Spring Break = Spring Work

Craig is on break, so of course we're having a leisurely time, ranting about novelty pencils and other nuisances in the world. We sleep in late, drink coffee slowly, and lounge in our pajamas all day long.

Isn't it great to have a rich fantasy life? Yes, Craig is on break, which means that I haven't let him sit still for a single moment. Work! Work! Work! Do this, man. Do that, man. My bidding, I tell you, do my bidding! Hah, another fantasy. Truth: we've both been working our fingers raw.

Project One: Build and install shelving in my office (and also completely clean and reorganize the office, find pictures from ten years ago and laugh until we cry at our younger selves, cringe at stack of old college exams, and die of embarrassment over old journals stuffed in the bottom of a box). This project required that we cut, sand, prime and paint the lumber and 18 brackets (yes, 18 brackets with two coats of primer and three finish coats). It took us two days to go from this:



To this:



Those books have been in storage for four long years. Liberation!

Project Two: Repaint exterior trim on three windows. Three of our windowsills rotted. Yes, our house is old, but the windowsills were relatively new (circa 2003). Don't get me started on why they rotted (caulk does not serve as a replacement for real woodwork). Thankfully, we paid someone to replace the sills, so Craig just got stuck with the finish work.

Project Three: Finish what we started. Remember this?



Back in November, just before the weather turned cold, we started to refinish our front door (genius move on our part). Fast forward 4 months and one sunny day, and this was the scene in our front yard:




What's not pictured are the HOURS we spent stripping and sanding (and stripping and sanding some more). We had one day of sunshine in between rain, and we made it work. By the end of the night the door looked like this:


Now, some might be wondering why we repainted the door. Well, our door's been around the block. It's got wood filler in many places and caulk too (oh, those guys who rehabbed our house loved that caulk), so taking it back to its original glory was never a possibility. However, the work we did will ensure that the paint doesn't chip off all over our front porch (which is why we refinished it in the first place). We still need to paint the topcoat but that requires sunshine.

Project Four: Replace the master bathroom floor.

What can I say? This one is on hold. We're tired and our hands are sore.

So that's us these days. In my mind, it's been a great spring break. We like to work side by side, so it's been good. I mean, vacation on a beach would probably be good too. Okay, it would be better. On the other hand, if we were at the beach, I'd be feeling self conscious about my mommy flab. Instead I'm feeling pretty righteous about our home improvement skills.