They Did Their Time

When my grandma moved out of her house and into an apartment Jeremy and I acquired her recliners.  Pink for her and blue for Grandpa.  They aren't the only recliners I remember in their house but I'm going to place them as new in the mid 90s.  Fast forward to 2025, a good 30 years later...they have finally been retired.  We bought new ones over Memorial Day because they were a door buster!

I didn't even have to carry them in.  :) 

We bought three because there are six of us in this house.

And until Jeremy makes it to the dump the old ones are in the yard.

Still useful after all these years.  ;)

However I do think yard recliners are the epitome of hick life.

To be fair, Nicholas sits in them outside almost every day too.

And Just Like That

 There's two less to feed and house and do laundry for and generally keep track of.

Philip will be moving downstairs one of these days.  Then Thomas will bunk in upstairs with Nicholas when he is home and Sam will bunk in with Philip when he's here.

Mums!

I always want peonies in the spring and mums in the fall so this year I planted some!

I put last year's school fundraiser mum on the southwest corner of our house and it loved it there!

I bought two tiny little mums and planted them in the same hole on the southeast corner of the house.  They were pretty happy there but I think they got more shade because the whole thing never quite bloomed plus it got cold before it bloomed all the way and a few blossoms withered even though I covered them.

They make me happy.
 

Back in Their Room!

The little boys' room is finished!  There's an earlier post about everything we did.  Jeremy and I went on a small shopping spree at At Home and found this nice rug and great set of drawers for them.  The Legos are separated by color in all those drawers.  It's great!

 

Summer Project

It was time to take the plaster out of the little boys' room!  You can see the duct tape in the before picture and that wasn't even all of it!  We moved the boys down into the family room around Easter and started the process of knocking out the plaster and putting up drywall.

Jeremy also moved the closet door over a few feet.  The closet was long and skinny and reaching the back was hard, plus that's the closet the heating and air conditioning unit is in.  With the door moved over, the heat/ac is on one side and the clothes can go on the other.

They ended up choosing blue and grey paint, which is the same colors as before but these are definitely different shades.  The room is move in ready buuuut...we're going to put Julia in there and paint her room and then Jeremy and I will go in there while we paint our room but we're hopeful we'll get Nick and Philip back in there before Labor Day. Maybe.
 

In the Yard

My Irises were really pretty this year!  I have a lot of different colors because I had a conglomeration of bulbs that I'd gotten from different people when I planted them.  It's fun because the different colors bloomed at slightly different times so I've had almost of month of irises!  There was only one white one and one dark purple but lots of the two toned light purple, the peach/purple and the medium purples and a few of the white/peach mix.

Every spring I wish my peonies hadn't gotten destroyed when we moved the house so Happy Birthday to me I bought some!  This one, which has a special name, is supposed to be two toned pink and white- assuming I can keep it alive.

The two in the back on this corner are peonies too.  They are just regular ones, one will be bright pink and one is white.  In the front I planted two mums because every fall I wish I had mums.  Originally I was going to plant the big peonie there but Jeremy thought they'd be too close together and this way I'll have flowers here in two different seasons.

The garden is planted and doing well...so far.  It always looks pretty good a couple weeks in.  Next month is the real test.

Mary's flowers are looking pretty nice.

And the Mamba mum from the St. Wenceslaus mum sale came up!  I planed the root ball last fall after it was done flowering and watered it a few times.  This spring I assumed it was dead and didn't water it at all but then I looked closer and under all the dead branches I never cut out last fall- there was green!!

I'm feeling like a fairly accomplished gardener!

Next project on the list...

Drywall in the little boys' room!

Before:

Found this gem

And this one

And this remnant of what was here when we moved in

Good thing all that wall paper was holding the plaster together....

In progress:

 Jeremy's made some progress since these pictures.  The ceiling drywall is up so it's moving along!

House Date

Jeremy and I went on a date to look for some more furnishings for the basement.  We got these two ottomans (both open for storage) and two end tables.  Now there's a couple nice places to sit, but definetly not enough forthe whole family yet.

We also refreshed the kitchen rugs 

and weekly calendar while we were at At Home!

Things are looking good!

Make Your House Fair

...as you are able, trim the hearth and set the table.  (Name that tune- People Look East)

We got a new tree and put it downstairs this year!  I miss seeing it in the living room everyday but it sure is less crowded!  We had a nice time decorating it and even found a Sunday evening when everyone was home to do it!

We put up a few outside lights this year too.

I did say a few!

Face Lift

 After a hail storm um, at least two years ago we got the okay from our insurance company that they would cover new siding.  We decided to put in new windows on the main level (upstairs was done years ago) and a new kitchen door too.  After quite a few weeks of work (the guy who did it says our house was his hardest ever due to all the nooks and crannies) it's finished!!

I'm running out of time I'll have to look for a before picture later....

During:

After:

Now for more inside work.

Coming Along

The new windows are in and the new siding is in boxes in the driveway.  Jeremy and the kids took the old siding off to save some money and speed up the process a little.  The house will still be grey and white.  They grey will be a little darker though and the white will be gingerbread scallops.

Around the House

We got new windows on the ground level.  Siding is next.

We also bought two love seats for down stairs

 And due to Samuel and my desire to drive home from vacation without stopping for the night, Jeremy got this ginormous TV with the money we saved by not staying at a hotel.

Why yes, we have spent A LOT of money this summer...

Looking Good

Jeremy put in the floor in the basement a couple weekends ago!

Last week Jeremy spied a pop up rug sale he thought I should go to.  I recruited Becca to come with me since the whole thing seemed slightly sketchy and I don't make big purchases well by myself.  I scored this rug pretty cheap as far as rugs go.  It's a Costco reject.  There's two poop brown threads sewn into it.  I'll either cut them out or put them under the couch.

Fireplace and mantle, trim, bar, furniture and wall hangings left to go!