Projects update

I haven't been posting as much as I'd like, but we have been pretty busy. Since my last post, we've been to Michigan once, had two baby showers, and we've both been trying to get as much done at work before the baby arrives.

As far as home improvement goes, most of my time has been spent with summer projects. I've mowed the lawn 5-10 times now, and have been enjoying the weedwacker I got for Christmas. It's a Craftsman one that's convertable to other tools. So far, I've bought the additional weed blower attachment, which I use to blow grass off of the sidewalk and driveway. I've noticed the landscaping professionals around the neighborhood using the weedwacker upsidedown to trim along the sidwalks and around flowerbeds. I've been doing that for our sidewalk and back patio. I joke with Jen that it looks like the Disney landscape teams came through to do the work. One thing I should really leave to the pros is ant killing. I was at the hardware store the other day and was looking to buy some outdoor ant killer. They make this stuff that you sprinkle or spray outside to build a border that'll keep the ants out. I ended up buying this bottle of pellets. Supposedly, the ants love it, and when they find it they take it back to the nest to share with the rest of the colony. The good news is that this stuff is effective on carpenter ants, unlike the last ant baits. I've been relying on that crappy stuff to kill the ants, and have actually been avoiding killing the ants so they can share poison with their friends, but I've basically just been giving them free roam of the house. Hopefully the new stuff works better. I still have to do some painting outside to wrap up the trim work that was done to fix our leak and original ant problem. Eventually, we want to put bricks around our flower beds and trees, but that will probably have to wait until next year.

We still have a few projects from this year going on. Painting the nursery is currently number one on the list, and we only have about one month to get it done. We're pretty close to picking the paint colors, so I have a few days to wrap up a few other projects. The baseboards is number two on the list. What about the floors you ask? Well they're done!

I finished those about this time last week. It was quite a relief. As you can see from the picture, I'm currently in the process of doing the baseboards. I want to finish those before baby Aquino because it's not the quietest of jobs. I can work on quiet things when the baby is napping. That includes painting (baseboards and touchup), drywall mudding (filling holes left by the electrician), and electrical (wrapping up the bathroom, installing tamper proof outlets, etc.). So, I'm holding off on those projects for now. Stay tuned to see if I can finish the loud ones in time. Let's hope the baby is on time or late!

We are still waiting on the pros for a few projects. The powder room is close, but is missing some plumbing, lights, a sheet of wall paper, some paint, and a shade. The mantel is currently under construction. We're still working on the order for the stair spindles (as you can see in the picture).