Catsup... aka Catch-up!

Sorry for the delay in posting!! I'll try to catch you up in pictures of our adventures from the last few weeks. :)
This project is done now! What a huge improvement! Next on my list is to repaint that ceiling fan, and we'll put it in one of the guest bedrooms. We plan on moving the fan location to the peak instead of having it sit 12 inches off center... that drives me crazy! You might notice the window in this picture isn't centered either. It's off about 2 feet from the true center of the room, but there's not much we can do about that, short of tearing into the wall!!
Cans in...
Lights and finish work done!
Our hostas are blooming!! They are quite pretty - this last week of dry heat has wilted them a bit, but we enjoyed their color just outside our front door for the better part of two weeks.
Well hello... welcome to 1486. I'd like to get the letters that spell out your address to put above the door... like these. Someday. :-)
My favorite! The bumblebees love these blooms - they barely fit inside!
Dozer's first experience outside in over a year... he immediately started eating his greens!! I guess we should have been feeding him salad all this time!
Another project! Our backyard was pretty close to being designated as a forest, so Peter's been cutting down all the scraggly trees. We still have over twenty back there, but they are mostly around the perimeter, plus some of the larger ones in the middle are left. Now we actually get sunlight in the back windows & the deck sees a bit of it too!
Just the start of a woodpile!
This door will hopefully be gone before too long!! The edges will be squared off and we plan on putting a rock fascia on the face of the garage - instead of siding. The rock will be similar to what was on our place in Oregon. We're attempting to make this colonial style house look more craftsman style! The rest of the house siding will be replaced with hardi-plank concrete board... color to be determined still! Oh, and we're hoping for a red metal roof! :-) I'm so excited for all of this!!
Upon unpacking boxes the other night, I came across this VERY exciting discovery!!! When we moved from Oregon, we marked a number of our boxes with red dots, to remind us that what was in them probably wouldn't be needed for the interim period that we were in an apartment... I hadn't seen these dishes for over a year!! It was like Christmas in June! I might just pack some other things up and store them til' next June to do it all over! :-)
Coffee mugs!! With cream? Honey? Tea? Come'on over!
We were brainstorming the other night and came up with a pseudo-plan for the front of the house. I'm really not a shutter-type of girl. But the house would look so stark with out them, so... we're thinking about putting a porch along the front. Big sturdy pillars that have a base made out of the same rock that will be on the garage front. Then we'll trim out the windows and garage door with some sort of dark stained wood... Like this window/garage trim maybe? Just ideas for now, but it's fun to dream anyway!
The big D again... he's found his new love - CRICKETS! They are plentiful around here, so I'm not complaining! It's amazing how he disects them tho... we find two perfectly intact pairs of legs over by his food bowl on a regular basis. Somehow he eats everything but the legs!
New exterior faucet. The old one was plugged, way back at the valve in the basement, so Peter replaced it.
The plumbing for the aforementioned project was a bit of an experience, but it's done now! Eventually Peter plans on replacing all of the plumbing in the house. Back in the 80's they used a material called PB (Polybutylene) piping (the grey stuff below), which these days isn't used or produced because it's SO horrible! They say there are two types of PB piping - the kind that leaks, and the kind that will leak. Great! Well, ours has already had one catasrophe (thankfully before we owned the house). The pipes burst and flooded all of the main floor. Anyhow, hopefully we don't experience that again before it is replaced!
And dinner tonight! Quiche is such a great meal when you need something quick, but healthy. I mixed this up and we were eating in less than an hour... yummm!
Washed the cars tonight. Simple little things like that I'm appreciating so much now that we have a house! We certainly couldn't do that at the apartment!
In other news, we booked a trip to Aruba this week! We'll be hangin' out in the sun from Sept. 3rd-8th! Can't wait!!! Then Dellas and Jill's weddin' is right after that, so we'll be in Boise the 16th-21st! I'm SOOOO excited to see my family again - it's been WAAAY too long!!