Home Sweet Home

I'm finally feeling settled in the new house. For the past couple of weeks, Meredith and I have been combing through the inspection report and have been checking off some "need to do" items. We also fixed up the landscaping at the front of our house. I've been travelling back and forth from Bellingham to our house trucking many bags of bark. It seems that the previous owners of the house were not invested in landscaping. To be sure, Meredith and I spent several hours pulling out carpets of weed (she did most of the pulling, I trucked the junk into the forest). We filled the new beds with about sixty cubic feet of bark. It now smells like cedar outside our house.

Additionally, I mowed about an acre of lawn. I'm not exaggerating about the size of the lawn . . . it's big and it had gotten out of hand before I started my mowing ritual. Trouble is, the push mower is starting to show wear and tear. Every time I turn a corner, something rattles. It kind of sounds like a jar of marbles being shook.

We also planted many flowers in flower baskets and flower pots on our deck. We went the cheap route and purchased seed packets: marigolds, etc.. I'm waiting for the first seedlings to pop up since the job of seed-planting was mine.

I also bought a set of cordless power tools. Nothing says "Homeowner" like a cordless circular saw. We've put them to good use. The first project for the new tools was to reassemble the shelves in the kitchen pantry. For some reason, the previous homeowners liked having slanted shelves in the pantry that were only good for holding bottles of wine. Now imagine a whole 3x3x5 pantry with mini wine cubicles. Meanwhile, in the other room, there's a functional wet bar. . . I mean, come now. So Meredith jig-sawed all the shelving out of the space and I re-sized all the shelves with the circular saw, since the shelves didn't fit straight-on (as I said, the shelves were slanted). I installed a four sets of shelving brackets with my new cordless drill. Voila. Functional cabinetry.

Lastly, I've found time to write again. I've been obsessed with this Tagalog Dictionary edited by Teresita V. Ramos. Also, Manong Jose has come by to haunt me again. . . I'm such a tease.