Spring Is Starting to Spring

We arrived at our place Friday afternoon to a stunning display of purplish leaves on our tree out front.  We found quite a few trees starting to bring in new colors throughout the neighborhood and town.

Beautiful bloom on our tree in the front yard

We brought with us a new counter-top convection oven to give ourselves more cooking options than the microwave and a bullet-like mixer.  Both were quite a deal at Kohls.  We spent the late afternoon rearranging the kitchen and getting the house out of its winterized condition.  Since the days are getting longer, we had time to take a neighborhood walk while there was still light.

Our kitchen keeps growing with more stuff

Will soon need more counter space

We are determined to hang drywall on the exterior walls of at least one room every weekend we come up.  This weekend we did the guest (Matt's) bedroom.  Mike spent some time in the morning removing the rest of the paneling in the small hallway so we could pass the long sheets of drywall through the wall studs in the den.  He also removed other pieces of paneling that remained around the doors in the hall and bedroom.  Since we have been using the guest bedroom to store all our tools, Mike had to clear them all out to give us room to work.  He then spent some extra time removing dried spray foam insulation from around the windows.

Removing paneling around door

Multi-tool has been a great asset

Opening through den to guest room

While Mike was working, I wanted to visit the local paint store to look at a product I had seen there last year that might work for a remodel we are planning for our pool deck in the valley.  I also stopped at the grocery store and snuck into a thrift shop (unbeknownst to Mike) while I was out.

When I got home, we started the drywalling.  This was our first attempt to hang drywall without Matt.  We were concerned about moving the sheets, but did not really have many issues.  It was fun taking the sheets through the wall as I could walk right through carrying the sheet (my diet is actually paying off), but Mike had to set it down and walk around.  He could fit through the stud openings, but not with the drywall.  We didn't plan well for the first sheet we moved and ended up taking it in backwards.  Since the sheets are the full length of the room, we could not turn it around and had to bring it all the way back out and do it again.  More thought went into the other three sheets, but we still got it wrong on the third sheet.  It only took about five hours, but we did complete the two exterior walls in that room.

A picture to prove I am working

Done for the day and my thrift store coveralls

We had a leisurely morning on Sunday and then started some yardwork.  Mike continued his spraying of all the weeds and I watered bushes/trees and pulled up an awful looking vine that had fallen off one of our brick walls.  Before going home, we went on a 2 hour hike just west of our house.  There is a north part of the trail and a south part, but the two do not yet meet.  We wanted to see if we could find a connection to get from one to the other and we did (mostly due to someone thoughtfully placing yellow ribbons on trees) - down the side of a hill, through brush and some cactus and we were on the south trail at last.  This took us back to some town roads which looped back up to our place.  We think we hiked about 6 miles, though next time we will remember our camera and GPS.

It is possible that the temperatures will still get to freezing at night before we make it back, so we winterized the place again (hopefully the last time for awhile) and took off for home.

Stats:  0 Home Depot trips; 0 Walmart trips (Wow that's a first!!)
Remodeling expense 3/7-3/20: $0
Remodeling expense to date: $26,174