Week 28 - My Gorgeous Garage

Before After

The week started with a holiday – nice! Unfortunately I had been so tired when I went to bed Sunday night that I must have set my alarm while on auto pilot so my day off work started when my alarm blared at 5:52. Since I couldn’t fall back to sleep, I got up and got busy. Sheesh!

I had a few things left to prep for my annual 4th of July cookout but not too much. I had a pleasant day, interspersing setting up tables in the yard and such with lots of knitting. The weather was cooperating and it wasn’t too hot. By the time people started arriving after 6:00, it was gorgeous. Anne and Kate from water aerobics came, Nancy and Allan, the Harts, Andrea and the Huschers – 18 in all, which was a good number. Everyone had brought yummy food and I made hamburgers and hotdogs. After we’d all eaten, the kids headed to the driveway to light off fireworks and since most of my knitting friends were there, we all pulled out our projects and sat knitting on the deck waiting for dark.

When it was almost time for fireworks, we started gathering chairs and blankets, sprayed down with Off and headed down to the park. The city or chamber or whoever does the fireworks out did themselves. The fireworks went on for a long time and were spectacular. When we got back to the house, I found that somewhere before heading to the park, my friends had done most of the clean up so there was very little left to do. I took a much needed shower and went to bed, happy with after a fun night with my friends and another successful cookout.

I was tired on Tuesday (duh!) but luckily the day flew by while I worked on utilities billing. I stopped on the way home to buy all the supplies the guys would need to finish the garage – light fixtures, cat door, etc. By the time I left Menard’s the sky was looking fierce and it was clear I would be driving in weather. That didn’t stop me from heading to Super Saver to buy Kool Aid for dying – 120 packets at 15/$1.00. Such a deal! I drove like a banshee, hoping to outrun the storm but ended up driving through the worst of it. It was raining so hard that I hyrdroplaned twice but by the time I got to Wahoo, the storm had passed. There was almost an inch in the rain gage from a half hour storm. Nuts. I did the last of the cookout clean up inside and went to bed early. I was absolutely exhausted.

We got an email that a pump in the brand new pool had failed so we were back in the shallow pool again Wednesday night. While it’s harder on the joints, it’s better for chatting since we’re all crowded in one lane. After the pool, we went to Village Inn for dinner and knitting, which was fun. When I got home, my garage was done – siding, gutters, everything but the door, which would be installed Saturday. They did a gorgeous job. The gutters were so pretty that I called Jeremy to ask what it would cost to do the rest of the gutters so they’d all be pretty. $400. I’ll have to crunch some numbers and give that some thought.

My heel was still giving me grief so I stopped on Friday night to try on endless numbers of shoes, looking for the magic pair that would be comfortable, finally deciding on Clarks Waves. As long as I have them on, my heel doesn’t hurt so I’m hoping they’ll work for my week in RI. Wish me luck.

I had a decent sized to do list for the weekend and a Friends meeting to prep for so got up early Saturday. I got a call from my contractor while I was at the library saying that he was on his way to my neighbor’s to fix his lawn. On Thursday night, my neighbor had told Jeremy that his dad had run over his lawn when he was leaving after installing my gutters. We had checked but couldn’t find anything. Well, Saturday morning my neighbor called Tim, the other half of my contractor duo, and said he would put an ad in the paper saying their company abused handicapped people (my neighbor is in a wheel chair) if he didn’t come over and fix the lawn. Seriously? I left the meeting to head home. Tim had already put some soil in the rut and then installed my plant hooks on the garage. The garage door was being installed by his buddy. Despite the neighbor drama, I was happy. My garage was a thing of beauty. All that’s missing is some paint on the windows and door, which I figured I’d do in the fall when it cools down. Check out the before and after pics, noticing the blurry after because it’s so humid out that my camera lens fogged up the second I walked outside.

Cuz it was brutally hot! By the end of the day Sunday it was 93 degrees but with a heat index of 110. Yes, 110! I was outside for minutes while running errands and was instantly soaked. I HATE heat like that. I spent most of the day inside getting ready to be gone. Laundry, cleaning the frig, packing, etc. I ended the day meeting with a contractor I had called about painting the siding on the west side of my house where the finish has come off the metal. His quote was so low that I asked if he would also do the windows and door trim, which will completely finish the garage. The beauty is they’ll do it while I’m gone. I think the outside of my house is done. Can that be? Isn’t life grand? Damn skippy!