We worked this week to finish some small jobs around the house but the major tasks revolved around de-cluttering and cleaning. It’s always amazing how quickly clutter accumulates on certain surfaces (e.g. the coffee table, the kitchen island, etc.). Hopefully we’ll be able to keep it relatively clutter-free so that the cleaning process for the next guests goes a little quicker.
Our first guests of the spring were Chris’ sister Jenny and her family (husband Bob, and kids Anna, Jay, and Luke). For spring break, they are spending some time in D.C., flying to Florida for several days, and coming back to spend the night on Friday. They stopped by the house on Thursday evening for a tour and we went to dinner before they continued on to D.C.
While they were at the house, the kids were able to climb a few trees and play ball out in the yard to work off some energy (they were stuck in the car for over six hours). While Bob was throwing the football to Luke, his wedding ring flew off his hand. We all searched for awhile in the area but couldn’t find it anywhere. We promised to rent a metal detector to continue the search this weekend.
Fortunately, we were able to find the ring in the yard on Friday. We had rented the metal detector and started using it in the area the ball was being tossed around. While I was using the detector, Chris went down the hill to pick up some tennis balls in the yard that Tucker likes to play with. When he reached down, he noticed the ring…so much for the metal detector!
Since we’ll have all five of them needing a bed, we had some work to do over the weekend (work that we’ve been delaying up to now). We have nice rooms set up for four people in the main level but needed to get the twin bed set up in the upstairs bedroom. The upstairs has been used as our tool crib and general storage area for awhile. It was hard to walk up there let alone find a place to climb into the bed. We decided that Anna (and subsequent guests) deserved a room that did not pose a major safety hazard so we got to work fixing it up.
On Saturday morning, we moved all of the tools and random storage items down to the basement (now hopefully nobody will need to walk down there!). The pictures below were taken after we had moved about three-quarters of the items downstairs (not as horrible as it used to be).
Once we removed everything, we finished applying the drywall compound to the ceiling (the ceiling was installed back in December 2009 and we’re just now getting close to finishing!). On Saturday evening, Chris stayed up late to prime and paint. On Sunday, after church, we continued with the detail painting in the room (I’ll put up more pictures next week).
Our friends, Cat and Joe, wanted to take me out for my birthday so we ended up at the Cheesecake Factory for a late lunch. It was great spending time with them – we’ve been out of touch since we bought the house. I had to work second shift that night so after lunch I headed to work and Chris continued to work on the house. From what I can tell, he was a very busy boy!
If you remember, we hired some guys to remove the yard debris (mulch, vines, branches, leaves, etc.) a couple weeks ago. They were finally able to finish up this weekend. It took them 7 very full trailer loads to get all the debris removed. It would have taken us the equivalent of 84 truck loads (give or take a few) to remove it all ourselves – definitely worth the money! We still have a ton of work to do in the yard to make it nice but the debris removal was the first big step.
I know that was way more pictures of debris than you ever wanted to see but I didn’t want to short-change the work that the guys did. Of course there were other piles in the yard and some of the piles grew substantially throughout the last three weeks but they took it all without complaint!
The rest of this week we plan on finishing up the work in the bedroom upstairs to make it a decent place to sleep!
The yard and garden look terrific! I can't wait to see how the upstairs turns out.
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