Progress Report

“The great thing about getting older is that you don’t lose all the other ages you’ve been.”  -Madeleine L’Engle

How true is that?  And it goes for houses, too.  I know, because I spent my day up close and personal with the trim in our kitchen, painting  over 110 years’ worth of paint, dings, puppy claw marks, shoe scuffs, nail holes, and various other indentations and marks from the lives lived between these walls.  A fresh coast of white paint (over the blue paint that was there - I did not paint over any wood trim…yet) gives the old a new look, but keeps the character intact.  Perfect! 

We’ve been a year in this house, in the this little city, and we’re a wee bit tired.  Sometimes I feel as though we’ve accomplished nothing, but then why so tired?  Ah, then I remember all of the little things that add up to make one year’s worth of work on an old house and I am justified in my exhaustion.  My happy exhaustion, mind you.  I'm going to go put my feet up in my ever-so-calming living room with a glass of wine, and leave you to peruse our list of accomplishments.  It seems we have gotten something done, after all.

• Refinished second story hardwood floors
• Installed high efficiency gas powered furnace
• Painted H’s room (patched walls, painted ceiling)
• Painted E’s room (patched walls, painted ceiling)
• Painted formal living room (removed ugly/not original chair rail, patched walls, painted ceiling)
• Repaired floor of third story bathroom, installed new vinyl flooring
• 1/2 painted third story bathroom (needs one more coat)
• Painted powder room (removed wallpaper and chair rail, patched walls, painted ceiling)
• Attempted to have ducts cleaned (shall we all have a laugh over this one?)  Then vacuumed them out ourselves and dislodged many years’' worth of accumulation from previous owners’ triplets’ duct.
• 1/2 painted kitchen walls, trim, and ceiling (we’re getting there, slowly but…slowly).
• Chopped down one of the apple trees.
• Moved five hydrangea bushes from the front landscaping to the backyard
• Removed wood plank landscaping border
• Installed new landscaping (perennials) and re-shaped the front garden beds. 
• Removed old screen door and installed a new screen/glass door at front door. 
• Had roof re-slated as needed and had all metal roof parts painted red…which will go with whatever color we paint the house in the future.
• Removed the awful, old television antennae.  Hooray!
• Installed new garage doors in a carriage style, more in-keeping with the age of the house.
• Re-stained the Rainbow System playground.  It seems lame to include this but it took an entire week of steady work.
• 1/2 painted the master bedroom and attached office
• Installed a new pool fence and pool cover (stretchy kind with an elephant in the ad)