another big project and decided we needed to look back a little to see how far we've come.

Almost a year ago we bought a 'fixer-upper.' And, as I've said before, we are "fixing 'er up." We've had some help along the way - our son came to work with us for a week last fall, my sister and brother-in-law helped us with some digging and planting when they visited, my mother bought us some beautiful pots to put on our back deck, and we hired out part of our recent project - but mostly we've just plugged along with steady work and a little inspiration. We've also had some setbacks - major ones like the storm in December that felled two of our wonderful trees and destroyed our roof, or minor ones like putting up drapery rod brackets too far apart for the length of the rod. We've probably spent more money than would be prudent to tally. We've had our share of sore muscles and back pain. And we've spent an alarming amount of time repairing walls and schlepping junk and debris to various charitable organizations and refuse transfer sites. But we're happy with our progress. So far we have:

• Replaced all the kitchen appliances


• Repainted all the walls, trim, doors and closets


• Replaced light fixtures in the entryway and the two dining areas


• Swapped out locks, doorknobs, outlet covers and other fixtures


• Sanded and treated kitchen cabinets and caulked


• Installed 'closet systems' to maximize space


• Hung new decorative shelving in the family room, office and hallway


• Installed hardwood flooring in about 1/4 of the house


• Put in new window shades, blinds, rods and curtains


• Replaced half of the windows - the other half to be done this fall


• Put on a new roof


• Replaced the furniture in the family room, so it is more scaled to the size of the room


• Installed a mantle over the fireplace


• Rototilled the front garden to plant daffodils


• Put up an outdoor storage shed - twice (The first one was destroyed in The Storm and had to be replaced.)


• And finally - FINALLY! - took care of the drainage problem in our backyard.

This last bit is the part we are celebrating this weekend. The excavation team installed french drains around the back of the house and put in a 'dry creekbed' to cover them last week. We also planted pumpkins in our side yard - which will serve, in the future, as raised-bed vegetable gardening space. And we put down grass seed - which is actually starting to grow! This weekend, we put the new shed together and put barkdust down, over what seemed like vast spaces, to cover the bare ground until next spring when we might actually be able to terrace the yard and plant a few things. We're so proud.

I've got blisters.