Weary watcher...

Progress is slow whenever you ask me to help with measuring.  Please, do not ask me to help with measuring.

Hopefully, tomorrow, Firewood Man will finish his mowing routes early enough to put up the railing. The cool part about the deck is that the three front posts are just about aligned with the posts of the back porch and the flooring is approximately the same size as the back porch.  So, when Tim wraps the front and sides of the lower part of the deck with lattice, it will all be rather seamless from ground to the top of the airing porch.

He plans to start ripping out the old lattice on Monday.
I'm trying to not have an anxiety attack over the thought of it.

I'm already freaked out about the alien that was in the deck boards.  Tim said it is actually a cat.  But I  know better.

I couldn't wait.  I just couldn't.  So, today, I slipped the end pieces over the 2x4s to see what the firewood rack will look like. I have not yet screwed it together, because Tim is going to get pads to stick on the metal to keep it from scratching the porch floor.  I do believe that the stained and sealed wood looks rather good.  It is not quite the same as the porch, but it compliments it well ... in my opinion.

This is one of the photos of the basement after I moved in.  The new water heater is now tucked away in the far left corner, so it is hard to get a comparison photo.  However, I thought I would record here a photo of the completed Repair-The-Utility-Closet-Door-To-Apease-Myrtle mini-project that would show the stairs as well.

I love the header. I loved that the door opens and closes. I love that there is a brass plate so that the door knob catches in the door frame and remains closed.  And I LOVE that my Interior Designer mother suggested I paint the door the same color as the stairs, which happens to match the carpet in the basement living space, so that there are accents of GREEN on the utility side of the basement.

I'm not kidding: I wept over the door finally being functional!!

Because I am infernally exhausted, I very, very, very carefully painted the first coat on the back of the door.  I am NOT going to paint inside the utility closet.  It is ... a tad dingy ... but serviceable.  So, I decided that one coat of primer and one coat of paint was enough for the back of the door.

Baby steps.
Hopefully, the next homeowner will not resent my lack of proper painting.

I was able to do a newsletter again this month, but not an article.  I think I will need to do two years of newsletters with a few articles sprinkled in here and there to re-pay retirement for these two large home maintenance issues.  That is discouraging ... especially since both them are not much more than a month's supply of erythromycin each.  SIGH.

I could give up digesting food for two months....

The strangest part about the past two days is that sitting around and doing nothing whilst the other person works—yes, I did put some screws in just to say that I did—is almost as exhausting as doing the work yourself.  Normally, I nap twice a day now, and someone doing work for you makes naps near impossible ... the guilt of not contributing.  Well, impossible if your name is Myrtle.

I have noticed that Firewood Man seems addicted to Mountain Dew.  In all the times he has been here, he has politely declined any and all offers for food, drink, and assistance with his business administrative tasks.  For a Southerner, having absolutely no means to practice hospitality is maddening.  Tomorrow, I plan to sleep the day away.  Maybe all the way until Monday, except for when the railing is going up and the NASCAR race and the football games.  But sometime before Tim starts the lattice replacement, I want to fetch a 12-pack of Mountain Dew to have on hand.  Personally, I find the stuff absolutely wretched.  So, he will most likely (reluctantly) accept frequent offers of a cold Mountain Dew lest it be wasted.

Southern women can be sneaky when they need be.

Amos.  Poor, poor, poor Amos.  He's had little lap time.  Firewood Man bought a replacement latch for the screen door on the airing porch and installed it.  He then switched the bottom screen section with the top glass section, so that Amos could peer out at us whilst we worked (whilst I sat and watched) without frenetically ripping his way through the screen.  I find his nose prints adorable.  Perhaps I should have taken a photo.

[Can one have too many Amos photos on her blog??]

The drying herbs?  I'm still rather doubtful of my success.  How does one know exactly when the herbs are dry?  Are they supposed to look so wilted??  I am am reluctant to post a photo of their current state.

I did find it within myself to give away two of my rosemary butter cubes, something I'm not ever planning on doing again.  Both recipients were in raptures.  The effusive adulation coming my way made me long for a loaf of crusty bread.

Only 12 more days until my next budget cycle!