Weather whiplash

That is what "they" are calling the weather this spring - whiplash. Some days the high and low temps vary by as much as 30 or 40 degrees. I find it difficult to figure out what to wear. Today it is a pair of shorts and a tee.

Crocus of some kind

I saw an article about the "March mehs". Apparently, some people find the interim between winter and summer tedious and blah. Maybe these people have no yards and/or live where there is very little green space. Seeing the spring bulbs emerge despite a brutally cold winter gives me hope that everything will be okay. In fact, the flowers seem particularly joyful this year.

First daffs

While wandering around the house the other day, I found a plastic flap on the ground. It must have broken off the exhaust fan housing during one of the extremely windy days we have experienced. Fortunately, my daughter is in the remodeling biz and sent over a contractor to take care of that (and several other little jobs around the house).

Yes, I know the siding needs to be cleaned

Fall cleanup continues. The north and south sides of the house are now (relatively) tidy. All that remains is the backyard. Cataract surgery is not holding me back - one more eye to go.

THIS is WINTER

The weather has actually been very winter-like for a change. Today's dog walk was just about perfect: temps in the high 20's, no wind, light snowfall. The only problem was the icy patches beneath the snow.

Even though my neighbor blows my driveway, I enjoy shoveling when the snow is light and powdery, especially in the dark when it is so silent. So peaceful.

While I am not doing much outside, some things have been fixed inside. The landline died, and when Frontier came to fix it, I decided to just do away with it. The end result was upgraded equipment and a much lower Frontier bill. Now I'm chasing down all the accounts that use my old phone number.

The microwave started making zapping noises, as though there were metal in there, so I had that replaced. It took a while for the unit to be delivered and installed, so I had to "rough it" - use the stovetop for reheating food, making popcorn, cooking bacon, etc. That resulted in more pots and pans being used, so more dishwashing. Glad that is taken care of.

The other pressing matter has been getting my RMD started. Having three different IRAs complicated things, but I think everything is ready to go now.

Today's "helper".

Happiness is a warm lap.

Finally

This past week the painters and the carpenter FINALLY all showed up and finished the work on the house. Nice improvements, plus now the landscape installers can do their thing. I'm so glad this stage is complete.


Above, is the side door to the garage. I cleaned the mildew/alga off it. Now I just need to finish cleaning the siding.

Below are the shutters and the front porch. I've planted a couple of ornamental sweet potato vines in the container, 'Margarita', which hopefully will climb the trellis.
And the wrens FINALLY returned from their winter digs. A male started building a nest in the wren house right outside the den window, to be joined the next day by a female. The nest appears to be complete now.


My SO helped me continue to prep the yard for the landscapers. There were a lot of bits and bobs of poultry netting and hardware cloth that I used to protect shrubs; I want to keep them just in case, but need them to be out of the way. It was a bigger job than we anticipated, resulting in sore and stiff muscles, but we got it done.

Otherwise, I have been mowing, three times this week. It was supposed to storm all this weekend, but the weather warning turned out to be a false alarm. Instead it is hot and sunny, very summerlike, although the next week is supposed to be cooler. And I just saw the first grackle of the year.

April (snow) showers

The past week has been wet and next week is also supposed to be soggy and today it was actually *snowing*, but tomorrow should be nice (she typed hopefully). Maybe we will be able to actually do something out in the yard.

Between showers, the contractors worked on the front of the house. There was *more* rot underneath the rotting siding, so that is fixed. Painting will have to wait until things warm up a bit. I'm a little anxious about getting this project done before the landscaping starts.


I learned something new about blue jays this past week: they can immitate red-tailed hawks. Today I think I saw a purple finch at the bird bath, but he took off before I could get a pic; this photo is from the Missouri Department of Conservation. A goldfinch is the best I could do. (Sorry for the poor photo quality.)


I did manage to clean the deck on a dry day. My SO then helped me move potted plants from the garage to the backyard. Everything looks like it survived the winter: two clematis, two butterfly bushes, a potful of penstemon, and English thyme. And I repotted two houseplants, a dirty job but someone has to do it.

Desperate times

I have reached the end of my rope regarding the front yard and have called a landscape designer to help me out. He will be here Thursday. I won't be doing the tear out or installation, and I may even turn over the maintenance to them. This decision has brought me a great sense of relief.

Meanwhile, I am identifying what I like and don't like.

• I like the cotoneaster but it needs pruning
• The mugo and elderberry need to go
• I want to keep the gold mop even though it is blocking a walkway. What grows under it - barberry, firebush, POISON IVY - can all go
• I'm meh about the boxwood
• The pampas grass can stay or go
• I love the smoke bush, but wish it were not so close to the house
• Can the rhododendron be rescued?
• No more yucca or false indigo. Both are out of control.
• Open to suggestions for the bed along the front walk
• Eliminate the northern sea oats PLEASE

What was the final straw? I am having the windows replaced in my house. Needless to say, there are plants of one sort or another growing under almost all the windows. The mugo growing in front of the picture window on the east side is the most problematic. My SO and I tried to hack out a path for the installers, but it is still barely passable AND now there is a big hole in the landscaping.

