Close but not quite

Said my friend with the confidence of Dr. Oz touting the importance of his newest breakthrough, during a break at conference "when I'm at these things I really try to liquidate."

Huh?

You mean hydrate?

Well, yeah. 

The Drayer Update

It's starting to come together, Pepper. It's starting to come together. 

I have been out of town since Sunday night, traveling for work. Needless to say it's been hard to be away while all of the fun progress is taking place. Nevertheless, Sweet Sarah has faithfully sent picture updates each evening.   

And because I'm blogging from my phone there will only be pictures, no commentary. (I know. I know, TOTALLY  disappointing. But be patient dear reader, I'll make room for more snarky parenthetical comments in the days to come. )

These pictures are from Monday thru yesterday. Pretty impressive. 

Recipe substitution

Yeah, that moment when you're jonesin' for your own seasonal pumpkin cookies. And you realize you only have whole wheat flour so you bake them anyway. And you read online you should cut back on the flour a bit. But you cut back too much.

Yeah.....

So now this......

They taste good. They look bad.

The best kind of mail

I got these two beauties in the mail today. Look at those two, beautiful smiling faces!

All four of my nieces and nephews have grown so fast. These two I don't get to see very often since they live on the west coast. But there really is something different about a family connection.

And this? This just made my day.

The Drayer: We have a porch!

This is TWO days work.  They finished roofing this morning (all but the ridge vent).  I'm pretty sure our neighbors were thrilled with the sound of a compressor starting at 8:15 AM on a crisp, fall Saturday morn.  Nothing makes you want to stay snuggled in your cozy bed than the sound of an air gun going through shingles!  [yeah, scoring no points for The Drayer]

The infrastructure is finished.  And the landscaping and hardscaping work is on hold until the porch is finished.  The space is just too small for two crews to be working.  Once they get a few more things done on the porch, they'll lay the patio, install the table and build the steps to the porch.  

It's getting VERY exciting!

So here they are:

The view from inside the family room

The driveway side.
The day they got this much done we were both thinking,
"wow!  Looks good!  Nice work.  [la, la, la la.  Go into the house, resume other duties. etc.  etc.]

This morning it occurred to me I hadn't looked at it from down by the garage.  I called Sarah out, once I realized the view.  Exact quote, "Holy sh$#!!!! What have we done?!"
Ummm, yeah.  It looks BIG from here.  The interesting part about this entire project is we will actually GAIN grassy knoll [again, not sure it'll be a knoll, but it sounds good.  Don't judge.]
IKEA would be proud.  We are eeking out EVERY inch of usable space in this city land locked yard.

I like this view.  Very zen like.
It makes you want to wander in and see what else is back there.

Looks cabin like, no?

The Drayer Backyard Update

More and more progress every day.

Fence down the driveway is done!

All we need is a gate.  And they set the posts for the screen porch today.
[Is it screen porch or screened porch?  I never know]

What a DIFFERENCE the fence makes.  

Future home of water feature to the left....to be completed by the Spanncrafts next spring.
A quote from Sweet Sarah, "If everything is done, what the HECK are you going to do?  You'll drive me crazy!"  
She meant that in a loving way.

You can see the re-used barnstone that is the wall to the patio

Slow but sure!

Overheard at The Drayer

After standing up and stretching in the middle of dinner with friends as an attempt to adjust for some recent, acute back pain, Sweet Sarah apologized for being a little awkward.  And then QUICKLY followed that with:

"Well, I'm always awkward.  Now I'm just adding movement."

She cracks me up!!!

SAT thinking.....

Today I bought no-sew fabric tape at Joanne Fabrics.  Rest assured, I had to HUNT for the stuff.  And I sure as heck wasn't going to ASK where it was.  Can you imagine the disdain???  But alas, to my utter amazement there is nearly half an aisle of this stuff!!!

But it did get me to thinking in an SAT question kind of way.

No sew fabric tape is to Joanne's as flameless candles at Yankee candle.

No sew fabric tape is to Joanne's as Dryel is to clean clothing.

No sew fabric tape is to Joanne's as a vegan burger at Five Guys.

No sew fabric tape is to Joanne's as a winning pro sports team in Cleveland.  [weak, weak, I know.]

Come on, what can you come up with????

The Drayer Backyard Project Update

We are officially THREE weeks in to the project.  Overall, I'd say things are going as good as can be expected.  No major hiccups, only a few minor changes to plan.  And most importantly, we've got a pretty good crew working.

Here are some updates.....
 

                                       

                                             The first sighting of a fence along the drive.  Yes.  Yes, that's right.
The neighbors actually use that lean-to.

More fence. And the beginning of the barnstone wall.
I'm most excited that we are re-using all of the materials.

Rock base for the patio.
The yellow line is for the gas line needed for the fire table.
[yep.  it's gonna be sweet!]
You can also see the front posts for the street facing picket fence that'll face the street

A better shot of the wall.  

A wider shot.   Check out that GIANT boulder that was in the last blog.
They've moved that thing about 4 times.
It's due to find its final resting place tomorrow.

From the front, side yard looking in.  It already looks SO different.

I mean LOOK at that!

It's getting exciting, people!  Stay tuned.