Basement and Yard

This past week, I focused on cleaning up the basement.  I painted the walls with DryLok - the same paint that Craig used for the pillars outside.  The paint is supposed to keep water from trickling through the masonry, but since big chips of mortar were falling off as I painted, I think it is mostly cosmetic, which was the intention all along.

I also cleaned the floors and painted over them with an grey epoxy floor paint.  The paint was very easy to work with and dried quickly.  Since I didn't sand down the existing floors, I suspect some of the original paint will chip up over time, exposing the concrete.  I plan on getting some cheap carpets to minimize the damage.

These pictures are as of this evening.  I'll be taking some of your things out of your room tomorrow and putting them in storage containers down here. Angus moves in on Saturday, and he evidently will be bringing a bunch of things as well. 

Marvin, my mom's landscape stopped by last weekend at my moms request to do some yard work.  I'm very impressed with the results.  I will post pictures shortly.  

Our First Weekend

I rented an aerator from Home Depot this Saturday. Mike let me use his SUV and came along to help with loading and unloading.  The aerator weighed about 100 pounds on its own, and had two 50 pound "weight bars" that slid in the front of the machine to keep it weighted down.  These pictures are not mine, but this is roughly the same model:

The spikes drop into the soil, rotate, and pull the machine along.  The spikes dig into the ground about 2 inches, and pull out plugs of dirt.  The plugs look like goose poop:

(This is our yard)

Craig entertained Sadie by standing with his legs set apart, and dropping the plugs behind his back so that it looked like he was pooping.  Sadie thought that was hilarious. 

I also spread a couple large bags of grass seed around the back yard.  I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but I'm going to keep it watered with our rainwater, and hopefully in a month or so we'll see some lawn improvement.  

In other project news,  I finally did something about our stove, so that we won't light our counter-top on fire anymore:

Professional Grade

An added benefit is that you can rest cookie sheets on the stove and have them hang over the counter top.   That will be useful the next time I make cookies.  

Cookies?

Clara and I went to Cylburn today for our daily walk.  Clara asked me to take this picture of her with the lions: