Progress on the homefront!

The hot tub is up and running and we love it! This is a Bullfrog spa with jetpaks.

The Jetpaks are interchangeable so that you can move your favorite jets to your favorite seat location. The Clusterspray jetpak is in the left in this photo; the Oscillator jetpak is on the right...
The jetpak on the left is Cascadia (it has a waterfall at the top); the jetpak on the right is NeckMasseuse...
The last jetpak is the Rainshower and it is currently located on the lounge chair in the spa. If you want a good laugh, take a look at this video on YouTube.
DH finished stringing up the lights between the trees on the far side of the pool today. They looked really nice after it got dark out. You might be able to see them better in this photo if you click on the photo to enlarge it...
DH ordered 10 blueberry bushes online - 2 each of 5 different varieties. Some of them look like they will survive...
And some look like they are already dead...
This is another rose bush that has blossomed. It smells wonderful! I can't remember the name of this one off the top of my head...
We planted a Clematis near the pool fence. We were amazed at how fast it attached itself to our fence...
I love the color of this rhododendron. I'm used to seeing the pink varieties, but love the deeper purple color of this one...
I don't know what this plant is, but the blossoms are pretty...
The dianthus keep putting out lots of blossoms...
I bought this cute pair of boots at Target and had DH drill some holes in the bottom for drainage...
I planted mini sunflowers in the boots. I hope they continue to grow and eventually flower...
DH ordered a lawn mower online and the delivery person left it in our driveway. It is a Toro TimeCutter Z...
I used it to mow the lawn last week and it is really fun to drive!
DH spent yesterday planting 18 more trees/bushes. This time he planted out near the pool. He also put stepping stones from the pool to the shower using leftover travertine from the patio. Today he finished up the shower - added the stones and the wood tiles for a platform...
Here are some more of the plants he put near the pool...
Last weekend DH re-sealed the deck. Today he worked on the light over the French doors...
Here is what the light looked like after dark tonight (ignore the clamps on each end - they are only temporary). The lights face up and reflect back down off the metal conduit...
Last week, my 2 sisters and a friend were down for the International Quilt Market in downtown Pittsburgh. While walking in the woods we came upon a mass of May apples. The flowers grow down under the large leaves and are difficult to see unless you are looking for them...
I planted some flowers out front by the driveway and sidewalks today, but didn't get any photos of them yet. I also bought 5 lilac plants at the nursery, but DH is too sore to dig any more holes for a couple of days. We'll just keep them watered in their pots for a while...

Let's go PENS!!!!!

Come in and have a seat...

So, on Friday while I was in the kitchen making our usual Friday night homemade pizza, I glanced out the window and saw this...

I guess the birds decided to try out the seat wall on our deck. It looked like they were settling in for the night, but after I took their photo, they flew away. I think they are mourning doves.(Sorry about the quality of the photo - I took it through the window screen, figuring if I opened the door it would scare them away before I could take the picture.)

DH and DS finally finished putting the pool table together. This is the pool table that we bought from Sears for $99. It had to be assembled though, which is probably why it was on sale for so little. DH figures that a lot of people bought one, took it home, saw how much work it was going to be, and took it back to the store!
Here is the first game played on it - you can see in the foreground some of the piles of things we still need to sort through in the basement.
We are making progress though. I've sorted through the large black garbage bags and boxes of linens that were in the powder room and in the guest room closet and in the laundry room. Most of it I've bagged up to give to Goodwill or saved for next years church rummage sale, and the rest will be stored on the guest room closet shelves, guest room bathroom shelves, or in each of the bedroom closets where the sheets, blankets, and towels will be used.

I'm so glad to see that http://houseblogs.net/ is back up and running. Welcome back to those of my readers that get to my blog from Houseblogs and haven't been able to read for a while! If you want to catch up on the posts that you missed, here's the link to my main page: http://bellsrus.blogspot.com.

And the landscapers returneth!

Wow! What a surprise! I thought for sure the landscapers wouldn't be back to finish the patio area for a week or two - it's only been 2 days! They sealed the gaps between the two seat walls and the deck...
And the gaps around the two columns...
The rest of the travertine arrived and they cut the remaining pieces to fill in the triangle...
They didn't seal the gap between the seat wall and the travertine. My guess is that they need to let the pavers that they just installed dry before they fill in this gap...
They filled in the other planter with soil (thought I took a photo of it, but I don't see it anywhere - hmmmmm), but they didn't spread the top soil yet. The Bobcat and some of their other equipment is still here, so I suspect that they will be back tomorrow to finish up.

The landscapers leaveth...

We have a deck railing! The landscapers showed up a bit before 7:30 this morning and went to work putting the aluminum slats in the deck railing.
Here is a closer view - I really like how it turned out...
They spent some time cleaning up the area and made a bonfire of a lot of the junk that had been lying around. They didn't spread the topsoil yet.

