Talk about contagious...

Thanks to Denise over at The Bungalow Chronicles, I too have caught the posting bug and have decided to at least give a 2010 roundup...because looking back, though much was NOT accomplished or was only partially finished, well, we got a decent amount done...so, here goes nothing...

First of all, an unnumbered "accomplishment" was the successful birth of our second baby boy in October. He's a BEAST of a boy...was already 16 pounds and super tall at two months old. I might have to shore up the floor joists. ;) He's been great, has been healthy and is a happy, easy-going little guy. His older brother is fast approaching his third birthday already and loves his little brother a ton. So we're thrilled at that...

1. Finally, FINALLY, laid the floor in the basement...laminate over padding over Platon. The final steps to the basement refinishing, however -- the baseboards, chair rail and crown, as well as the final outlets above the crowns (for rope lighting) -- remain unfinished. That's because of No. 2...

2. Dealt with a serious sewer backup into the basement -- floor performed as I hoped, with the Platon keeping the water away from the floor itself...however, had the baseboards been in, the water would have come up on the floor. This sewer backup seriously hurt my motivation to get the trim work done.

3. Also hurting the overall project work around here was the bill for installing a sewer cleanout in front of the house -- to attempt to prevent future sewer backups by getting the line power-rodded every year. That wasn't cheap...but it's done AND the city replaced several feet of sewer pipe out in the street that had become misaligned and broken.

4. Much, much progress in the backyard in 2010. I tore down the entire east privacy fence, which was falling down anyway.

5. Built a half-raised (to level with the neighbor's yard) bed in the back and planted five shrubs that will provide somewhat of a privacy screen, be attractive AND provide food and shelter for the birds. All key factors I wanted from these shrubs...now, hopefully they'll grow as expected and not get really, really wide. :)

6. Modified and improved my four raised veggie beds in the back and installed patio pavers around all four, making it way more presentable and lifting the pathways to above flood stage. I still have some minor alterations/additions I need to make, but for the most part, it looks good back there.

7. Tore out the broken hot tub and tore down the "carport" providing shelter for it -- the yard looks about a thousand times bigger. I used College Hunks Hauling Junk to take away all the demo debris...they were AWESOME and I would recommend them, for sure.

8. Finally, in the very late (but warm) fall, I built a chain-link fence in the east gangway to replace the freestanding privacy fence that, again, was falling down. The last entry on this blog shows the first post going in. Well, I busted my butt working by floodlight at night even to get the fence up, and I only got some help from my buddy Luis, digging the post holes and sinking some of the posts. The rest I did myself, and it wasn't too bad, I'd have to say.

Maybe, if I can hold up this motivation, I will post a "2011 hopes" entry soon...until then, stick with me! :)

chain link posts done...

one post done.many to go.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Well, there's been a lag in updates because Gina and I welcomed our second son into the world nearly two weeks ago. But, here's a picture of the last thing I did before the baby was born. :)

I had dug this post hole, and I knew we were going to the hospital the next day, so I wanted to stick the post and lay the concrete. Done and done.

Now, over the past two weeks since, my buddy Luis came over to help me dig the other post holes and stick a couple other posts. Today, I finished the posts up. It's "easy" hard work...and, I discovered, it's best done during the day. One post that I hurriedly stuck during the week after work as night rolled in is, of course, slightly off...not happy about that, but ah well...We'll see what happens, I guess...

