Unfinished Projects

The plumbing work is not really a project that makes for "good" photography....so I told David yesterday that my next blog would be on "Unfinished Projects". I mean, I'm certainly not going to crawl underneath this house to take photos of the work he's doing; and an unfinished shower just isn't very photogenic.

David in his plumbing suit! Niece Ava thought he was funny.

We have lots of unfinished projects around this place....David and I refer to ourselves as the King and Queen of Unfinished Projects. In the past, those unfinished projects usually were completed just before we put our house on the market. That won't happen this time, because despite the number of almost done tasks, we actually are working on something constantly.

There's a lot of reasons why we have several ongoing works in progress at any one time - mainly there's the question of which side of the page the job goes on....necessity or luxury. Take for example the gazebo that will eventually house the hot tub.........

That gazebo was started three years ago when we had the money to complete it or so we thought.....then Murphy got sick and there went some of the cash...followed by Indie getting bitten by a brown recluse and almost losing his foot before his second surgery finally got out all the dead tissue and then, oh I can't remember - a car needed fixing or something like that. The following year was the living room redo and the structural issues that turned that 6 week job into a four month one. Then last year it was the electrical work and the re-plumbing of the laundry room that caused that poor gazebo to get put on the back burner.

It won't get done this year either....the cost of gas and groceries, two adult children still needing some help from us, two cars needing emergency repairs, a trip to SC for a beloved father's surgery, a trip to Georgia for a beloved son's senior recital and well you get the picture!

It will eventually get done so I don't really sweat the lack of progress; the state of the hot tub cover has put this job on the necessary side of the page for next year. The wind and the rain around here have rotted that cover...it went through two hurricanes in 2004 remember? We have the new cover in one of the eaves.....so once we actually get the metal roof on we're set to go...(screening it will probably stay on the luxury side though for a year or two).

And then there's the front porch brick work....in every garden we work around here, we find old bricks...Some of the bricks are from the old chimney that was removed by our previous owners; some of them are from the old cobblestone road that used to run near here. The farmer Across The Street said that when the county put in the new road, they tore out the cobblestones and all the area farmers went and salvaged as many bricks as they could. Those bricks are being found around trees now in our yard, buried under years and years of dirt.

This is just a small portion of the bricks we have found so far. We piled the bricks by the well house until we built the firepit and now they are stcked beside the front steps. We have worked on the process of getting off the old mortar off and on for years now and as soon as there are enough for a project, the project is started. The fire pit gets lots of use around here...from burning dead pecan limbs (which fall constantly in the winds we get) and dinners of hot dogs and deserts (smores of course).

Then this past October, we began to work on extending the half circle brick work of the front porch steps....we decided to extend it for a couple of reasons...1) grass won't grow right off the porch because the area is bordered by two 100 year old pecan trees that shade it and steal the water. So, we're going to eventually take the half circle out to where the grass does grow and then narrow it down to a path to the little foot bridge across the ditch.

We've found evidence that there used to be a path leading to that ditch....each February and March a line of snowdrops come up in an arching line to the ditch...this year we trenched either side of the blooming bulbs so that we can follow that old pathway as we lay our bricks. But, as you can see from the unfinished state of the work, this project goes in the "luxury" column because it got put on the back burner when we began this springs "necessary" projects.

And our new old screen door.....it's got its latches and its spring to keep the wind from tearing it out of your hands....but it still needs a new paint color and a new screen in the top section....that's supposed to be done this week.

And that brings me to the fence we put up this spring.....one gate is up and has a latch....one gate is up but is still being tied with a piece of rope, and one gate is leaning against the place it will eventually be put up....that is supposed to this Thursday's project.....but we'll see. The boat may actually need to be put in the water for the first time this year :)....and since the dogs can't get out of the fence then those gates are technically, for the moment, actually a luxury aren't they? uhmmmmm

Hunter working on the fence this March - note the p.j.'s, ..he's his mother's son.

The first two will eventually look like this:

when they're finished that is!

Oh, I almost forgot....see the paving stones in the photo below? We're making them stone by stone...and eventually they will be laid the width of the house, with a path to the gazebo and hot tub....we chose to do a back patio this way because it looks "old". And I love the way the grass grows through the stones.......

2008 Spring Fling at our house - David was told by co-workers that we were having this party..it was great fun! That's our Murphy sharing the photo op with us...he's guarding me as usual. Photograph by johnbinkleyphotography@yahoo.com

Some of the unfinished projects can be blamed on money....but most of it is just that David and I have a bit of ADD....we jump from project to project as the mood takes us.....! That and three kids, parents, four dogs, two cats, a rabbit, nieces, nephews...........oh to heck with it.....life in general...but that's what makes life interesting!

Inside, there's always a project or two that just about completed......here's Hunter's room with its new paint job this month.......

That's Hunter's arm in the photo....he likes to jump into every shot taken...
he really is a shy kid..until you bring out the camera.

Its hard to get a photo of his whole bedroom at one time....

That's the bed we salvaged from the Masters House attic...Antique Restore is a wonderful product. And the next one is of Nikki's room........also done this month

P.S. .....note the mirror in the corner? That still has to be hung above her bed, sideways. And I won't mention the fact that I still haven't made it to the paint store to finish Hunter's ceiling and Dallas' bedroom walls and ceiling (you walk through D's to get to H's)...but this is a post about unfinished projects, isn't it?

Later!