Praise the Lord! I saw the steps!

I was definitely not prepared for the whole dealing with house construction projects part of home ownership. We have successfully completed 3 major home projects this summer with others on the horizon for future years. This year's accomplishment: 1 painted upstairs closet, 1 new Water softener and a set of new front steps. It's awesome having soft water again. I thought I could handle not having it, but now that it's back, I know I'm spoiled and I'm never giving it up again!

The steps. Ugh. The steps. The best I can say right now is they are done and we don't have a gaping hole covered by a blue tarp in the front of our house. Now if the dudes would only come back and get their portable concrete mixer out of my driveway!!! If they aren't back in a week, I'm hiding it behind our house and Ken and I will have fun doing our own home renovation concrete projects. We still want to get the steps sealed and painted brown to match the trim, but I can wait for that as long as we're able to walk up to our front door again. I am a terribly impatient person, and I have decided that any house project that takes over 2 weeks (let alone a month) is 1 week too long.

As for the painted closet -- to anyone who thinks painting a closet is easy...you're wrong! Dang nab it! That was a lot of work. Pull everything out, sand down the rough walls where hanger-type things used to be (70 year old house has seen a lot a changes in terms of closet hanging fixtures), clean sanded closet, cover wood floors, paint walls coats 1 & 2, paint trim coats 1 & 2, touch up areas where painter got sloppy, clean up, rehang wall things, and put stuff away. I managed to accomplish this task for the upstairs hall closet (aka Marcy's sewing/cardmaking supplies closet) in about a week's time. When I began the project, I was all gung ho because there are at least 2, and maybe even 3 or 4, more closets that need painting something fierce. After finishing that one closet, forget it. Maybe Christmas break or next summer.

Still on the horizon: a new roof, new driveway, and new concrete around the pond in the back yard (hey...wouldn't a portable concrete mixer come in handy for that???). We are thinking roof next year and then we'll see about the others. Heck, we've got time, right? We've got time, and I'm tired of house projects (and tired of spending money on house projects).