Weekend in Review

I love long weekends. Especially ones that are sunny and not too warm. I go manic, which usually results in lots of projects. This one was no exception. Here's a recap of what we did this weekend:

Friday

• I worked from home today since it takes me 1.5 hours round trip to commute by bike. All of my work for Friday was on the computer so it worked out well. I finished around 3 and then cleaned our bedroom -- about 2 cats worth of hair that had accumulated under our bed from over the winter. Gross.
• Urethaning the porch screen doors -- Ken has always wanted wooden screen doors for our porches. When our front aluminum porch door busted (albeit two years ago), we pulled the trigger and ordered two unfinished douglas fir screen doors with storm panel inserts. I stained them last week and did the first coat of spar urethane this morning. I did the first coat on the other side around 5:30. Yes, I wore an organic vapor respirator.
  
• Laundry (the homemade laundry detergent works! I also started making my own dishwashing detergent, which also works! The latter was out of necessity since we ran out one day and we had a ton of dishes to do. A mix of two ingredients -- washing soda and borax in equal parts - and behold clean dishes and no trips to the store. We haven't purchased more store-bought since)
• Went to dinner with some friends at a new butcher shop/restaurant that opened tonight down the street. I bought 9 lbs of pork belly for making bacon/pancetta while we waited for a table. I like having a butcher shop nearby, although this one is a little expensive for everyday use.
  

Saturday

• Dirt piles moved. We planted potatoes and asparagus this spring - both of which require trenches. I dug both graves beds about a month ago, planted the veggies using fresh compost and had a lot of clay piled up on the side from where I dug. Earlier this week, I consolidated the two compost piles and incorporated the clay between layers in an effort to improve the soil for future use. It was a lot of moving but I finished the last of it this morning. Finishing moving the piles allowed room for me to lay down mulch....
  
• Yard of mulch installed. Ken picked up a yard of mulch at Mt Scott Fuel and I laid most of it while he worked on the doors. Before I laid the mulch in some areas...
• Moved plants into the new back bed. I scavenged our front shade bed for some "friends" to divide and move to the new (mostly empty) back bed. It now has a peony, two types of blueberries, swiss chard, beets, golden sage, a variegated lungwort, toad lilies, lady's mantle, two fuschias, daylilies, some grasses and a heuchera. I'm pretty proud of it. Once it was all down, I mulched the bed and watered well.
  
• Second coat of urethane on the porch doors. (Ken did this)
  
• Friend's barbecue at 4:30.

Sunday

• Ken began the long process of installing the porch doors. He started with the front door and installed new trim, hung the door, drilled and installed the latches, etc. It took most of the day but looks awesome.
• Meanwhile, I installed moulding in the basement to cover the areas where the drywall meets the floor. Ken and I shared the compound miter saw in the front yard. I was very proud of myself for mitering the corners, getting the cuts right and even using the angle scribe and jigsaw appropriately to cut around tough corners and notches. The floor moulding is now complete, meaning the office can now go down to the basement and we can start on the nursery.
• Window framing - While I had the saw out, I decided to fix the window that fell out in the snow this winter. I removed the 2x4 and packing tape holding everything in place, removed the glass and stripped it of paint/packing tape residue, cut some moulding for the inside frame and painted the window sill and frame to match the rest of the basement windows.
  
• At this point it was 7:30 and we were completely exhausted. We went for sushi and then went for bed. I miss eating fish and drinking beer.... especially after a long workday.

Monday

• So tired. My one cup of coffee a day just isn't cutting it. I am much slower today than yesterday. It took me a while to get started. I began by planting some more watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydew, pumpkins and delicata squash in our two back beds. I figure since I'm gettting bigger everyday, I won't be able to weed easily for too much longer and planting some large-leaf vining veggies that take over the garden will help out with that. Ken won't have much trouble harvesting the giant fruits and I'm hoping they'll keep the weeds down as they cover most of our garden. Plus, the pumpkins and winter squash can be harvested and kept for a while (meaning I won't have to do much processing when I'm 8 months pregnant).
  
• Installed the window moulding. The basement window moulding that I painted yesterday is now up. I am excited.
• Painting the garden windows - I love windows with the old wavy glass. Last year, I found some wooden windows on the side of the road with the old glass. I loaded them into the car and put them in the garage until I figured out a use for them. I decided to hang them on the fence around the garden as a way to bounce some light around. I painted them a dark bluish purple that we had leftover from our house's previous owners (to the groans of Ken -- "purple???"). Did 2 coats on each side. I have touch ups left to do and then they're ready to hang. Ken says he'll wait to make judgment on the color until he sees them in place.
  
• Glazing the basement windows -- now that the windows are clean, I stripped the frames of putty (not much) and re-inserted the glass using glazing points, putty and mineral spirits (yes, I wore gloves). Now both basement windows have properly glazed windows that can't be removed with a piece of tape. It will take 7-14 days for the putty to cure.
• Fixed the umbrella -- one of the support pieces snapped in the wind about 2 years ago. I promised myself I'd fix it but never got to it last year. So I got some mending plates and wood glue and went to work. After Ken heard cursing, he came to help me with the second half of it. Sadly, the drill was getting too heavy for me to hold by the end of the day. He finished installing the last of the screws and attached the clamps while it dries overnight.
  
• Grilled out and I was in bed before dark. I tried my hardest to make it until dark, but it was pointless. I went to bed at 9:08. Staying up those last 8 minutes was hard.
  

Tuesday

• I am happily back at work. I don't think I have the energy for another long weekend like that. But I'm very happy for what we accomplished.
• Tonight Ken is removing the porch screen doors so I can paint the new trim to match the rest of the house. (I found a quart of matching paint in the seconds department of Rodda Paint for $1! I was excited).
• Ken is subbing for a friend's softball team
  
• In addition to the porch trim, I also plan to finish touch ups on the garden windows, put up the umbrella and paint the mending plates black to match the rest of the umbrella wood.