Hi! Who’s still with us? I last updated on our progress almost exactly 4 months ago. And that update was several months in one blog post. I had talked about getting some outside projects done with the summer months. We had some successes and one medium to big sized failure. We were not able to get the front porch built due to costs and difficulty sources the proper materials. We’re now hoping that we can still do it next Spring/Summer.

Here’s what we managed in the past 4 months:

• sealing and caulking the backsplash (it’s working wonderfully!)
• various yard improvements (weeding, edible garden, lawn repairs due to a small re-grading project)
• built the yard light (including electrical and new-to-us masonry work)
• fixed a broken spigot and a window well cover (welcome to normal home repairs!)
• continued progress on Jim’s desk, but still not complete!
• painted the balcony ceiling
• covered the balcony beam
• bought and painted columns for balcony ‘improvements’
• installed decorative garage door handles
• built a stand for Mr B’s new guinea pigs (Peanut and Bruce are the newest family members and we’re now officially outnumbered by these pets of ours)

We also sold our van this summer so project work transportation has become very interesting. A big shout out to my bestie for letting us borrow her minivan and using it as a ‘work truck’ to get the columns we ordered for the balcony. We hope to install them this coming weekend and that will be a good test of whether this is a product we want on the front of our house. It’s a surprising challenge to find certain house products- columns this most recent time.

As is typical for us, I anticipate house projects to slow down as we get closer to the end of the year. I think we’re liking this new ‘tradition’ of taking December off of projects and focusing on family. We’ve also discussed a fun challenge of trying to pick projects that are “100 dollars, 100 hours”. Sometimes it can be fun to think outside the box and do something that may not cost very much but would take a larger time investment.