Crunch time

I stayed in the city this weekend scrambling to finish up some work so I could bill it. As predicted, I'm starting to run on fumes and I promised myself and the church that I wouldn't stop until I had a finished deck. Which is what is going on up there now. Backhoes, augers, drilling, concrete, all of it. Tearing up my little postage stamp of land. So I'm really kind of relieved that I'm not there to see it.

Last weekend, I did whatever chores I could do. I stained the front porch and not even four hours later it was raining! The rain beaded up on the wood so I guess the stain did its job.

David glued the antique victorian front porch rail and made it nice and sturdy... it was super rickety and fragile. I'll paint it white and it will go across the front porch.

David also replaced the siding from when we removed a small window in the dining room. After our customary Saturday meeting, I asked him to put a ladder out there for me. I scraped some of the old stuff, painted the new stuff and was really happy I didn't fall off the ladder. Winning!

I also took Monday off from work and thought I'd take the mayor up on his offer so I stopped into his office at the bottom of my street to introduce myself. He was super nice and made sure that I wouldn't miss Coxsackie's Riverside Festival, so I know where I'll be on August 13th. 2 buck admission and fireworks at 9 sounds fantastic!! Mark Evans, the mayor of Coxsackie, is a cool guy and I look forward to having him and his wife over for cocktails once the church can accommodate guests.

I also got to go to the library and get my library card. Laurie, the librarian, gave me a tour. They have a reading room and a discussion room and they gave me a welcome packet and everything. Look at the reading room. I'm going to move in there.

And here's the room where they have the book club, the knitting club, stuff like that. I love the library.

There's no more deck at the back of the house.

I'm going to re-use some of the large pieces of bluestone for benches.

And because the decking was pressure treated, I couldn't even use the wood to burn in the wood stove. So I'm totally amped to get the concrete footings poured so David can start the underframing. And mabye next month, I'll be able to sit out there and look at the view.

God willing.