Lots Happening Now!

Wow, has our house been a busy place lately. It's been interesting coordinating all the contractors so no one trips over anyone else and things get done in the right order! I don't think I mentioned before we had electricity run out to the shed. Joe will put in the actual outlets, but we had a professional connect everything to the box. We also had him put plugs on the outside of the front of the house, so no more running an extension cord out the door for the Christmas lights!

The roofers came and went in a day (photos to follow). They worked for 13 hours straight. They did have to come back to finish up a couple of tiny things the next day, but 99% was done Monday. Boy, did we have a full dumpster when it was done - but not quite full when the workers left. We tossed in a few more things - like the old alcove doors and our old front storm door. We paid for it - might as well get full use of it. So the boring but essential roof is done.

I am down to only one tiny coat of paint on the closet doors to finish that job. I have to tell you I may just do a happy dance when I wash the paint pan for the last time (until I move on to the back hall...). The alcove doors look fabulous, although it's going to take a while to not do a double take now that they're white instead of pink-flowered wallpaper!

The patio installation started today. We've had so much rain in the last week that the ground is absolutely saturated. The roofers got the ONLY day without rain. I'm sure that's why they arrived at 7 and worked so hard - they watched the forecast and knew what was coming. The news last night said 4 of the last 9 days have had 1+ inches of rain. Most rivers in the state are headed for, if not already in, flood stage, highly unusual for June. And wildfires in so many places - if only we could average it out. So Mike came today and he, Joe and I laid out ropes to finalize the shape of the patio and walkway. He removed some sod we will reuse around the steppingstones, and then began the digging - sort of. While the dingo he uses is supposed to be safe on grass (and they told me it worked just fine last week), the grass is so soaked that the dingo treads started tearing up the grass in just two trips. So off they went to get plywood to protect the lawn. The guys had to hand dig the perimeter, as the dingo can't make that precise a border. After that, Mike started using the dingo again, but it just didn't work as well on our saturated clay as it usually would. When I left, they had gone down maybe 5" of the necessary 9. Mike had hoped to get the digging done and the fill in and compacted today. I wonder if he managed? I'll know soon enough! Our poor neighbor... She works nights and we forgot to tell her about this work today. The sod cutter, dingo and compactor are all noisy, and probably interfered with her sleep. We did tell her about the roofers, and somehow she slept through that, so she might have been just fine.

I hope to put in plants next week. I have them ready and waiting to go, but certainly didn't want to plant them until the patio was in - too much chance of getting stomped on. The pergola should be in next week. We're hoping for a Fourth of July finish for our improved back yard!