Anyway, the chain link fence is almost done...I'll post some pics once I get it going. Now, to go take advantage of the end of Daylight Savings Time and get that extra hour of sleep...aw yeah! :)

It took roughly 3 summers...

east fence garden no privacy fence.jpg
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

...but the east fence is down (with an assist from Mother Nature) and the entire length of it is garden-ized...no more lawn. You can see way in the back of this picture the hedge-row I planted.
I had to raise the ground up next to the sidewalk, so I had to build a half raised bed type of thing to level off the ground. It's part of why the back floods. The sidewalk is a good six to nine inches below the alley and the neighbor's yard.
Since the neighbor (as evidenced in this photo) doesn't have a garage, I wanted to create a little bit of privacy without the privacy fence. Plus, my neighbor's garden is beautiful and quite large, and blends really nicely with my thin garden here. You almost miss entirely the chain-link fence in between.
So, in the back, there are five shrubs -- two varieties. I needed something that wouldn't get much wider than about 5 feet (and that would need to be pruned, likely), but would grow 6 feet or higher.
I went to Lurvey's nursery in Des Plaines after researching my brains out in books and online. I had two plants in mind...and thought -- with the help of the helpful consultant there, that getting both would lend some variety to the row.
I did not want a plain-old boring privet-type hedge, and definitely didn't want evergreens. I wanted to have multi-season interest, and was hoping to be of assistance to the birds, even.
So I bought three Red Chokeberry bushes and flanked them with two Blue Muffin Viburnum bushes.
In the fall, I should have a burgundy and red leaf show. In the winter, red and blue berries, and in the spring, plenty of white flowers.
As for the rest of the garden here, this year (knock on wood) has been the best year so far for my perennials (which is, actually everything you see here). This photo is a little older, so I'll try to take an updated one sooner than later. But things are just blooming, growing and staying "under control" pretty darned well.
I'm really pleased, and wishing I had more space now! :)

A busy week, followed by another...

Since I'll be too busy for housework this week, I figured I'd try to cram as much in over the last week as I could, weather permitting. Rains and events yesterday and today kind of limited my abilities, but I do feel well-positioned to get the vegetable raised beds completed in the next couple weeks -- maybe even next weekend. That is, assuming I can get all the topsoil, peat moss and manure that I need.

Since last weekend's bonanza of work, I haven't raised any more beds in the back. But, I did assemble the former fence pickets into walls and then went to buy a few more cedar boards for the other walls of the three remaining beds (didn't have enough fence pickets or retaining wall blocks to complete the job). I cut those and assembled them too. It also gave me an excuse to buy myself a circular saw, which, believe it or not, I did not have to this point. I got a Ryobi 12-amp, which cost me only about $40. So it was worth it.

Today I finished assembling the walls for the three remaining beds, so they'll be ready to rock and roll when I get time to take them into the garden.

Yesterday, before the rains came, I went to Home Depot to get gutters for the garden side of the garage. The water was running off and creating a trench in the raised bed. Also, I think that diverting that water out to the alley or wherever will help to minimize the flooding in the yard, somewhat.

I was only able to get one 10-foot length of gutter up, however, before we had a social obligation, so today, the back area was flooded because of the rains. Of course, the raised bed is not affected, which is good (and was the goal). So, once that water goes down, I'll be able to work back there again.

So that's where I stand right now...I'll hopefully have pictures once there's something good to take pictures of. We'll see how much more we get done next weekend!

Oh, the humanity...OK, that's a bit overly dramatic...

halfway 1
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Well, hey there loyal readers...Wow, almost a whole month of no posting by me. That's a record that I'm sorry to admit to for this blog (I think).

Basically, I've been way the heck too busy to post of late. Much has happened, though, in the last week or two, so I thought I'd share some photos and an update. It's long overdue.

1. The basement family room has been mostly primed and is just about ready for paint. The review of the Behr New Drywall Primer is that I really liked it. I put one coat of the primer on the ceiling, and my buddy Luis (who has made appearances on this blog in the past) put on one coat of Behr White Ceiling Paint, and other than probably a touch-up here and there, that's ALL the ceiling needed. Primer on the walls was a little thinner, but it looks like it's covering enough to put paint up. So that will be the next step.

I've decided I'm going with two-tone walls. Top half will be a color called Harvest Brown (710D-4) and the bottom half will be a color called Smokey Blue (540F-5). I got the color combo off the Yellow-Toned Neutrals Style Card, actually. Even though in the style card, the Smokey Blue is only the napkins in the photo. I think this will look really nice, and I like the fact that I'm adding some color, not just beiges and yellows and browns and whatnot. I'm gonna split these with a white (or ivory, we'll see) chair rail, which will run perfectly below the windowsills and perfectly above the fireplace to form the top part of the simple mantel.

