April Showers...

...of the frozen variety.
Just two weeks ago my friend Kirsten and I sat on the back porch and talked. It did get cold when the sun was going down, but we were outside and enjoying the backyard.

This weekend it snowed. I’m ready for spring. I’m ready to be reminded why we love our backyard.

Sometimes it hits me...

I look around the house and it feels like I'm watching a house being built, but backwards. Last night I told friends that it's probably going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better. That comment sunk in last night, and I think it's pretty accurate. As we get more walls down, we have many more ideas. Michael and I are never short on ideas.


Can you believe we turned a living room, closet, bathroom and guest room into this?

Water, water everywhere

We have a pond. I never wanted a pond. In fact, I never even considered wanting or not wanting a pond. Nevertheless, we have a pond.

Michael's mom isn't a fan. I can't say I blame her. Michael's mom, Carla, and I have different takes on why we don’t really like the pond. She considers it a hazard to the grandkids. True, no doubt, but so is the huge river in the back of our house that connects to the Chesapeake Bay. Actually, at this point, our entire living situation is a hazard. But that’s a topic for another day.

But, there are days when the pond is really pretty, and then I like the pond except for the creepy girl sitting on the “dock.” I don’t know what it is about her, but I can’t stand her and I also can’t get rid of her. A friend from high school, Julie, visited once and she understood, but it’s not something I can easily explain. Julie and her husband just bought a house and I planned to send the creepy girl as a housewarming present. But, I couldn’t bring myself to remove her from her resting place. (You're welcome, Julie.)

Speaking of resting places, behind the pond is the final resting place of “Tiffy,” Bob and Mary’s (the former owners) dog. The funny thing about Tiffy is that the “T” on her gravestone has been missing for quite some time. Now we have “iffy” buried in our backyard. I can’t help but think that’s funny.

The storm of the century…

Well, it was the storm of November 2006 anyway. There were wind warning, the sky was dark at noon, and there was news that it would last throughout the evening. So, Annapolis did what all east coast towns do when storms come through – panic. Schools closed, wind warnings on the bridges, e-mails of our impending doom circulated the office.

When I did make it home -- it was a slow drive but free of disaster -- I quickly surveyed the yard. The water was really high and there were ducks floating in the yard – funny but far from alarming. The coast was clear. Or so I thought.

Michael got home about an hour after I did. He also surveyed the yard, but wasn’t distracted by the ducks (they were long gone). He noticed the bridge over the pond had been blown over and the roof has been torn off the shed. How did I miss both? Oh, the ducks.

Yet again, the house dictated our plans for the weekend. Raising the roof. While we were planning on either sprucing up or tearing down the shed in the spring, we had hoped it would last us through the winter.

Sorry about the delay in posting... I'm getting caught up as I was out of town for quite awhile. Glad to be back and working on the house again.