I’m happy to say our upstairs air conditioning is working this Sunday. The last two weeks, at almost the exact time, we’ve discovered it wasn’t working. The safety pan alarm turned off the system both times. There was a blockage somewhere in the unit as well as in the tube that draws the water away. $400 later and the problem seems to be fixed. Of course, we could just be kicking the can down the road. The shelf life of the system is coming up. I’d rather spend the money on something else. We live in Virginia so there’s no way we aren’t going to have air conditioning.

We went to Easton, MD in the early part of the month. I went to Phoenix in the middle of the month and we are about to head to FL in a few days. This is the most travel we’ve done in years. I wonder why.

We also replaced our porch rug. The old one was terribly faded and we went with a different pattern, but the same colors. Two more years of committing to that color palette is OK with me.

And, that’s a pretty good sum of what happened in April.

We finally bit the bullet and contracted to have our downstairs, stairwell and upstairs hallway painted. We have an open concept so all that color flowed together and was a neutral with way too much yellow in it.

You can see the yellow in the wall and the painter's sample.

The TV room has an exterior brick wall (the room was once a porch). We decided to whitewash the brick so that all of the colors in the brick didn’t conflict with the new geometric paint design. The painting crew was here last week and they painted all the things. The TV room came out fabulously.

The after photo - so cool.

Brick wall, amazing paint job.

There was a reason why that section of the deck always felt bouncy. It wasn’t supported correctly and sat on the ground so no surprise that we found rot.

We tore off the whole section of the long steps (these steps lead to the backyard) and the short steps (these steps are used to get to our gate and then the street). We removed the corner that bounced and then rebuilt the steps and in the case of the short steps, repaired the stringer too.

When we removed the corner, we had to pull two concrete pads. That was fun. Not really, I’m kidding.

Renting a jack hammer to break up those concrete pads was fun, really and truly.

We have already replaced the railing posts and handrail. We haven’t completely finished that piece because wire rails are stupid expensive and we just don’t feel like dropping $1K right this minute. We also need to power wash the main part of the deck and build a skirt to hide the view under the deck. This shouldn’t take long, but we need it to be warm enough to power wash and then put down sealer.

We power washed, sanded and sealed the deck. We also built a skirt and planted some Lenten roses and hostas.

We have a few plants that are mostly outdoor plants except when we enter winter. I have traditionally put those plants in our guest bedroom closet because it has a window. The house and that room face south. The placement of the house is the reason we can have solar panels. It is not an especially good environment for plants who would prefer dappled light. So every winter I hope for the best.

This year we made plans for the plants and with the arrival of the poinsettia, we ramped up the plans. It isn’t fancy and was built with scraps (except for the wire and some brackets):

The plants seem to be less shocked and I hope they begin to recover from the several months they were in direct sunlight (the philodendron always sits there):

I do not think Lucy cares what’s in the cage and I haven’t seen her on the counter yet, but that doesn’t mean we need to be complacent.

Since yesterday was a beautiful day, we decided to rip the little deck off the house. This wasn’t about the cost so much as I love demolition. We took our time yesterday because the contractor wants to reuse a couple of things from the little deck to match the porch with our existing deck. We decided that we’ll rip the floor boards off the existing deck and replace those while the porch is being built. That way we can throw the old lumber into the dumpster. That project is for another day.

Click to view the before and after:

Here are some photos from the unofficial end of summer:

Neat lights:

Lewis Ginter the other night:

I forget what this is called but it is the coolest plant we have in our pots:

Since we’ve lived here the landing of those steps has been a mess. The concrete was damaged long ago and weeds grow very well in the cracks.

The other weekend the better-half broke up the remaining chunks and we discovered the concrete was very thin. No wonder it failed.

Thirty bucks later we have a new landing.

Before with the concrete removed:

After:

Problem solved.