Of course, I bought the primer and paint on Tuesday, and Home Depot decided to have a $5 rebate per can offer that started today. Bunch of jerks. I wish I would have waited two stinking days...

I did get the floor I wanted, so I can't gripe too much, I guess...since it was 89 freaking cents a square foot and no interest till 2010. That gives us several months to pay it off without penalty of any kind. And that's HUGE.

2. Backyard plans are running full bore right now. I've started some tomato seeds and broccoli seeds, and have a whole slew of other vegetables waiting in the wings to be planted in the new garden that I'm working on constructing (currently in my brain, very soon in the yard). I'm going to have to get three cubic yards of dirt/compost/peat moss/manure/whatever to raise the bed up high enough in the back that floods to avoid future floods. So this garden will have the dual purpose of being a garden and taking care of part of the flooding problem. So I hope anyway.

The veggies I have in my possession (and should have room for, I hope -- I probably won't plant a forest of each of these, just a couple of each...I don't need 200 tomatoes) are: cherry tomatoes, big boy tomatoes, broccoli, asparagus, garlic, green beans, carrots and beets. I'd like to get a pepper plant as well, and maybe some rosemary.

Today, I knocked down the "walls" of the little shelter that the hot tub is under...40 pickets of a fence. Fortunately, they were nailed to the rails, so I just hammered the hell out of them to break them free. Several of the pickets are in fantastic shape still and will be used in this garden, either as backup support around the beds or as walkway planks or something. We'll see for sure. It was definitely hard work, but I wanted to get it done because the garbage men come tomorrow, and there were some unsalvageables that I had to toss.

As you can see from the pictures on Flickr (click on the photo here), the yard looks significantly different with the walls of the shelter down. You can also see that I tried to pry the roof off, piece by piece. But, after climbing up the ladder and working for about 15 minutes plus to get that one panel off, I realized that it was going to work, and that, oh, these appear to be some sort of fiberglass panels, and my forearm itches and hurts like hell. I got a ton of fiberglass fibers rubbing on the underside of my forearm because I rested it briefly on the panel to try to pry it up. Live and learn, I guess.

So, tomorrow is supposed to be another unbelievably spectacularly beautiful day here in Chicago. I took the day off today, and will have most of tomorrow off, so I think that I will do some more work out there. Maybe I'll go buy the 70 or so bags of topsoil and stuff...but that would mean I'd have to rent one of those menards or home depot trucks...anyone done that and had good/bad experiences? (Anyone still reading at this stage?)

Anyway, we shall see how it goes tomorrow. I'm pretty tired from today's adventures...more soon, I promise!

"Tis a fine barn, but sure 'tis no pool, English."

Day 2 fence 5
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

The fence is DONE. Thankfully. I have way too many 8-foot 4x4 posts (several of which are bowed, which sucks), because we didn't have the energy (and didn't really need) to replace all the posts. So about 8-10 old posts made the "final cut" as it were. Yeah, they look marginally out of place with the new panels and new posts, but if they're sturdy, why go through all the trouble?

Anyway, the fence isn't perfect, as we had to go uphill a bit as we got closer to the house (who would think that a postage-stamp city lot would have "terrain"??? :) But it's good terrain, because it keeps the water flowing away from the house.

Now, the trick will be to fill and level the yard, particularly the area adjacent to the fence, so it doesn't flood. As you can see from the picture, we raised the fence up about 4-6 inches toward the alley, with the idea being that I'm going to get a load of dirt and fill that all in so it's more level with the alley (and the top of the concrete "piers" we created), and so the fence doesn't sit in floodwater whenever it does think about flooding.

