Hi folks, long time no blog eh?

There's been lots going on with me lately, most of which essentially revolves around me waiting for it to be Spring now pleeeaaaase! There is so much we want to accomplish this year, and so much waiting still before it all can be done.

The photo above is what our backyard basically looked like as of this week. As I type this, a crew of arborists are at Laurel, removing the remainder of our large trees and stumps in the back yard (I hope! Why don't I have a webcam installed, again!?!) to make room for our brand new fence! We removed everything we could handle, including the existing (ancient) chain link fence, which had grown into all of the trees along the perimeter of the yard (reason numero uno why they needed to be removed - not so structurally sound anymore). And actually, that part went pretty smoothly, I have to say. Sawzalls are SO FUN, you guys!

Hopefully tomorrow (more on that in a bit), our new modern, horizontal cedar fence will be installed (yay!) I can barely contain my excitement! Yes, MORE exclamation points!! Last I talked to the fence guy, there was an issue with getting the height variance we requested, so we may have to wait on an inspector to come out and re-address the issue, but I seriously hope not.

More on that when I've got pictures, promise. Other things on the list for spring / summer include:

• Rehang string lights near patio (directly on the new fence? install poles?)
• Plant two or more new trees (and lilac bushes along back?)
• Transplant ferns and rose bushes from mom's garden, compost and mulch gardens beds
• Strip paint from front porch concrete steps
• Repaint front porch railings (part two; part one completed last summer)
• Replace front porch sectional cushions
• Hang string lights in front porch
• Patch attic pine floors where needed
• Sand and seal attic pine floors
• Paint attic white (walls, trim, doors, windows, stair treads)!

So inspired by this Norwegian tumblr and particularly, these laid-back photos of their friends that I found there. It almost makes me want to go out and buy a nice digital (gasp!) camera! It would be nice to be able to shoot at a moments notice, instead of having to find and load film and figure out all of your settings... huh?

We'll see.

Hey all, are you feeling completely done with winter where you are? I definitely am. I started working on a few projects in 2015 that I just cant wait to complete once spring comes around, but until that time, I've just been vegging out, and not accomplishing much of anything. For that matter, I haven't done much of anything for awhile now.

I worry that I've hit that point in homeownership where all of those things you had dreams of changing, are all just that now, a dream. I feel complacent in our space, now that 90% of the aesthetic changes we wanted to make are done. They are all done "for-now" but not done "the-way-I-inevitably-want-them" you know? I would still love to totally-overhaul the upstairs bathroom someday, and restore the exterior of the house (that is a whole nother story, my friends), but a little refresh to all things in the meantime makes it feel just fine, you know what I mean?

Every single wall in our house now (except for the attic, but I'll get to that in a minute) has received new coats of paint, virtually all of the fixtures have been replaced, and every room has almost all of the furnishings we need for them purchased and installed: beds, tables, rugs, etc. It all just feels like we're waaaiting to upgrade at this point. Like: We have a rug that functions for now, but eventually we'd like to upgrade to this one...

Do you ever feel like that, home / apartment owners? How do I keep my vision alive and well in my brain, and stay motivated until such time that I have the time and money to take on these projects? I dont want to stall out now and remain like this forever, dreams-deferred.

But at the same time, I realize that I am so fortunate to have come this far, to have done as much as I have. I try to remind myself what it all looked like when we first moved in, and the leaps-and-bounds better everything has become (and not just aesthetically, but functionally too!).

In the meantime, as we continue to putter away these last few weeks of winter, I'll leave you with some photos of the house as it is today, and will remind myself to enjoy them! Hope you are all safe and warm and well, friends. And here's to spring!

I had so much fun hanging with our friends during the Holidays at our place this year. Of course we missed our friends on the coasts so much, but we had a surprise visitor in town from SF, so that was a huge treat for everyone. And the film photos I am known to take at parties turned out especially well, so I thought I would post them here for the record!

Shenanigans.