"I'm not dead yet!....

...I think I'll go for a walk!" That's the story with this plant, if you recall from a previous post, we had cut down this diseased bush with the intention of figuring out a way to remove it's stump so we could plant something different there. However, the plant feels happy and has other ideas. It is bringing forth new life from the wreckage. Who am I to argue with mother nature? The new growth is healthy and non-diseased thus far.



The camellia stump has shown no such come back, which is good because I have plans for that spot, so that spot is still coming out. And when I get bids for some random things I'd like done in the yard, removing that stump will be one of the things.

The other thing (or shall I say person) that is not dead yet is, well, me. I'm exhausted! We are both feeling it, but mostly me ;). We have finished most of the prep: Sprayed, scraped and sanded the entire house; washed the whole house down and painted it with peel stop primer. Now we are doing the last of the prep. Sanding here and there, restoring rotten window trim, fixing the broken porch railing, removing fixtures...etc. before we start priming. We bought the paint and primer today. The paint store guy tinted our primer dark enough that we'll only have to do one coat of paint over it (hopefully). Here's a little picture of the front as of today. Note the color patch where I 'marked my territory', since another neighbor is painting and I didn't feel like doing the color waiting game again.

Numerous neighbors have come up to tell us how rad we are and how they've been watching us work our asses off and are very impressed. Everyone so far loves the color choice. I got into a long conversation with one neighbor about how ugly the house is during the prep phase and it led to a discussion of yards wherein I apologized for how hideous our yard is and explained that we'll be ripping it out and replacing it with a garden soon. The lady got all excited and actually high-fived me and said they were planning to do the same, which was kind of nice to hear.

Anyhoo - I suppose I should be doing stuff...so off I go!

Cheerio mateys, happy Labor Day!