If that were not enough, our pathbreaking behind the mugo revealed some house damage. The picture window resides in a "bumpout" that resembles the bumpouts one sees on some RVs. The house looks less flat-faced with it, but it has been problematic, moreso now.


Repairing this damage will become part of the window replacement project. At one point, I was going to skip replacing the picture window, but now I am glad I included it.

I was hoping once it stopped raining so much, the flopping plants would right themselves a bit, but no. The natives along the fence are so floppy that it is difficult to get the mower through that area. I'm wondering if one problem is I (optimistically) planted them all too close together.


This morning, before the heat drove me inside, I propped most of this mess up with some hardware cloth supported with rebar so I can at least mow along there. This is a perfect example of how things go in my yard. I plant something, it looks like it is going to work, but then my vision eludes me.

August is being August - hot and humid this week, with scattered rain. Before the heat moved in, I managed to clean out most of one raised bed, where I hope to transplant the coneflower and penstemon. The bird feeding ban has been lifted in most of the state, but not this county.

Who needs television?

A "free" day can hang on some like a burden, but not me. On the one hand, it's an opportunity to do nothing, and I'm always up for that. On the other, why waste it? My free day included a project, a chore, and an emergency.

First the project.

The original plans for the new room included a spot for the litter box, but I did not want it out in the open. Enter the "cat washroom" from Plow and Hearth. It arrived the other day, but some (all) assembly was required.



It was well packaged and the instructions seemed straightforward. Step 1 was easy.



Step 2 could have used a bit more exposition or a better illustration, because at Step 3 I realized I had already goofed. Then it was smooth sailing until Step 7.



Notice something missing? The door was supposed to be attached in Step 6.



In situ. Not sure why a cat needs a towel rack - shoot, they don't even need toilet paper because what else is a tongue for? - but what the hey.



None of the litter boxes from my current collection will fit inside, so I have not introduced Fern to her new potty spot. But I was hoping to feed her on top of the thing. Currently, she will eat only out of the dog's bowl, which creates some logistical problems. So far, she is not thrilled with my idea, plus is cranky from being hungry. In a battle of wills with a cat, the cat usually wins, but I'm going to give it a few more days.

Now, the chore.

One of our addition's residents clears our streets, so when I saw him go by, a wave of slush curling up from his plow, I realized the time to shovel the driveway was now. Fortunately, the aforementioned neighbor opened up the end of my driveway for me, after expressing amazement (for the third year in a row) that I don't yet have a snow blower. My next door neighbor wandered over, shovel in hand, to ask me if I could catsit for them. Then he felt obligated to help me. (This neighbor owes me about 99 favors already.) Still, I made me some muscles by the time I was done.



That picture makes my driveway look longer than the 50 feet it actually is.

Yesterday's post included a photo of my ornamental grasses encased in ice. I was amazed that the one near the porch was still upright. Well, I bumped its supporting structure while shoveling yesterday and it fell into a heap.



Last, the emergency.

Around 8:30 last night, I let the dog out. She has a habit of peeing on the patio, so I followed her out to chase her into the yard proper. While waiting for her to do her business, I heard this small beep...beep...beep. It was coming from the gas meter. Huh.

My first inclination was to ignore it. After all, if I had not gone outside, I would not have heard it at all. (Am I the Queen of Denial or what?) Then I Googled "gas meter beeping" but that was not very helpful. So I went back out and listened. Yep, still there. I stuck my head down closer to the meter and SMELLED GAS!

Even I know this is an emergency, so I went back in and called the gas company. Help was on the way.

Thirty minutes later, help was still on the way. This is when having a hobby comes in very handy, as I was knitting furiously and nervously while watching out the window. Maybe I wouldn't have been so nervous if I hadn't seen the following photo in Friday morning's Journal Gazette.



Yep, broken gas line. Knowing that not only does a gas line run to my house, but gas mains also run along the utility easements on both the west and north sides of my property did not help.

Finally a very nice, personable, good humored (and good looking!) fellow showed up, the kind of guy that generates confidence in his abilities and his expertise. He too heard the beep (I'm not crazy!) and determined that there was a leak (still not crazy!) and it was before the gas meter, so I was not paying to pollute the atmosphere (what good luck!) He tightened down a joint, which helped, but said the meter and its external plumbing would need replacing. My case was a "grade 2" emergency; in other words, not a must-fix-now emergency but a should-fix-soon emergency. He assured me I was safe, I could use my gas appliances, etc. and they would try to fix it Saturday.