So, the first test will be the first major windstorm...we sank those posts down about 3 feet, and dumped a helluva lot of concrete down there. In fact, I feel really, really, really sorry for the next person (hopefully it won't be me) who has to attempt to dig up those concrete piers. Good luck. You're gonna need a backhoe.

Of course, this whole project has left me tired and beaten down badly. So much so, I will probably hire someone to finish my basement family room. I'm not giving up on the DIY bit, that's for sure. But man, moving earth takes a LOT out of you. I'm not as dead tired today as I was yesterday, but I'm certainly more sore and stiff.

If I get any pictures of the full fence, I'll post them...but this gives you an idea.

Not so great progress...

end day one 2
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

Hopefully we do better tomorrow...we got several of the old posts up, but couldn't get the rest to budge. So, we decided to cut them off at the bottom and shift the short panel to the other side. That meant we had to dig new holes for the posts. Which then meant we had to go rent a post-hole auger. As such, we got two posts in the ground with four left to sink. The rest of the posts will remain in the ground, and we'll simply hang the new panels on those posts, as they're really solid, honestly.

I am completely dead tired though. So much so, I probably will go to bed soon here. Tomorrow, we'll have four posts to sink in concrete several feet worth of panels to still rip down, and panels to hang and, in some cases, cut to size. Also, I have to place landscaping stones below the fence in the back, because it's going to be raised above the ground level to be even with the alley (it's several inches BELOW the alley right now...thus the flooding.

We need to get this done, but I think that the worst part is honestly over. Well, I mean the absolute worst part...digging up the posts/cutting them down and digging the new holes. We'll see how things go tomorrow.

One way or another...

I'm getting the fence up this weekend. Period. I just hope I have enough help to get the fence up this weekend...including tearing down the current fence.

Also, I have to, in short time, figure out how much topsoil I need to raise that area back there between the garages to level or higher than the alley. I'm not gonna install the fence in a depression where water is just going to pool whenever it rains for a lengthy period of time or when spring thaw rolls around. Forget that!

So, much work to be done this weekend here! Finally, I know...thanks for being patient out there in houseblog land!

New fence? Please...

While I should have been installing my new fence this weekend with the help of my great friends and family, I was doing this, instead:

Apparently, this is record rainfall for Chicago. It's the remnants of the Pacific storm Lowell (sp?) I guess. And the remnants of Ike are supposed to come perilously close to Chicago tomorrow and tomorrow night. The water is so high in the backyard, it's going into the basement now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbMgE3NCKm8

Now, so long as that drain doesn't back up or the water doesn't come in any faster, we should be OK. I did have to get out on the roof, briefly, outside our bedroom window, however, to bend the downspout off, as the morons who originally installed it put the elbow at the bottom on backward (bottom portion outside the top portion), so the water was shooting out the seam and creating a lake in between the houses. We had some serious seepage into the room under the front porch because of it, and that seeped into the family room, onto the carpet. I was going to tear that carpet out anyway; now I'll have to do it much earlier than anticipated.

Now, I know that, obviously, what I'm currently dealing with is minimal compared to the folks in Iowa earlier this year and the folks along the Gulf Coast and whatnot, and in Texas. But, even this "much" water is a big deal here. And it's a big deal to me too, especially since I'm going to finish that family room at some point. In a sense, it's making me rethink the next steps.

Hopefully the rain subsides enough to let some of this water soak in and go away, and stop pouring into my basement!

I think they're alive...

fence panels...
Originally uploaded by southsideandy

...because five of them have moved into the yard. Into position.

Next week, believe it or not, we resume activity at Build a Better Bungalow. I have a crew of great friends coming out to demolish our fence and help me install the new one. These are the panels I sealed...I've got about 5 or 6 more in the garage, waiting to be sealed, which I'll have to do this week, in advance of next Saturday's big day.

Plus, I might be able to get the monstrosity around and over the hot tub demolished and outta here as well. And maybe, just maybe, even the hot tub will be disassembled and destroyed. We'll see. Our yard, in just over a week, could look tremendously different and larger than it does now. And that's exciting.

