another day, another renovation

It's been a crazy couple of weeks -- always something going on.

But this particular project had been planned since my mom's birthday/family reunion, just before Thanksgiving. My uncle told me that he was a whiz with the bricks and mortar.

And the next weekend we had available get down and dirty with my house exterior was this one. So my aunt and uncle came over with my mom who was the main "helper".



I was able to get a bike fixed, pick up supplies at Home Depot, make banana bread, coffee, lunch and dinner -- and take my cousin out to Chinatown for some cheap grocery shopping. All while my uncle did a beautiful job taking out the old hack job (think: glued-together bits and pieces of brick-shards and stone) and replacing it with perfectly mortared and fitted bricks. Gorgeous. Now I just need to do a bit of touch-up painting. (Just? I laugh at my own bravado.)

On top of it all, my uncle finished quickly and we were able to get to yet another project that's been on my to-do list ever since my new door was installed this summer. The door threshold. There was a huge gap between the door sill and the tiles. Something had to be done. And in went the cement. Now it's curing and soon there will be a lovely piece of stained oak trim melting into my front hall tiles.

It's all coming together.
Slowly.

Ssssloooooowlyyyy...

Thanks to all the wonderful people who've contributed. My uncle did a wonderful job and I got to see and visit with him and my aunt and my cousin and her baby and so on. I realized just how much I absolutely LOVE having them over to my house. I love the chatter and the laughter and the fullness of it all.

It's what a home is supposed to be.