Which brings me to issuing a blanket THANK YOU to all the people who cannot spend the day making couch dents while the weather goes to hell. Initially, I was grateful not to be a paper deliverer or a truck driver, completely forgetting about the medical professionals and public safety personnel and utility workers who keep us safe in not very safe conditions. Time to stop whining about my job, where I work in a nice, clean, warm, friendly environment.

P.S. In between all this fun, I did view some wildlife in my own backyard. Mr. Squirrel had to abandon the Telephone Wire Highway and snaked through the back roads of the privat hedge instead. It was still rough going. And while I was idly watching the usual juncos, sparrows, house finches, etc. a huge HAWK flew into the the yard and perched in a shrub. His prospective meals flew off as soon as he showed up, and soon he left as well. Wish I had been less stunned and more reflexive in a photography sort of way. He was a beauty.

Snow kidding

Today we received a bit of snow.



It was wet and sticky and is not going to last. Maybe this is a sign of things to come; I would like to have four inches a week, for cross country skiing purposes.

I put up another bird feeder.



My first attempt failed and the thing fell down, scattering safflower seed all over. I tried again, but so far no takers.

It's Not Final Until It Is Final

I don't know much about the inspection process when it comes to new construction. This year I learned a few things, including the fact there is something called a final inspection. The electrical inspector came and did a final inspection, and I assumed that was that. But today there was a notice on my front door from the heating inspector, as he has to do a final inspection as well. I'm guessing the framing inspector does not have to do a final inspection because, well, the framing is all covered up now.



Red is my favorite color...



... but it is not the only color of autumn. There is the bronze of the oat grass...



... and the yellow of these wildflowers (I'm too lazy to look them up)...



... and the purple of the Vibernum prunifolium...



... aka Blackhaw Viberunum.

There Is Always Something

Wednesday the floor was finished, today the trim was added, BUT. Now the painter has to return again, to fill in nail holes and stain the trim around the attic access.



My questions are 1) when is he coming? and 2) can I go ahead and start moving furniture?

The floor feels more stable, but I'm not completely sold on wood laminate yet. The problem is as soon as someone says the magic words "low maintenance" I say "YES!"



The temperature has dropped to pleasant autumnal levels, and we even received a little overnight rain. I have a few pink daffodil bulbs to plant, but otherwise most yardwork falls into the category of Fall Cleanup.

Better But Not Best

After several people commented on the poor quality of the paint job in my new room, I called the contractor to complain. They suggested we tack sticky notes where the walls needed to be touched up.



I called them back and suggested that the painter just add another coat, which he did today.



These photos are not proof, but the color looks much richer now. I think he got in a hurry last Monday because the electricians were hot on his heels. There are still some major flaws, though, which I will point out to the contractor on final inspection. In my mind, new walls should be darn near perfect.

I still haven't posted pictures of the attic ladder and access. That is a long story, so I will save it for later.

Not Quite Yet

I was really, really, really hoping that today would be the final day of Project Renovation, but alas, it was not to be. Someone (moi?) provided the wrong dimensions of the new room, so the flooring guys came up short. More laminate was ordered, and once it comes in, the remaining work should take about an hour.



Considering where we started with this project (replacing an 18' x 12' Florida room) to where the journey took us (24' x 24' addition) to where we finally landed (18' x 15' room), it is not surprising that some dimensions were miscommunicated. If this is the worst mishap, I will be happy.



Someday, when I have recovered from this project, I would like to move the washer and dryer to the other end of the house, and maybe put a half-bath where they are now. Or a freezer/pantry. Or a big closet.



Somebody stop me!

I'm liking the option of light in the backyard. These two fixtures illuminate the patio; there is a two-bulb flood light on the corner of the new room as well.



Red is the color of autumn. Red leaves on the burning bush...



... and red berries on the chokeberry.



Never mind that it is still in the 80's this week.

Weak Link

Progress on the new room has been steady, until the painters did not arrive last week as expected. Not on Wednesday (truck trouble), not on Thursday (sick), and on Friday, only one showed, to paint the trim.



Fortunately, they arrived bright and early today, and finished up just ahead of the electricians.



The new room is "oatmeal" while the laundry is "khaki" and the trim is "architectural off-white".



My daughter picked the colors and they look great. Even the painter was surprised impressed.



I splurged a bit on the ceiling fan (light kit yet to come)...



... and cheaped out on the laundry ceiling light fixture.



So far, so good!

What's left? The drywall/paint crew need to fix the drywall around the attic entrance and paint the outside of the French doors, the floor is scheduled to be installed Wednesday, and then the heating guy needs to appear with some registers. Oh, and I guess I will need to pay for all this.