It’s been several months since I did an honest-to goodness Dream House update. I’ve talked a lot about little projects that we’ve started working on over the past 6 months (playroom, studio, mudroom, front porch garden containers, etc.), but I haven’t written a plain old update since we moved in. I’ve been very focused on getting things done, and have completely forgotten how fun it is to see works in progress, not just finished rooms. And we’re up to our eyeballs in half-finished projects, so here’s a peek at what we’ve been working on (little by little) this Spring…
The basement: Back in the beginning of March (over two months ago), I wrote that the basement was slowly but steadily being finished, and that my studio would be done very soon. Well, it turns out, not so much. The basement is still being worked on steadily, just much, much more slowly than I thought it would. That’s life in the construction world, I’ve learned. The good news is, all the taping is pretty much done, so I’m guessing texturing should be happening soon. We already have the cabinets, shelves, and hardware for my studio, and I’m chomping at the bit to get it move-in ready!
The garden: When it was still cold out and still appropriate weather for planting fruit trees, we put an orchard in! Cherry trees, apple trees, peach, pear, apricot, almond, olive, quince, and plum. We dragged the kids into the backyard one sunny Saturday, used long pieces of kitchen twine to measure and make sure everything was square, and marked tree locations with those colorful little flags that landscapers use to mark irrigation systems. A few days later, our landscaper came out, dug holes, and planted 30 trees. And just like that, we became orcharders (I’m sure that’s not a word). Everything is green and leafy now, which is presenting a bit of a problem in the form of hungry deer. The orchard/garden area is massive, but fencing it is a top priority. We hired a team to sink the upright posts for us, and are just waiting until the weekend to hang mesh field fencing to keep the deer out. Hopefully they won’t strip all of the trees in the next 2 days!
We also started terracing a spot for our vegetable garden. We tilled up a big rectangle of land, covered it in chicken manure (our neighbors probably love us!), put down rows of railroad ties, and back-filled them with top soil to create level planting beds. We’ve gotten two rows terraced, and one row planted with potatoes, onions, and garlic. We have plans for corn, tomatoes, zucchini, strawberries, cucumbers, radishes, and a million flowers. It’s going to be amazing…if we can get it done!
The mudroom: We’ve been talking about finishing the mudroom since we moved in. At first, we thought it was something we could put off since it isn’t a room that everyone sees all the time. But it’s one of the most-used rooms in the house and it gets a lot of traffic, so the sooner it can be finished, the better. The list of things we need to do to get the mudroom done is pretty short: install and paint a plank wall; mount two rows of hooks for jackets and backpacks; build a new cubby bench for shoes; and install a shelf at the top of the planks. Not an easy list, but not a terribly long list, and not one that’s that difficult to finish. We can do all of these things ourselves without hiring anyone or relying on help. And we actually crossed a major one off already by installing the plank wall after dinner a few nights ago. It took an hour and was ridiculously easy to do. I don’t know why we didn’t do it sooner. Now we just need to keep whatever momentum we have going so that we can finish crossing things off the list. Yay for Spring projects!
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