Building for the Future

Rick digging Tongues behind the bushes I just cut down.

Today was a much better day than yesterday, partly, I think, because we both felt that we had accomplished something.  We got up early and decided to work outside before it got too hot.  Rick went back to digging out the mother-in-law's tongue, and I finished topping off the remaining bushes that we wanted to keep.  The photos show that we have lots of brush to get rid of, and we have not even begun to take out all of the leaves and debris in the gardens.  We literally have at least 50 bags of debris to rake up and dispose of before we can begin to plan our new gardens.  The actual planting will have to take place next year when we have some money saved... with one exception.

Today in the mail we received an envelope from the City of Dunedin.  I actually thought they were sending us paperwork for the permit we need to take out to put up a fence, so I was dumbfounded when I read a notice from the city saying that since we removed a diseased, nearly-dead Holly tree, we were required before September 31, 2012, to replace that tree with a 2 - 3" wide trunk and 8 - 10 foot high ornamental or shade tree.  We also received a booklet of what trees were "approved" as replacement trees.

Now while I consider myself a "green" person who recycles and tries to keep the environment safe, and while I also really love trees and understand the city's desire to keep Dunedin green, at this moment buying a $150 - $200 tree is just taking "green" from our already tight budget.  We have no choice, though, since the city inspectors will check to see if we have been compliant with their orders.  We purposely did not buy a house in a gated community because we did not want all of the neighborhood restrictions, and now we find that the whole freaking city has more regulations than the most exclusive of addresses.

My cactus flower!

One nice surprise this morning was that with the sun finally able to reach the cactus, we actually were able to see it bloom!  The blossoms on this "arm" of the cactus were white, but Rick thinks that, strangely enough, the other "arm" has pink flowers.  That arm has yet to open any of its buds, so we will have to see what develops.  With the sun in the garden, we also noted that our newly-discovered magnolia tree has some beautiful white flowers, too.  

Magnolia in bloom.

Rick also was able to patch the holes in the wall in the guest room, and we hope to have that room painted before Stephanie arrives next Wednesday.  The only drawback to her timing of her visit is that we received a call from Jeff telling us that his crew will be here to put in the new windows starting next Tuesday.  Since they will take approximately four days to install all of the windows and doors, they will be here (and we will have to be home) during most of Stephanie's visit.

Rick resting after constructing the vanity. The drawers are
stacked in the background.

After lots of running around to a half a dozen different stores after lunch, we came home and Rick started to assemble the bathroom vanity.  Talking to the kitchen contractor yesterday convinced us that white furniture may not be the way to go, so we have decided to stain rather than to paint the vanity.  The pictures show the vanity frame all together.  Tomorrow we will clean up and rearrange the garage enough so we can stain the vanity.  We have no idea what we will do for a vanity top at this time, but for now the $10 cast-iron Kohler pink sink that I purchased from the Habitat for Humanity Resale Store in Green Bay will be my "temporary" bathroom sink.  We figure that when we are finished with it, we will take it back to the Resale Store and they can sell it again.  That way, the green cash from the sales will go back into that organization.

My goal tomorrow is to NOT go to any stores and to NOT spend any money.  I want to devote much of my time to scrubbing the tobacco stains off  the guest room walls so paint will adhere to it, and I know that Rick will want to stain the vanity.

We have had our mail forwarded here from Green Bay, so today I got the monthly notice of our investments.  As anyone with stocks knows, the market has not been kind the last two months, so we have lost an astonishing amount (at least according to MY meager budget) in the last month alone.  This Old House TV show always talks about the value of "sweat equity" in a restoration, and while we may not have the money to do everything we want here, we are willing to do as much as we can to make Gladys a snug, beautiful, welcoming home. Sweat is something we have been doing profusely, so we hope that the equity part will come about as the weeks progress.