Time to go outside

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The inside work isn’t done yet, but it’s time to take advantage of Mother Nature’s gift. The weather turned nice, spring exploded everywhere, and our poor little house was slowly disappearing beneath years of neglected plant life and abandoned landscaping.

The side yard jungle was finally hacked back with a take-no-prisoners attitude. Underneath all the chaos? Actual steppingstones. Real ones that haven’t seen the light of day in who knows how long. A little grass seed on the bald patches and the yard will come back from looking like the aftermath of a wildfire.

Out back, the giant weeping willow got the spa treatment: dead branches removed, overgrown limbs trimmed, dignity restored. It’s once again standing tall and majestic; the centerpiece of the backyard.

And then… the vine. The absolute menace growing on the east side of the house. We have no idea how many years this botanical supervillain had been left unchecked, but it had attached itself to the siding with the determination of a stalker. It was actively trying to rip a piece off the house. Bonus feature: it was poison sumac. Because why settle for ordinary evil when you can also hand out a big dose of itchy swollen blistering pain?

The vine is gone now. Good riddance. Hidden beneath its leafy reign of terror was an old snaking cable, probably meant to connect a satellite dish to an upstairs bedroom without any regard for exterior aesthetics. Fear not, that cable is headed to the trash, where it can reunite with the satellite dish itself — which was joyfully launched into a dumpster the day the new roof went on.

Before operations moved outdoors, new carpet was installed on the stairs and in the bedrooms. There are still finishing touches coming — baseboards, another coat of paint — but finally, when you walk through the front door, you’re greeted by warm, welcoming stairs instead of the previous horror show: disgusting, ancient carpet and those heinous swirls of cement stucco smeared across the walls and ceiling.

Stay tuned for some beautiful exterior upgrades before we go back inside to finish the rest.