Home Improvement

...but no pictorial proof. (It's in the camera, though, really it is!)

The upstairs bathroom is done, curtains and all, and we have landscaped the front garden.

Last year's back-breaking clearing was worth every minute, even in the pouring rain. After that nothing seemed difficult. It took us two days to do the basics. Now, around a small rectangular lawn bordered by limestone we have forsythia, holly, peonies, marigolds, alyssum, bleeding hearts and clematis. The rose bushes are doing well, though it's unlikely they'll bloom this year, and I've planted seeds for pinks, zinnias, poppies, and two kinds of summer bulbs.

I also dug up the square in the sidewalk in front of the next-door abandoned lot and put in more bulbs, surrounding them with stones and blue annuals (don't remember what they're called, but they look very festive there).

Our neighbors across the street are thrilled. Yesterday, one of them compared us favorably with the original owner, a town councilman, and his wife. We felt really good about that. This house was waiting for us to rescue it, and we're well on the way.

Now we just need to paint indoors and finish the guest room. For the outside, (barring the awful, still-paved back yard), DH needs to finish the columns and paint them. I need to scrape and paint the front door, and we'll probably remove the screen door. Also, I'll be spraying the shutters we found last year (dark green, same color for the door) and we'll hang those.

I'd also like to get some stone planters for the front steps, and the steps themselves need some repair. The awful poured concrete next to them...we're not sure when we'll be able to get to that. But we will, I hope, in the next couple of years.