Our house is done

At least the paint job is done.  Really, is a house ever completely done?

My dear hubby spent the summer, on his time schedule, scraping, priming specific areas, and cleaning the entire house.  He then painted the main floor, by hand - no sprayer for him, and two coats.  He also did all the trim in two coats too.  We did hire a guy to paint the top level.  I think that was money well spent since I didn't have to worry about the height and my honey's safety.  Let a pro handle that. 

Here's our two toned home we had for awhile before the painter came.

Now that the painter finished the job it looks so much better; and I'm sure the neighbors appreciate a completed house too.

On to the next project.

Now you see it...

Doesn't that look like a nice pine tree? (It's a White Pine, I'm told.)  It's a perfect size to block the view into the neighbors yard.  And to block their view into ours.  It doesn't drop too many needles either.  Look closely.  I have a worker in the picture.  Because......

The tree leans.  It's always leaned at the base and then grew straight at the top.  We didn't worry about it until two weeks ago.  We live in an area of town that is like a wind tunnel.  It can be windy everywhere, but when you get to our area, the winds increase and blows so much harder.  And this poor tree grew valiantly against the wind for about 20 years.  But as I said, about 2 weeks ago we had some huge gusts, 60 mph'ers.  The poor girl withstood the pounding.  Then a week ago we had close to 50 mph winds and I went to check on it.  The trunk near the ground was swaying.  I don't know much about trees, but I'm thinking if you can see the base of the trunk sway, that's probably not a good thing.  If she was going to drop it was going to be in the neighbor's yard, possibly clipping their roof and most definitely taking out that fence.  We decided we didn't want to risk it.  So after a few phone calls, we decided on a local tree cutting company and today they showed up.  It was like watching a dance; so precise.

The climber clipped on his spikes and had a rope around his waste and climbed a bit, cut the limbs he could reach, moved the rope up, climbed/spiked up, cinched the rope, cut more limbs, repeat.

Such precision in cutting the back branches.  He would make a partial cut, bend the limb back into our yard, then cut off completely.  There were two other guys on the ground pulling the limbs to the front of the house and running them through the shredder.

Off came the top.  I will tell you, I was saying a few prayers as I watched the guy climb up.  Prayed for his safety and that the tree wouldn't topple over.  They estimated it was a good 40 feet tall. As he descended, he cut through that trunk in 3 foot sections.

They came, cut and cleaned in about an hour.  It was actually quite impressive.  Now we no longer have privacy and plan to plant another tree(s) next spring.  Until then, we are exposed.

Now you see it.....

Now you don't.

I was talking with the owner of the company as this was happening and he said they shred the limbs and keep the trunk.  (We don't burn wood, so we didn't need it.)  All his guys have wood burning fireplaces so they take what they need.  The owner also gives some of the wood away to charity and also sells to low income families for less than half the cost of what is normally charged for wood.  That made me feel even better about choosing this company.


Have any of you had any drastic changes to your homes recently or plan any modifications before winter?

A really nice day

Or a really nice weekend.

Last night my daughter was hanging out with her friends so my hubby and I went out to dinner.  It is so nice not having to worry about how the kids are going to eat.  I've decided a while ago that come Fridays I am not cooking.  I'll put in a take-n-bake pizza, but that's the extent of my Friday cooking.  We enjoyed an enjoyable night out - good food and drink and wonderful company.

Today we decided to go to our college's football game.  I forgot that it was homecoming, and our graduating years were part of the homecoming festivities.  We got to the game at half time and walked to the alumni area. Within a few seconds, I hear my name called and see a couple of gals I haven't seen in years!  Oh how fun it was to see these gals.  We exchange Christmas cards but that's about all the communication I've had with them.  And how pathetic, one of them lives in town here with me.  I spent the entire time chatting with them.  My dear hubby went to watch a bit of the game.  I have the local gal's email and really hope to rekindle a friendship with her.

I can't believe it's been just over 25 years since I graduated from college.  Oh my. I'm getting old.  But, my friend is my age and has kids that are just starting school where mine are just finishing.  I like the just finishing school kids better.  Next year at this time I will be an empty nester; and I'm OK with that.  Actually, I'm kind of excited about that. 

Our plans for tomorrow are to get to church then go to the traveling Vietnam Memorial that is in our city.  I never really liked history, but I sure do want to see this memorial because I am extremely patriotic and very military supportive.  My Dad was Air Force so anything that has to do with the military defaults as near and dear to me. 

To top it all off, we have have great sunny weather.  So with it being only Saturday night, I'm still predicting this to be a great weekend. 

How has your weekend been panning out?