Progress!

Yesterday was hot but much less humid, so we were FINALLY able to paint again. 

Bill primed the remaining large section on one side of the house (the side where he first had to remove and replace 93 of the shingles), and he also primed the two triangular sections on either side of the dormer.  I put the third coat of paint on parts of the lower half of the back of the house.  I painted the lowest row of shingles and all the area around where the deck rail butts up against the house, and along the deck itself, and around the windows, and one entire section near the kitchen because this huge concrete platform Bill uses in his beer brewing is over there and it's hard to use the sprayer.  So it's easier if I just do it with the brush.

I've discovered that I'm able to go up higher on the ladders now. 

Maybe it was that whole defying death thing when I helped Bill replace the wood behind the gutters recently, but for whatever reason, yesterday I found myself climbing up the free standing ladder (to reach above window frames and up near the lower section of roof) without the usual hesitation.  So, yay.  It's good to confront fears.

Today...let's see, I think we may be removing the clapboards from the other half of the front of the house and putting up tar paper.  I think it's supposed to rain this afternoon, so that may be all we get done.  The weekend is supposed to be VERY hot and VERY humid, so we'll focus on putting up the shingles and trying to get the rest of the garage prepped and ready.  And THEN, if all goes according to plan, we can prime the shingles on the front of the house and prime ALL of the garage, and that will be the last time we need to use primer in the paint sprayer.  (It's oil-based and yucky to clean.  It will be nice to be done with it and switch to latex for the remainder of this saga.)

So that's the ideal plan.  We'll see how much we can accomplish.

In other progress, I am still eating less than I used to (usually), and better (usually), and I'm doing yoga, which feels great even though I'm discovering how tight my muscles have become over the years, and I'm walking several times a week, too.  And working on the house is, at times, very physically taxing, too, so with all that stuff combined, I'm whittling away at the flab that has accumulated unattractively on my body over the years.  I had a doctor's appt recently, and I'm down 17 pounds since last year's appointment, and I'm pretty certain most of that weight loss has happened over the past couple of months.  So, yay me.

What else...

OH!

A big momentous event took place earlier this week.

A couple of days ago, after 8 weeks of patience (for the most part)...

Julia got to change her earrings.

These were a birthday gift from a classmate (a boy!), and Julia decided weeks ago that these would be the first earrings she wore after taking the initial piercing pair out. 

The holes had closed nicely, though we had a little trouble putting the new earring in one of the holes.  I had flashbacks of the same thing when I'd had my ears pierced -the pain of poking around with the wire until it found the exit at the back of the earlobe.  Ugh.  But Julia came through it without tears. 

What else...

Alex has discovered his inner Harry Potter and now often speaks with a British accent.  Well, sort of.  Sometimes it's more Aussie than English, other times I've noticed a hint of Spanishness.  It's very cute, overall.  And very annoying after a while.  But he's pretty good, though his accent can be more Hermione than Harry.  And I'm talking just the first movie, back when they were all still just little kids. 

I think that's it for now.  Time to check the garden for more zucchini.
  

Comments

[Apartmentkitchen.wordpress.com]

YAY JAYNE! :D 17 lbs - that's awesome! Keep up the good work!

Yoga is so good - I like really nice gentle yoga first thing in the morning. If you have cable and get the Fitness channel there's a belly dancing show on there called Shimmy that I really recommend. I bet Julia would have a blast doing that with you!

[judith]

I was just about to say the same as AptKit, yeah on the yoga, there's also a good yoga show on that same channel but I can't remember the name of it, Vinyasa Flow or something like that. Maybe that's what they do is Vinyasa Flow. I was also going to mention what a good work out all the up and down on a ladder can do for you. Results in a nice behind and pretty upper thighs.

Hope it doesn't rain all weekend my boy-child is flying out this afternoon to visit my girl-child in Boston!!! I may try to make the trip in Sept. Maybe we could meet up.

[Jean]

Well done on a) conquering your fear of heights and b) exercising and eating sensibly to lose weight (notice the correlation between height and weight.....sorry, retired English teacher).
Very impressed with your hard work in renovating the house exterior, hope you get finished soon.

[Veronica]

Jayne - Congrats to you!!! I know how hard it is to have a healthy lifestyle and the fact that you are doing it the healthy way is something to be commended.

Love your blog!

[Jayne]

Oh, I hope we can meet up! That would be wonderful. Id like Julia to meet you, too.