Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Under Construction and My Quiet Excuses

Goodness gracious it’s so nice to know that people are concerned about my quietness.  I have been rather quiet lately and it’s been due to several things going on around here.

House renovations:

100_4334 Our Amish guys are back to do the work on the house.  Instead of their black felt hats, they’re using their straw hats.  They hung their hats from our tomato stakes and I couldn’t miss the photo op. 

New siding … replacing the old aluminum siding with vinyl …100_4336

The original wood on the house is still in excellent condition.  Once the aluminum siding was all pulled off, I do admit to considering the idea of renovating the old original wool siding but then I came to my senses and realized that vinyl would be much easier to care for in future years.

100_4332 I did want all the windows to be framed, so they’ve used their own Amish hand-cut planks for the window frames.

I’m looking forward to the end of this week because the noise of hammers, saws, pounding and shaking is making me just a tad bit crazy. 

These guys arrive at 7 am in the morning which really messes up my morning wake-up routine.  Instead of a quiet cup of coffee on the side porch swing, I’m huddled up on the sofa sipping coffee surrounded by loud pounding.  It’s certainly not a good way to wake up.

There are other reasons for my quietness too.

I’ve been fighting a cold so it makes me a bit lazy.

We can find a cure to prevent tomato blight but we can’t find a cure to prevent/fight off a cold virus.  How wrong is that?

I’d much rather have tomato blight on my tomato plants than a cold.

Thankfully, we don’t have tomato blight on our plants yet, but from what I’ve been told, it spreads just as quickly and easily as a cold virus and it’s coming to our neighborhood very soon.  I have sprayed for the tomato blight so we’ll see how well $8.00 worth of fungicide works.

How did I so quickly get off the subject?

Ok, the next reason why I’ve been quiet is because of my husband.

For almost a year now, he and some of his co-workers have been planning a picnic get together for all the employees who work or have previously worked in their department.  My husband somehow became the one in charge of organizing this picnic.

Originally, it was estimated to be about 40-50 people.

That’s a pretty manageable number so I offered to make some cabbage & noodles and baked beans to go with their wieners and burgers and hot sausage.

Well, as word spread throughout the retirees, the phone calls started coming in … and the number of picnickers has grown to a little over 100.

That’s a lot of food to prepare!

The picnic is this Friday. I’m amazed at how well hubby is organizing this without becoming stressed.  If it were me making all of these decisions, I’d be crazed right now.  As it is, hubby tells me what he needs done and I help him get it done.

So the past couple days have been spent baking hundreds of brownies and cookies and shopping for all the things that are needed to make a picnic a picnic.

After Friday, I’ll have my time back.  As it is now, I better quit typing and go bake some brownies!

 

Happy Day Everyone!

9 comments:

Sandi Linn Andersen said...

The picnic project sounds like it will be great fun. Connecting with friends is always such a great thing for body and soul. Good of you to bake all those cookies and brownies. I would pass on the cabbage. :-) You are right....your house would look great with that old siding restored, but the vinyl is much easier to care for. In our previous house we had siding that required constant care so when we moved here and built our house, my husband said "no more". We went with steel siding and will never have to paint the place in our lifetimes. However, my husband seems to find oodles of other projects that keep him busy. I think he missed all that time with his tools. :-) I like early morning quiet so I understand your need for coffee without the tune of hammers and saws. :-)

carolyn@simple~primitive~devotion said...

Hi Cath! I sympathise with you on the renovation noise! We ahd some minor work and painting done to our house a few weeks ago, and they were LOUD! I'm not used to that at all. What was supposed to last 3 days took over a week! UGH! We have a lot left that needs to be done (like all new windows and enlarging a bedroom), but it may have to wait until next spring.
Your house is so pretty! How old is it? I love the entry on the front.
I hope you don't get a cold. Take care of yourself. Sometimes allowing ourselves some "quietness" is a good thing!
~Carolyn

Lisa said...

Busy busy! Love your house! I too would have considered redoing the original wood but you are so right about up keep! YUCK! Glad the picnic is going well and I hope you all have fun! Feel better I had a sinus infection for 3 weeks! Ran fever a few days too! It was awful!
Hugs, Lisa

Cat Nap Inn Primitives said...

your home is beautiful..can't wait to see her all spruced up..love the amish hats..that is a neat photo...have fun baking..and even more fun at the picnic socializing and eating all that yummy food..;)

Anonymous said...

Just dropping by and love your house. It's going to make an awesome home! And lovin' the part about baking hundreds of cookies and brownies!

Diane H said...

Hope you feel better soon and you have a very beautiful house! Please pass the brownies.

Janine said...

Love your blog and love your designs... I have ordered a few and look forward to making them...

Gert said...

First of all I hope you are feeling better real soon, sure wish I had a cure for you!! Your house is going to be amazing and yes you made a great choice with the vinyl siding. It really is wonderful and always looks beautiful. Hope your picnic went well..you certainly were a busy lady! quiet with the coffee is almost a necessity! lol

Blessings......
xoxo Gert

Cheryl said...

Thank thank thank you, for being someone who takes the ugly siding off of an old home! Gosh, most people cover the homes up.

Cheryl M.