Loose Ends and the Shed Project

Tracy was a proud new homeowner when this was taken in 2010. Here's a shot of our Grand Avenue home today.

back yard:

As you can see, the shed needs a paint job.  The fresh mulch project was instigated in part by the necessity to protect the new paint on the shed from mud splatter.  The area behind the shed had been overgrown for so long, ivy covered more than half of the siding.  When Andy Podhany took out some of the fencing, removed the dog house and a few small trees; he also went after the ivy.  As I removed the dead ivy from the siding, I realized that each vine left a fossil-like impression that was very difficult to scrape off.

Here's a snapshot of the north side...before

and after...

Oof.  I used a drill with a wire-brush bit to sand the vine remnants away. It was one of those north carolina june days in the humid mid-nineties, and I was covered in paint chips and sunscreen. I followed behind the drill with an orbital sander.  It took all day to get around the exterior, and I still have about three feet remaining on the back wall.

To my dear friend Ray Jones, who is probably the only human that actually looks at this blog, I offer this as a small apology for my lack of blogging:

I know that you were anxiously awaiting the completed kitchen nook photos, Ray... even though you saw it in person before the blog post. We've been a little too busy to blog for the past seventeen months, and it's because we have a new roommate in our Grand Avenue home:

Emmett Josiah Brown, born 1/5/14.  He's generally an agreeable fellow; drinks 1.5 gallons of milk a week and doesn't pay rent. Ha Ha. We're going to keep him.