One Failure and a Few Successes

This was a long weekend, and Douglas and I had big plans. It is rare that we get a full day to work on the house. Douglas normally has to work on Saturday, this one was no different, and I often having grading to finish on Sunday evenings. We also do not like to get out of bed early, so we often have only a few hours on Sunday afternoon in which to work. This week we had all day on Sunday. I guess it speaks to how crazy we are that we planned to work on the house on the gorgeous October day we had free. Or at least my insanity because I am fairly certain that Douglas would have found something better to do with his time. I just cannot seem to help myself.

Douglas had hoped to get these rotted boards replaced on the porch.

Is it normal to be able to pull wood apart with your hands?

Unfortunately, the rot went back further than we had anticipated. I am certain that we would be able to fix it, but it would take a lot more time and effort than we are able to extend this time of year. We are going to pay someone to do it for us. This will allow us to stay married, since arguments over this board have been detrimental to our union.

In the meantime, we have become those neighbors. You know, the ones that live on the block and repair the holes on their property with plastic and tape. Every neighborhood has to have one, so we stepped up.

While Douglas was “fixing up” the porch roof, I decided to tackle the porch itself which was looking like this. I am not sure why, but no matter how often we clean the porch, it always seems to collect junk.

The newest items in the collection are these crates. They have the word “Merlot” stamped on the side, so Douglas thought they were wine crates, which I love. He found them in the dark and carted them home for me. He is so sweet. Unfortunately, in the light of day these turned out to be grape crates which are the less well made cousins of the wine crates.

The grape crates came on the porch to join the collapsible tray table and wooden folding chair that Douglas also brought  home from the trash.

The worst part was that when I went to open up the shed to put some of these items in there, it looked like this. I swear that crap reproduces and multiplies on our premises. We are waging a never-ending war with junk around here. It would probably help if we could refrain from picking up trash and stopping at garage sales.

I set to work and now the shed looks like this.

As you can see, a few of the grape crates were repurposed to corral tools and other items. The rest went back to the curb for someone else to rescue.

The porch also looks much better.

Douglas raked and mowed the lawn. Ah, the little Cape of Dreams looks and feels so much better! Oh yeah, except for the plastic on the porch.

Happy Homemaking!