Clara

Overlea Clean Up

Spring

The yard is once again feeling like a useful part of the house.  I mowed the lawn today, and as promised, I took some pictures for you.  

First up is the new walkway.  It is still a work in progress, because the section past the fork going to the garage keeps flooding out when it rains.  I plan to add some more sand and get it slightly above the grass so it won't do that.  

I did the section going from the main path to the garage today.  Once I fix the main pathway, the two will be even. 

Here is the vegetable garden, newly expanded for the 2013 growing season.  So far, nothing has grown at all since I planted it last week.  Also, Clara runs through it as if it wasn't there.  So does Sadie.  I'm working on a fence. 

In the next few pictures you can see the apple and pear trees.  They are growing well.  

The purple plum is also growing pretty well.

Fire pit is the same. The next plan is for a porch/patio enlargement.  I want to have it wrap around the house in a L shape to connect the back and side yard. 

Cole and Angie's house is looking pretty nice. I took this picture from the top of the tree we half cut down. 

Here are the new Forsythias I planted.  They run nearly the whole length of the fence, except for the section where the wicker furniture sits (and that's only because I ran out of Forsythias).  They should grow to be pretty dense, and will be a privacy hedge from Cindy's house. 

Here are our Azaleas in bloom. 

Here's Clara. 

The mother's day garden. 

I had Clara come over to say hi:

Dance Floor and Neill's Room

As I explained, we have converted the dining room into our dancing room and bar (and office).  

For a more authentic dance floor experience, the carpet can be rolled under the desk:

I had plans to reduce the rent, but I took a poll of the roommates and they were in favor of keeping the rent at its existing level, and instead taking a share from each month's rental income and placing it into a fund for activities, or whatever else we elected to use that money for.  I had this idea last month when Angus was doing the Polar Bear Plunge.  I made a donation on behalf of the house, and thought it might be fun to do something like that every month. 

This past month's set-aside was less charitable.  We put it into our bar.  Specifically, we wanted to learn more about Scotch, so I purchased a selection of single malt scotch from all the major whisky producing areas of Scotland.  We broke the budget on this one, but we have the finest Scotch collection anyone could ask for.  

The other project was just completed tonight.  I painted Neill's bedroom, and rearranged his furniture.  I went with him to Home Depot yesterday so he could pick a color, and I finished painting it today.  It was a very time consuming job, since I had to use two coats of primer on all the molding and walls, and then paint the walls and the moldings again. 

I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  It's a very pleasant and cheery looking room now.