And they still need to finish the pavers. I guess they ordered 10% more pavers than they needed for the area and still ran out. They talked their suppliers into selling them less than a full palette, so when that comes in they'll be back to finish the patio and spread the topsoil.
They still need to fill this planter with soil also... The landscapers loaded up their utility trailer (which has been parked beside our garage since the second week in August) and left about 12:30 today.

DH took the day off work and spent the day on the tractor getting the lawn ready to seed. He seeded part of the lawn area, spread the smelly mushroom mulch on it, and watered it. He'll do another section next weekend.
I started working on the cover for DD's window seat cushion, but didn't get very far. It was nice to be able to hang out in the sewing studio while keeping an eye on the laundry though.

Deck details...

The deck is not yet finished, but it's getting there! All the diagonal boards are down and the ends trimmed so that the border boards could be added...
We really like it. The landscape guys have really done a great job with it...
In response to a comment on yesterday afternoons post, I can see how the person could think that there isn't anything for the ends of the boards to connect to. I hope the photos from today will make it more obvious how this deck is constructed. Some of the photos that I posted in past blog entries didn't show the support beams around the edge of the deck. These supports are what the ends of the diagonal boards are connected to...
It took a while for them to get the border boards under the seat wall, but it looks nice now that it's in there!

The step looks great too!
Here's the deck from another angle. The border isn't yet in place on the side that meets the house, the railing needs to be finished ,and the deck needs to be sealed. The landscapers planned to be done tomorrow, but I'm not so sure that will happen.
Here are a couple of close-ups of the screws in the ends of the boards...
and in the middle of the boards. I don't think this deck is going anywhere! :-D
I restocked the refrigerator today. I'm glad I didn't do it last night, as I had planned to, as the refrigerator door was accidentally left ajar last night and I would have had to throw away all the new food. Replacing the food once following the power outage is definitely enough!

We (almost) have a deck!

Yes, we have had our power restored!!!! It was off for 67 hours, almost to the minute.

On Tuesday, the landscapers showed up with a generator so that they could start work on the deck. They finished this much on Tuesday and also put a coat of sealer on the exposed aggregate around the pool.
Today we had a delivery of mushroom mulch (my apologies about the smell to anyone who comes to visit us) which DH will use when he seeds the lawn.
Today they got most of the deck done. If you are wondering why the boards don't go all the way to the edge, I wondered that too. DH told me that they are planning to put a border around the outer edge of the deck so it will all work out in the end.
This is the last little bit that they need to finish up - I assume they will do that tomorrow. They haven't said anything about when they are going to finish the travertine pavers - we still have a corner that isn't finished because they ran out of pavers.
Hopefully, my updates will get back to a more normal schedule now that we have power again. I'm going to cook dinner tonight, even though I haven't made a run to the grocery store to restock the refrigerator, so I must run...

Remnants of hurricane Ike got us!

Well, we've been in the dark here in Western PA since Sunday night, around 9:20pm. No electricity, no hot water (we have an electronic starter on our gas water heater!), no phone or internet (we have Vonage phone), etc. I can't open my oven door (I was in the middle of a cleaning cycle), the dishwasher has undrained water in the bottom, as it was running at the time, and yesterday I had to throw all the perishable foods out.

The awning that belongs to our landscaper didn't fare well in the storm...
Our pool was a mess from the storm - those are pieces of styrofoam that were packed around the pavers on the palette...
We lost a couple of trees and some large branches. This tree trunk just twisted right off...
Here is the rest of that tree...
And we lost this medium-sized tree...
But my favorite tree was safe, so that was good!
The landscapers spent Monday cleaning up the debris around the patio area and I scooped out most of the debris from the pool...
Our neighbor lost his barn in the storm. Part of it fell on Friday during some high winds and downpours, but the rest of it fell during the storm on Sunday night.
I don't know when the power will be back on - according to the electric company's web site, it should be back on sometime this afternoon. I'm at King's Restaurant eating breakfast and using their free internet access. My battery only has half-power though, so I don't have too long to post.

I tried to go to the local library yesterday and get a library card. I couldn't, because they were running a program on their computer that they couldn't interrupt. I was told to call them on Friday and see if the program was done running! They let me get on one of their computers for 30 minutes (only if I gave them my license to hold - the computer was all of 2 feet away from the checkout desk). I asked them if I could sit at one of their tables, plug in my computer to charge, and do some work offline - no, you can't do that here! Unbelievable! Fortunately, I remembered that I have a power converter in my car and was able to plug my computer into that to charge.

I'm about out of battery - not sure when I'll get back on to post again, but hopefully soon!