Project Updates

Our application to become foster parents has been approved! To be honest, in the current state of things, it feels a little anti-climatic. We are supposed to start with respite care, then move to long term care, but with T’s medications and the current mandates, I don’t think we are able to do respite care. So… Not really sure what it will look like. We are supposed to find out more details this week from the Y for how on-boarding will look, etc.

This weekend, we also kicked ass on projects. If you recall, the back of our backyard used to be all blackberries. We cut those down last year, but the whole area was still full of sharp stems. So a couple weekends ago, we did a final raking. And then this weekend, we took T’s small rototiller and rototilled the whole area. Then, we finally pulled down the chicken wire fence we put up a year ago to protect Spike (our little dog) from getting hurt. We still need to get rid of some of the pile of sticks (our yard waste is full-full-full), and we need to go over it again with a bigger rototiller. My dad’s neighbor is going to let us borrow his at some point.

Plus, months ago, we had built a railing in the nook on the landing by the stairs to bring the house to code for fostering (and safety). This weekend, we finally stained it and finished it with polyurethane. Four coats of poly! But it looks amazing, and it is done.

When we moved in, we also removed the door from the doorway to the nook because we are not using that space as a bedroom, but living space. We wanted it to feel open. However, the cutouts in the frame for the hinges and latch were still there and ugly. I had the bright idea to fill them in with shims and paint stir sticks (cut to the correct length), which were the perfect thickness. So now they’re filled with wood, and the gaps are filled with latex putty. After we sand and paint, you will not be able to tell the frame was missing anything. You can barely tell now. (Although, that says more about the state of all our trim — another project for the future is to repaint all the trim.)

All that, plus our normal chores and cooking for the week. That’s the one thing COVID-19 is doing for us — giving us the time to finish up our projects.

July already?!

I think we’re finally in the swing of things.  It’s taken awhile, but I think we’re there?  The boxes are gone, we’ve done a ton of yard work — the front yard was a dust bowl when we got here, now it has plants and greenery and it looks great.  The back yard is our next battle — we’ve bushwacked back there quite a bit — nothing had been done for probably 15 years.  Next, we’re hoping our landlords will pay for materials and we’ll fix it up.  We did the front yard out of pocket, but the front is much smaller and we wanted to show we could do a good job.

Our wedding is in 3 months!  We’ve gotten the suits ordered, we have an appointment to see rings (from a eco-friendly, queer-friendly, local jeweler), we are mailing invitations today.  We’ve had the venue for awhile, we’ve met with our bartender and photographer.  We’ve booked our flights and hotel for the honeymoon.  Honestly, it feels like we’ve done a lot of the big ticket stuff that you have to do ahead.  We still need to finalize what we want to make for food (because we’re doing it ourselves). Oh, and a dozen other little things, like music, decorations, cake, etc.

As for out little dog, he’s doing better, but my goodness it is a lot of work.  He’s a chewer, and he’s trying to destroy our stuff.  He recently started chewing on my couch (I love my couch), and I was nearly ready to get rid of him.  But we’re going to make this work and train him up, and once he’s older he shouldn’t chew so much, anyway.  At least, that’s what everyone keeps telling me.  It had better be true.  He still has a wonderful personality and is just so friendly.  It’s hard to be mad at him for long, even when he is truly horrible.

It’s time to get ready for work for me, but I am going to try to start blogging again.  Honest.