Leave them wanting more...

Holy crap! I exist!

Well, not much, honestly, has been going on around our bungalow lately...I've been traveling for work, playing a bunch of softball and weathering wicked storms. All just barely getting lucky enough to cut the grass and keep the place moderately tidy. And then, when I think I've got a weekend to do something, bam, I have a wedding or BBQ. I can't, of course, deny the friends my presence, right? :)

So, today, I put aside a little time for my inner DIYer. Yes, it was time to start tackling the fence. Though, we have a very important step before destruction of old fence and installation of new fence. That is sealing new fence panels. I bought 8x6-foot panels at Home Depot a few weeks ago when they were on sale, but they're untreated pine. So, of course, I have to treat them before I put them to Mother Nature's test.

Last week, I went all over looking for Thompson's Water Seal's green-label water seal and wood protectant...the kind that supposedly keeps the wood from turning gray "naturally" as they say. Personally, I don't like that gray look and would like to keep it away as long as I can, if possible. Anyway, a finally found a place that had enough of it (I needed about 5 gallons, and nowhere could I find the 5-gallon drum of the green-label stuff) in the one-gallon size (which was comparable in price). So I bought it.

Today, I went to work. Opened the garage doors for ventilation, cracked out the new 4-inch brush and started going (note, I would have preferred to spray, but I had nowhere to spray and no help to move the panels to a spray-able location). It took me two hours to apply the sealant to both sides of two whole panels. I decided to try a 1-inch nap roller. Took half as long, but I felt as though I was totally overcoating the panels and wasting product (I'm cheap, especially with paint and the like). So I switched to a combination of hitting the flat face of the panels with the roller and the back, with the braces, with the brush.

When I was done, five panels had been sealed/stained. I called up my little bro to have him help me haul them out of the garage to dry outside (lest the fumes build up in the garage and blow up or something). It's a small victory, given the lack of project work that has been done around here. I have seven panels left to do, but I need to look ahead and pick a weekend on which I can bribe a crew of friends and family to come out and help me install the new fence and maybe take down and apart the hot tub and roof contraption.

And then, of course, there's still the basement...looks like my goal of finishing it by Halloween is going to be (as I figured it would) an unattainable goal. I guess we'll see.

Anyway, hope to have some pics of the fence panels and of what's blooming in my yard...I've got some Anise Hyssop -- let me tell you how many bumblebees are on this thing every day...tons. And I think there are some honeybees on there too, which nature-lovers would be happy to hear...I'm not sure what honeybees look like, exactly, but I think these are honeybees.

Until next time...

Back to the drawing board...somewhat...

OK, I fashioned up a prototype of the basement ceiling yesterday, and found the widest joist-to-joist distance to use it on. I took no pictures (sorry Fred!) because I'm seriously disappointed in it.

1. The 12x12-inch ceiling panels don't reach from trim piece to trim piece well enough to make me feel as though they won't shift and fall out, which means I'll have to buy the molding from the original plan. I thought, well, at least maybe that will help it look "fancy"...sure, it will, but it will also cost more money. Even if I buy 1x6s rather than 1x4s, buy (or rent or borrow) a router and do the work myself, it's more money in the end. So the jury's still out on that.

2. Speaking of not square or plumb, helpful Anonymous commenter...either the whitewood trim board I'm using is warped (raising another concern for me), or the joist (more likely) is not flat and flush down the entire length. This is a more serious problem, since it basically "corkscrews" the trim board to where it's not level where it meets the wall. That's a problem, big-time. That's a lot of planing or sanding or whatever the hell you do to level off the bottoms of the joists. And a lot of hoping that I've done it right. Although, I have another idea of how to address this, and it might just work. We'll see...these prototype boards are going to certainly be worth the price once I'm done with them. :)

