A makeover for the hallway, a haircut for the lawn, and a date with Home Depot!

Last weekend David and I spent a "relaxing weekend" working on the house after booking a last minute ticket for me to fly to Boston. We started Saturday morning by tearing up the dirty blue carpet in the hallway and on the hallway stairs, and then took a break to have lunch with Grammy Pat, Grandpa John and Harvie. Harvie was down in MA for a math meeting and met us in Andover to drop off some items for the house and have lunch. After a delicious cheeseburger we said goodbye and stopped by Dan and Purvi's house to say hi to the girls. Anika and Purvi were out, but we got to play with Olivia and Ella for a bit and catch up with Uncle Dan. While we were there we decided we should tile the entry to the apartment. When we removed the carpet from the stairs we realized that the entry way was painted wood plank - which we felt wouldn't hold up as well with wet shoes in the winter time. So we left Dan's house equipped with a tile saw and some tiling tools, and drove to Home Depot.

During our renovations, we have made one observation that seems to always hold true: home depot swallows people. By this we mean, people go off for a quick home depot run, and return hours later. Saturday was no exception. After two hours in the store, David and I left with tiles, cement board, tile adhesive, grout, door stops, blue floor paint for the stairs, sandpaper, and some wiring items needed to install a hallway light. We had plans to go out to dinner and a movie, but our date turned into perusing home depot aisles, painting the stairs, and tiling the entry. We finished painting and tiling at 2am, and went to bed.

When we pulled up the hallway carpet we were excited to find a hardwood floor that was in great condition - it looked like it had just been refinished! All we had to do was pull up a few staples, vacuum and then mop for dust.

Since the wallpaper is blue and we didn't have time to remove the paper and repaint this weekend, we decided to stick with a blue paint for the stairs. Instead of the bold dark blue that was on the stairs before, we went for a duller grayish blue. We repainted the vertical white part as well, and some of the banister posts.

David completed his first ever tiling job - and it turned out fantastic! We are really glad we chose to go with tile, it looks really nice.

On Sunday we tackled the lawn, and cleaned up the driveway and backyard a bit. We used a reel mower, which at first made me feel as if I had traveled back in time. With all the people out walking in the beautiful weather, I couldn't help but make jokes about what they must be thinking. This has less to do with the actual mower, and more to do with a memory I have from about 20 years ago. I remember driving by a house in Barre, VT where a man was mowing his lawn with a reel mower and I was fascinated by the contraption - I'd never seen anything like it! The mower did an excellent job though and the yard looks much better. I decided I liked our reel mower - we're helping the environment and getting exercise!

A view of the lawn from the front of the house!

From the sidewalk alongside the house. David went all around the outside of the fence digging up dirt and grass that had begun to spill onto the sidewalk. The yard could use some more grass, and probably some leveling, but it looks a lot better than it did!

We also cleaned up all of the weeds and brush (and trash) that had accumulated along the back fence and in the driveway and paved portion of the backyard. We now have a big pile of yard waste, and a driveway that is looking mildly better. Since this is where the future garage would go, we weren't quite as worried with the finished product!

We stopped working on the house Sunday in time to go to dinner and use one of our Groupons. We had a delicious leisurely dinner at the Elephant Walk, and made it to bed by midnight.