Green Laundry

JP got a clothes line up for me on Monday. About 20 minutes after I happily hung up my first load of sheets, L commented "it waining!" JP and I frantically dashed outside to pull everything in. It has been raining since then, so today was my first successful attempt at drying my clothes in the great outdoors. Mmmm...there is nothing like the smell and feel of line dried sheets! The line is hung between the corners of the "L" shaped porch, and just steps away from the washer.

I finished my pantry re-organization yesterday, and now have one entire empty shelf, and more room on others if I squish.

I get a sick kind of pleasure out of labeling things. I told JP that I did this for my Mom's sake (I kinda did!)

While I was on the pantry pics, I thought I'd snap the kitchen since it was relatively clean. I'd still like to do something with the pantry entrance since we lost the pocket door, but I'm not sure what. Right now we are using a Japanese noren as a divider...a gift from JP's sister in Japan.

This is the Dining Room, and strangely, the main entrance to the house. We recently hung faux wood blinds in this window since the dusk-to-dawn light on the garage was bothering us in the bedroom at night. There is a small coat closet just to the left of the entrance in this picture. The pass through is my work space, and the doorway to the left of that goes into the Craft Room (which also houses the freezer, extra refrigerator, washer and dryer)...I'll photograph that room later as we are still working in there.

The cream colored table on the far left was a Big Lots find. We plan to put it on wheels. It will function as a sofa console table, buffet table and pattern cutting table.

The girls and I had a fun day today: we had friends over to play in the morning (including one of L's "tiny boyfriends"), and we adults were so deep in conversation that we talked through lunch and had to whip up some mac-n-cheese quickly for the kiddos. We then accompanied them to another friend's pool for some water play. Now J is anxious for L to get up from her nap, and I'm not (since blogging doesn't really count for accomplishing anything during nap time). Ah well...life goes on!

Girls' Rooms

We finally got mattresses for the daybed in the girls' playroom yesterday evening at the Friends & Family 20% off sale at Big Lots, so we could finally finish the girls' rooms. They are very "girly"...decorated with flowers, butterflies and fairies.




I showed a picture earlier of the double pocket doors between their rooms. For now, these are open most of the time, but when they are older and want their own rooms, they can keep them closed. One of the rooms is basically a sleeping room, with bunk beds and dressers for the girls.

The other room is the playroom/overflow guest room. L calls the area under the canopy the "rain place", but J thinks it is a "sleep-over/fairy bed". JP also managed to unearth the hopscotch rug that has been in storage for over a year.

I will post more pictures later of the girls hidey-hole under the stairs when it is finished.

This morning I woke up to this out front:

...and this in the back:

Now it looks like this:

They will pour another section of concrete later this week to make it into a giant rectangle. Then JP will at last be able to set up his Basketball hoop. They had to pour it in 2 steps in order to have a way to brace the roof over the door.

This weekend we did some more clearing in the garage. JP pulled out all the deck chairs and I scrubbed them. I also cleaned some more mouse dirtied things: sleeping bags, and the extra parts for the pack'n'play. JP was looking for bug spray, and found the bin it was in had something leak during the winter, so we had to clean all that up too. SIGH...I am really looking forward to the time when "moving" means hanging pictures, and NOT cleaning up mouse poo and pecan shells!

We put the deck chairs and the picnic table (that we used for a dining room table in the apartment) out on the porch. The girls had lunch there today.

More Early Spring

Yesterday we trekked out to the hill to return the window and shingle samples that have been cluttering up our apartment all week (and stick 2 boxes of J's old school books in the garage). The driveway was a mess since it was warm all week. I wonder what it will be like in April when it's warm AND raining? Yikes.

They have installed the mechanisms for 3 pocket doors upstairs, in the Study, Pantry, and this one in the Master Bath. We really had to think through the space while looking at the blue prints to figure out where we would not want a regular door.

The tray ceilings in the Study and Master Bed Room are being refined.

They have been doing a lot of digging. There is a trench from the house all the way over to the driveway, past the well. Also, there are a couple dug in the basement. This one is in the Girls' Bathroom/Room.

After inspecting everything, we headed off in a different direction than last week for another hike. We caught this glimpse of our old property on the way.

This time we followed the 4 wheeler trail, so the going was easier. We heard the stirrings of lots of creatures, and the strange cry of an unknown bird. We attempted to walk quietly through the dried leaves, but the idea of stealth was lost on L, who decided to sing at the top of her lungs. That is, until she got cold, then she whined until the van was in sight once again.