Like usual, while I was in Florida Bruce tackled some home projects that are better done when I'm out of town, because they tend to take over the house. The first was refinishing an old oak wardrobe. Several years ago, Bruce stripped one door just to see what it would look like (the old varnish was really black). Since my car was in Florida for 2 months, Bruce took advantage of the extra space in the garage to use it for completing this refinishing project. It turned out beautiful, like always.
He alternated the wardrobe project with installing a ceiling fan in the sunroom. Since I got rid of all the curtains and the sunroom is basically 3 walls of windows, it gets fairly hot in the summer. This wouldn't have been such a hard project, but he had to crawl up in the attic in one of the spots with the shortest roof clearance to make the electrical connections. But I really like the industrial-look of this fan.
A few years ago, we laid zoysia sod in the front yard and Bruce has valiantly been trying to get it established - a tricky undertaking since the front yard is on the north side of the house and zoysia grass thrives in sun. For the most part, the grass was fairly thick, especially since we cut down a tree a couple years ago. But the front strip that is shaded by the house and walked on by the mailman has never really thickened up. So when I got home from Florida, I decided to expand the brick edging and make the garden a bit bigger to include the patchy spot. I figure it's easier to put in a few bushes and throw down some mulch than keep fighting the lawn.
Of course, home ownership always comes with unexpected surprise projects. We recently discovered that one of the 80-year old drain pipes has a big crack in it. And since plumbing is something Bruce absolutely despises, we'll probably pass this job off to a plumber. Fun. Fun.
