Here are some random (and I’m not kidding when I say random) photos from the few days it’s been since I blogged. (sorry, no fun stories this time)

David got a few things done around the house. He fixed the trash can. It’s one of those with a pedal, and the pedal hasn’t been lifting the lid. It’s been like this for a month or so, and I was STILL stepping on that pedal. He finally fixed it for me and it works like a dream. Yeah, coat hangers and electrical tape:

He also mowed. It was time:

We’re trying to teach Jake to fetch (consistently). He’s got the idea - we throw, he retrieves - but he gets tired of it after two throws. On the third, he settles down to chew whatever it is we’ve thrown:

We went to Elayne’s second wedding (to the same guy). They were married quickly and rather privately in March because his visa was expiring and he didn’t want to leave her to go back to Colombia. They had their [already planned] and big wedding this past weekend. Elayne and her dad:

On the way home, the clouds were crazy interesting:

And… the ongoing saga of the bathrooms. So, here’s what the paint looked like when we moved in (it’s HORRIBLE):

And here’s David mixing paint just before we painted the room a solid, non-barf-inducing color:

Dave at the window, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.

I’m visiting my parents in Waynesboro, and I’ve left my husband home alone for a week. Hopefully, David will spend some time in this particular location while I’m in PA. =)

(hint, hint, D!)

wet, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.

Our once lush and green backyard has turned into a muddy wasteland. Between the “huge” snowstorm’s snow (1 or 2 inches) and several days’ worth of freezing and regular rain, this is what I see when I look out over the backyard. It’s gonna be worse in a couple of days - it’s supposed to rain today AND tomorrow. Ugh. Our basement is starting to be wet.

disintegration, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.

Tonight, Dave started setting up to work on the bathroom - he poured some of the stripper into a styrofoam bowl. Within 30 seconds, this is what remained of the bowl. So… note to us. Paper is the way to go.

wood, originally uploaded by tara.aukerman.

We’ve got a lot of work to do in our house, so we try to chip away at it as best we can amidst our busy schedules. One of our biggest projects has been/is to redo the downstairs bathroom.

When we moved in, every piece of wood in the bathroom was painted a bright (ugly) gold color. In the rest of the house (with the exception of the kitchen and the upstairs bathroom) , the wood was already stripped and refinished. These old houses have such amazing wood that I can’t fathom why someone would EVER paint over it.

We have started the process of refinishing the wood in the bathroom. Tonight, after coming home from dinner at David’s folks’ house, we spend an hour stripping and scraping.

This is a picture of some of the amazing wood grain we’ve uncovered.

What a great weekend.  =)

• The Colts won (yeah, yeah - I know that was Thursday, but it was a good game and started my weekend off well)
• We cleaned the house.  The whole house.
• We rearranged furniture.  Throughout the entire house.
• We picked paint colors for the new closet and for the bathroom.
• I finally put our new towels and rugs in the bathroom (Mom, I’ll send pictures for Auntie soon).
• We had friends over for games and fun (we haven’t done that in ages because we’ve been away so much).
• We invited our “daughter” for dinner on Monday, and David’s parents for dinner on Thursday.  And they all accepted!
• I *finally* ordered prints from my 2007 pictures - Hawai’i trips, church things, camping trips, reunions, get-togethers, etc.
• I’ve got my music for this month’s Wind Symphony concert, AND my sax is back from the shop.
• I was relieved of a duty that was really dragging me down emotionally (no details, but it’s a HUGE weight lifted from my shoulders).

Dad and David are upstairs working on a small room/big closet we’ll be using for a library.  We inherited this project from the house’s previous owners - heretofore, this room has been closed-off and unused.  Now that my dad’s here, though, the boys are making this a liveable, useable space.  These guys started off with an unfloored, barely insulated, plastic-covered mess, and are slowly but surely turning it into a real room.  I’ll post more pictures as they get farther along in the process.

I stayed home and am working from the dining room table today.  David is playing DDR and the floor, the chair I’m sitting in, the table, my computer - all are vibrating in rhythm with the songs David’s jumping around to.  =) 

In other news, we’ve joined Angie’s List and are busy getting electricians to come give us estimates.  We’ve got a long list of things we’d like to have done, but it turns out that electricians are pretty dang expensive.  We’ve narrowed the list down to three must-haves, but are still going to get estimates on the rest. 

The neat thing about Angie’s List (angieslist.com, if you don’t know about it) is that we can not only review what folks think about various contractors and the work they do (members leave reports on all the work they get done and all the companies they’ve dealt with), but we also get discounts when they do come to do the work.  And, turns out, if we mention that we saw them on Angie’s List, they’re really responsive.  Quick to do estimates, quick to schedule work.  It’s as if they’re teachers who are being observed by their principals - they’re on their best behavior because they know they’re going to be reviewed and critiqued, and that the report will be available for all the city to see. 

I feel…  powerful.  =)

One of the things that we planned on working on this summer is the deck. It has taken on a greenish-gray tint, and needs a good washing, staining, and sealing.

Also, it is very slippery when it’s wet. This morning, it was raining.

I stepped outside wearing my favorite khakis - and promptly fell. I landed (somehow) on my butt AND my big toe.

The khakis have huge green marks on the shin and backside (which, David reports, came out in the immediate wash!) and my big toe is bigger and bloody. It hurts!

I am so excited!  This is the summer of home improvements - in our first home.

We moved into our house in October, so it was too late in the year to do any gardening, and too cold to do any real improvements to the inside (most of the inside work involves stripping wood or painting) or outside of the house.  But now it’s spring.

David has started going through a [rather long] handyman list.  He’s got some sort of schedule for the summer and has started going through it this week by:

• Installing screen doors onto our deck from the dining room
• Replacing the light fixture above the sink
• Hanging MANY picture frames
• Getting someone to build steps from our deck down to our yard (we had a small set at the corner, but now we have a deck wide set across the entire front)

I’ve been working, but I try to jump in and contribute, too.  I’ve started a couple of things that will take a while to complete:

• Stripping the wood in the bathroom (painted a hideous dark yellow - over GORGEOUS wood)
• Brushing rust from a second-hand wrought iron table/chair set

Also, we’re spending a lot of time outside - which makes me insanely happy.  I love the spring and summer!  We’ve had people over for cookouts, we’ve done some gardening (David doing the heavy duty weed digging and tree chopping, me doing the weeding and planting), and we bought shampoo for the dog.  David says it’s silly to spend money to have someone else wash our dog.  =)  After having done it once myself, I’m not so sure he’s right.  I did enjoy the experience, even if Jake HATED it.  It was funny - very funny - but I ended up SOAKED, and smelled like dog shampoo for a long time.

Anyway, the reason I’m not posting much is that I’m enjoying outside.  I spend all day in front of a computer - it’s good to get outside while the weather’s great.  =)