So, it's back to the drawing board, more or less, on the basement ceiling idea. Needing a big DIY and "project completion" win, I decided it was time to give myself a fighting chance in the battle to replace our backyard fence. As it stood, I had bought the posts and concrete and was planning to meticulously take down the pickets (hoping, but doubtful, that they're panels and not individual pickets) and rehang them on the new posts. The great prognosticator that I am, I saw into the future and saw myself cursing the god of picket fences under a hot summer sun, working with one or two other people, not finishing in one weekend (dogs necessitate that) as planned and generally getting totally pissed off. So, seeing fence panels on sale at Home Depot for a mere $25 for a 6x8 section, I bit the bullet and bought enough to replace the fence on the west side of the yard entirely. Originally, I didn't want to do this, because of the pocketbook hit, but the fence is currently being held up by a 2x6 propped dangerously against the leg of the deck. Not smart, but there's nothing else that can be done right now, honestly.

So, big win there. Even bigger win was that it cost only $59 to have them deliver the fence panels for me...would have cost me that much, if not more, to rent a truck and buy my brother dinner or beer for helping out. :)

BIG day at the ol' bungalow...

Wow. I look back on today and I'm pretty impressed with how we've turned some bad things around today. We didn't do "a lot" of work, but a host of things have improved.

1. The plumber came today and installed the new supply line from the city shut-off to the tee to the rest of the house. Has it made a difference? Hard to tell...but, I'll tell you, that 85-year-old galvanized pipe was nice and crusted up inside. So, if anything, at least we're not drinking THAT water anymore! Sorry that I forgot to take a pic of that, and of course, the alley scavengers took that pipe in about an hour's time. There's one piece left to swap out, and that's the valve. We need to get the city out to locate the outside shutoff so the plumber can swap out the old valve. Then, we're good to go.

2. Bungalow Avenue (see previous post) delivered my two new stone planters for the front of the house. I'm FLOORED at how PERFECT they are and how beautiful they look. I'm so glad that, for once, I saw something early enough that I was able to take advantage and do something nice. I will take pics tomorrow, I promise...wait till you see them. They couldn't be more perfect.

3. I put my Chevy Equinox to the test today as well...after crunching the numbers every which way possible and then taking a good hard look at the current fence, I decided to go with the idea suggested by my dad as well as Jennifer from Tiny Old House, which was to keep the rails and pickets and just buy new posts. So I did that. I bought 20 4x4 8-foot posts and 10 bags of instant post installation mix. I figured I'd try that stuff, although my dad is bound to scold me for not doing it the old-fashioned way. Hey, I've mixed up enough concrete in my life to earn a pass this time. Anyway, we loaded all this ridiculously heavy stuff into the Equinox and set off, gingerly, from Morton Grove on back down to Portage Park. Thankfully, there weren't a lot of big bumps on the way, so we survived. But it was a harrowing feeling, worrying about somehow damaging the car...oh, and having blind spots all over the place. The boards barely fit from the dash all the way to the back door, stacked from floor to ceiling. Not the safest, but what could I do?

So we're about ready to do the fence, whenever we actually get the time to do it. For now, the stuff will all have to sit in the garage, waiting for the right weekend. :)

4. I figured out that the upstairs shower problem was the shower head. Since I didn't like it anyway, and it was, in effect, broken, we bought a new shower head. Waterpik makes an "el cheapo" rain head (which just means it's chrome-plated plastic rather than metal) that was, like, $20 or so at Menard's. I figured what the heck, why not try it? Now, the key thing here is, I know I've learned some things because, for once, a project that the box claims "Installs in minutes!" actually took only minutes to install. So that was a nice feeling. And the shower works well, so far. Of course, I pulled the restrictor out, because I'm just not an environmentalist (just kidding...don't they say, "Know your audience?" ;) ). Nah, I pulled it because I wasn't sure if the water pressure would still be too low up there. Turns out, it's pretty good. So I'll leave it and see how it goes for a while.

