Wiring on Park

Repurposing junction boxes whilst your Dad's on electrics and things are going live/hot (everywhere!)...

The lead pipe conduit and wooden bar at the bottom of the stairs are now no more. You can smoothly transition in bare feet across the hall...

Home Improvement

Pegboard order comes to the kitchen...

Yard Day on Park

How do you rid the world of 25 pots of half-used paint from across a few style phases, without poisoning it?

We've gone for an open bin for curing away from chipmunk and squirrels' paws that potentially is going to fill your basement with fumes but in the long run should dry into a benign mass.

Goodbye...
sweet pink,
cafe creme brown,
sage & avocado green,
fresh turquoise,
lumpy white,
deep red
and
classic pale grey.

Stairs on Park

Now we have them revealed - the wall has come down - and can move about albeit still a bit (lead) dusty underfoot.

Doors on Floyd

A new toned-in screen door (that does jam a little - just sayin...) and one blackboard-paint door for the clubhouse. Warning of side of tin, read after the fact, does note lack of suitability for child inhalation.

Planter on Allen

Build and grow... a weekend's DIY task for Team P & N, down a block and round the corner. Herbs and tomatoes since added.

Ramp on Floyd

It's Sunday, the garage has been cleared for new beam insertions and  there was plenty of old wood on the ground... so the final structural feature of the clubhouse got made - a ramp - some 22 months in the planning.

DIY on Floyd

A Sunday of jobs - not least watering B & L's wilting pot plants, repairing their spluttering hose, washing the dented Dodge, sweeping crunchy magnolia leaves, sifting through P's chaotic tool box, burning a dancey car disc and check in nervous PH for her return trip.

All jobs ticked aka checked off.

Next week the metal gate post, dug out with care before JJ came in with the angle grinder and P whacked it down with a sledge hammer.

DIY Graveyard on Floyd

No polystyrene graves for us. With a hand-saw and some wood ends we have our own spooky set, with blood (!) thanks to J.
- Rise from the Dead
- Dare to Enter
- Here Lies 'Het Beest'

Tomorrow the artful front yard display and extension cord joy. First P needed to test-drive his new lawn mower leaf catcher set-up... with dust bowl results.

Down pipes on Floyd

There nothing like burying a bit of formerly overground drainage. So gone is the unsightly plastic trip-hazard and in the process a bit of mortar training has been gained thanks to the neighbour-on-the-right.

Next we fancy a bit of paving...

Circular rug, in progress...

Here it is - the thrift store fabric-fest of a rug, currently a mix of six blankets, throws and tablecloths. Of course I have a plan and that plan is fairly colour specific! Solid colours, no earthy tones and a Marimekko Melooni aesthetic that challenges my suppliers - the good folk of Richmond VA.

Have 6 foot (!) ambitions and red is up for sourcing next. Then I can justify this IKEA classic rocking chair to complete the look or maybe its non rocking, cheaper alternative.

Baywatch Clubhouse, Phase 1

 ... so when you want a treehouse but your home is temporary, the next best thing is a clubhouse on stilts. Designs are being finalised, modelled on Zuma Beach's lifeguard towers, but with no prospect of David Hasselhoff for the grand opening on M's Birthday. P still has his tangos though!

Sandbox aka sandpit construction

The brief was specific, the work force came in from Mineral on official godparent duty and the consignment (aka reclaimed) supplies came over the fence. This was an amish-style affair with pit digging involving major root and rubble removal, closely-monitored depth surveying (enough that getting to the bottom should be a challenge - 1ft aka 0.3 metres) and a delicious, not quite shared, meal of French lamb and a cashew nut bake for the vegetarian.


For those who might be inspired, we are now 60 bags (50lb/23kg each) into the process of creating this 'sandbox' and pondering the wisdom of its scale (6 x 7 foot/1.85 x 2.2 metres) - however the kids, plus neighbours can be accommodated with ease and poor brown dog (a once stylish doorstop) is routinely buried. Taunt muscles in workforce anticipated, pending recovering from aching limbs.

Inaugural event: J's 3rd birthday party...