Irish Day Parade

We ventured forth for the annual Irish Day Parade at my dad's this past weekend. It's so fun. I now realize that there are several parades here in town, but I would have to do some homework on the "good" seats, time to arrive, parking, etc. whereas, in Erin I already know those things. And the kids love to see the tractors in the parade anyway.

As far as the house goes, we had the yard cleared of storm and construction debris and graded (even though we apparently paid for it to be graded 3 separate times thru the builder), 3 trucks of topsoil brought in, seeded and strawed. The guys finished just hours before a nice rain. Then we remembered the busted hosebibb outside and realized we couldn't water the lawn as needed. Called in a plumber to replace all the "code" required spigots outside with the same old kind they just took off. That's the stuff that makes me crazy - that, and killing all the greenery under the trees outside (by parking on it) just so I can buy the exact same thing and plant new. I digress. Plumber will also fix the "standard" placement of the powder room lines so that our vanity will fit into the bathroom without the door hitting it. Can you see me smiling? I am. : )

The kids have really enjoyed playing outside this week in the nice weather on our playset out back. Everyone seems to be settling back into "home."

We also had the alarm installed and some punchlist items taken care of over the last 2 weeks. It's coming along nicely. We have a laundry room floor and an extra countertop coming soon. The laundry may be the first fully "finished" room of the house. Also the kitchen backsplash should be coming soon. It's challenging to schedule workers when I'm running to carpools at 8:30, 9:15, 1 and 3 - and that's on a day without an after school lesson/activity.

Brent is interviewing some trim carpenters to finish the job. There is a screened porch, columns on the side porch, trim pieces on those porches, beams on the back porch, and completing the columns and header on the front porch to be done and that's just outside. He's also meeting with a landscaper for some ideas on plantings out front, reworking our wobbly front walk, and a hedge row. We also need to schedule our meeting on shutter pricing. All-in-all this job may take another few months. And that's not including the inside! We have plans for the guest room- which is currently the catch-all-room for boxes or furniture without a proper home, family room mantle and built-ins plus a new tv (we're apparently the only people we know without a flat panel tv), whole house curtains, 3 rooms of wallpaper, a couple of rugs, my newly named "craft room" sharing with exercise equipment, and lots of touch-up painting. Maybe we'll finish before stuff becomes outdated and needs sprucing up - hahaha.