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to plant and plant and plant. And probably cut down the Hicks Yews I have in front. Anybody in the Chicago area who might want them, you're welcome to come and save them. There are two chest-high ones (I might transplant one, rather than chop it to bits) and one vertical, about 8- to 10-foot tall one that are definitely getting either moved or chopped down. Let me know ASAP, of course, and we can try to work something out. I don't expect anyone will want them, but I thought I'd ask.

So we shall see. For sure, I'll have pics though!

Oh yeah, and last but not least at all, head on over to One Project Closer to read about all of Fred's great stuff and to see my Houseblogger Interview from Friday's edition. It's good reading, if I say so myself. :)

Everyone swears by freecycle...but I don't get it...

Maybe I'm a moron. Maybe I'm just unlucky or something. But, this is my second go-around on Freecycle, and let me tell you, I'm really, honestly not impressed at all.

Maybe it's because I'm in a big city (Chicago), or maybe I'm not looking at it the right way or something, but to me, all that appears to be offered is a whole bunch of useless junk (at least to me). I've not seen anything, thus far, that I'd have even a close interest in. Furthermore, a lot of the stuff, it's like, "Maybe I need that, but am I really going to call my brother to accompany me to go pick the thing up, waste my evening and his, for something as miniscule as that?" Further, there's just SOOOOOO much junk to weed through. It's like attempting to find a needle in a haystack, and really, I just have a hard time committing to doing something like that.

I understand the "penny saved, penny earned" idea behind it. I get that, totally. And I'm far from the person who needs to have everything new and fresh and, even, hip. I grew up wearing hand-me-downs and that was fine. But I just don't get it. I'll probably stay on there, only because, well, you can disable getting daily emails now. Occasionally, maybe I'll stumble on over and stumble upon something I want. But, really, I don't have high hopes.

Maybe all you freecycle vets can tell me what I'm doing wrong. WITHOUT being preachy about it being right and good and all that. ;)

In other news, I calculated out the cost for replacing the whole fence. All 200 feet of fence (believe it or not, we have that much fence around our city lot). It's going to be cost-prohibitive. So, despite two posts ago saying I think we'll replace the whole thing, that probably ain't happening. The one side is likely to get done, and that's about it. In and of itself, that should be a blast, let me tell you!

When will it end?...

Yes, folks, it's currently snowing here in Chi-town. This after rain. With more rain tomorrow. Granted, it's light rain, but still, it's preventing me from doing anything outside.

This worries me, because the great grape plants I bought, which are supposed to be dormant, are actually growing in my basement. Even though I have them in a dry, pretty much dark room. This is not good, since I have no actual place for them right now.

I was hoping to get out there and build the arbor I purchased from Menard's for these very plants today, but with the chilly weather, I didn't feel like sitting in the garage working on this all day. Plus, my White Sox were on and playing well (nearly a no-hitter), so I was distracted by that.

Tomorrow, maybe, hopefully, I'll get out there to build the thing, and then maybe in the next couple of evenings, I can get the plants in the ground. Even though, again, I don't really have a dedicated spot ready for them yet.

Today, I instead swung by Menard's to look at fence material. I think that we're going to redo our entire fence on both sides (even though only one side is technically our responsibility). We need the privacy fence on both sides, and since M's has their BIG card no interest for 6 mos. deal going, we figure now's as good a time to at least buy the materials as any. So, it's likely that I'll be at M's this week buying about 200 feet worth of planks, posts, rails, concrete and gravel.

But we probably won't build the fence for a few weekends, if not until after Memorial Day weekend, even. Lots to do before then. But we'll see how it goes, I guess.

In the meantime, the plumber is coming out next Saturday to replace the water pipe from the city shutoff to our utility room, in the hopes that the added volume and new pipe (currently, it's pretty much the 85-year-old galvanized pipe, which is probably corroded to no flow inside) will give a boost to the water pressure in the house. We shall see. Crossing our fingers though!

Part of me is even feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything going on. I'm going to have to step back and really just kind of take a breath and figure out what we really can/should do and what doesn't make sense for this year. That's not an easy task, as many of you know!