'Twas a good, productive weekend

It was simultaneously a wonderfully relaxing weekend and a very productive weekend. The weather for the most part was delightful, conducive to whatever type of work we felt like doing. And work we did. In response to our patience running thin on living with the chaos of the first floor during the first week of HVAC installation, not only did we get everything put back where it belonged, but we also did a super-mega cleaning: All floors washed, all furniture cleaned/polished, all furniture and other displaced items put back where they belong, kitchen and bathrooms seriously cleaned, several bags worth of stuff we no longer want/need pulled out to be donated, and do I detect a hint of minty freshness?? No, just murphy's oil soap, lemon oil, and orange furniture polish and cleanser, which is just as nice. I also finally got a shelf put up in the basement stair landing area for cleaning supplies, so that we can get them out of the downstairs bathroom.

We also were equally productive outdoors: The yard is mowed and trimmed, we cut back on a lot of the junk growing out there (our house is at risk of being overrun by privet), and we rescued a rose of sharon that had been totally engulfed by some fugly vine. Several freecyclers came by last week for the lily of the valley and ivy that needs to be gone from the front beds, and so I was able to get most of my plants put in. Damn that lily of the valley sends down a hellatious root system - cutting through it was like cutting through a 4-5" thick brillo pad. I still don't have a few plants in, plus I never got around to building the boypug-proofed raised bed for my herbs, but things are still looking very good. My veggie/homeless flower garden seems quite happy with the thick layer of chickenpoop-laced leaf mulch that I put on it Thursday, and the big rain that we got Saturday night.

We did a fair amount of planning as well. When will we tear up the carpet to uncover the dining room's wood floor? Only when we can get a kid-free weekend, because we'll need to do some major scrubbing and who knows what else once we see what's there. What's our next project? The downstairs bathroom, for which we now have a color picked out and plans for the cabinets and decor. Where are we going to put rain barrels? Ideally, one on the side of the house for the front garden beds, one within the fenced area of the back yard for the back part of the yard (though we need to put a gutter on that side of the garage to feed it), and one in the driveway area for my veggie garden (we'll need a gutter on the shed to feed that one). My attempt to find barrels locally have failed, so I may have to break down and pay $100+ each for them instead of making them myself.