Happy 4th of July!

We are both trying to take some much needed time off today, although Rick already has been making noise about sanding the kitchen ceiling later.  Rick now is on the couch making a snoring noise... and that is OK, too.

Our proposed color palette for the house.

We continue to make progress and decisions on the house.  I mentioned in the last post that we had bought paint samples of the colors that we picked out to coordinate with the floors.  After painting 2' x 2' samples on the walls, we have decided to reject them all.  They are gorgeous, they all coordinate beautifully with the floors, but they all say, "Autumn in Wisconsin" rather than "Sunshine and Florida."  I decided to look at some tropical art for inspiration, and we are now back to traditional coastal teals, green, yellow, and blue.  The picture on the right shows (left to right) the dark teal from the master bath, the lighter teal for the master bedroom, the "serenity" blue for the Florida room, "lemonade" yellow for the living room, dining room, and hall, and "tropical paradise" green for the kitchen. The colors are a little brighter than the picture shows. With white cabinets and woodwork, we think those colors will all be bright and "cool" for this house.  We will accent with pillows, flowers, and vases while adding the tropical orange for spice to the whole scheme.  Lindsay convinced us to go with either lavender or a coral color for the guest bedroom.  I think that a choice of bed linens will ultimately determine that decision.

Patio as viewed from the house.

Patio from the back yard.

I also mentioned last time that after digging up the landscape timbers in the front yard, I found a tiny little snake.  Duh!  Think further, Sherry.  If you find a baby, mama has to be around somewhere...  Yesterday I was excavating more of our backyard patio.  I discovered lots of buried 2 foot square patio blocks under about an inch of dirt and grass, so what started as an approximately 6 x 8 foot patio actually ended up being a 12 x 12 foot patio nestled under the shade of our overgrown vegetation.  The pictures shows that someday this will be a great place to relax.  Side note-- I also found a circular something buried that turned out to be the flowerpot that is now sitting in the middle of the concrete table.

As I removed the dirt from the patio blocks, I put it in a five gallon Home Depot pail and carried it to the front yard to dump into the indentation left by the recently-removed landscape timbers.  I dumped the first pail and smoothed the soil to transition from the raised flowerbed into the front lawn.  No problem.  I did that with the second pailful also.  As I approached where I would dump the third pailful, I saw the black dirt start to slither-- just like the big black snake that it was!  Hellooooo, mama!  The snake was probably two feet long (I did not stick around long enough to measure it), and it was on the move.

I moved, too, right into the house.  I did not scream; I just said, "Rick, there is a big black snake out in the front yard, so I came into the house."  Rick, who has a true phobia of snakes, did not venture outdoors to investigate.

Apparently the snake hangs around the neighborhood which is a good thing since black snakes eat fruit rats. Our neighbor Jim told us today that yesterday morning he had found the snake sunning itself on his front porch.  When he opened the door, it did not move.  He finally had to throw a shoe at it to get it to leave its warm, sunny rest area. Black snakes do not like or bother humans, so they actually are good to have around.  They just give me the willies and they freak Rick out.  Ah, the wonderful wildlife of Florida!

We also thought that with all of our attic work, we had driven out the rats, but as I mentioned last time, we saw that at least one had gnawed his way into the attic through the roof vent.  We set traps last night, and we know that at least one is up there, but we have yet to nab him.  I still think that I should have had my friend Rose's husband, Jack, teach me how to shoot an elephant gun.  I may not be an accurate shot, but an elephant gun ought to do the trick! (And I would add more ventilation to the attic in the process...)

Our path from the back door of the garage to the back yard.

While further exploring our back yard, I discovered that the four patio block stepping stones that take one into the back yard also had some hidden friends.  I now found three more stones in that path, and one more stone in the path that leads around to the side of the house.  Gladys continues to reveal her secret past.

With luck, we will be able to pack a little picnic and enjoy some time in a park later today.  Happy July 4 to you all!