Back-to-school, sad dogs and other dramedys.

I intended to do a big backyard post again, but don't really have much right now besides this:

The grass, my friends, is growing. And growing with vigor. This is fantastic! It looks like everything we wanted for the yard. Awesome.

Blogger is also awesome, with great new features and a new sexy look. Enjoy!

Anyhoo, it's getting to be back to school time. Sad. I had planned on spending this entire month supervising the deck/laundry room addition and yet it's strangely quiet around here. Truth is that the bids on that project came in way over where we had thought they would, and we had a moment with ourselves to think, hm. If we're going to spend THIS much money, maybe we should spend it on changes that are necessary - not ones that are fun. So, the deck has been abandoned for another season. I really hope we get it eventually. I also really hope we win the lottery.

We're going to have someone come out to talk to us about a couple of inside projects - 1) fixing the stairs, and 2) re-doing the floors in the living and dining room. The stairs are off-center and really creaky - they need to be rebuilt before I can paint and finish that hallway. That's one thing. The floors are trickier. One of the things that people always say when they come into our house is, "Ooo, look at those floors! How beautiful!" In reality, these floors were beautiful at one point in time. The flipper who bought the place, however, ripped up walls and patched together the actual floor with cheap, matching laminate, then attempted to varnish the whole thing himself. That's why walking barefoot in our house means that you constantly have little flecks of varnish on your feet. I've actually peeled up whole foot-sized sheets of it on really hot days. He ruined the floors, which is sad, but it's another opportunity for us to make our mark on this house. I want to put down something much lighter than what we have.

Before we do that, though, the floors have to be leveled...I don't even want to think about what that's going to involve. Stay tuned, folks. This old house had all her beams replaced in 2007 but she's still a little droopy. Just cross your fingers that this is something Chris can do with hydraulic jacks and chutzpah and not something that involves an architect and a structural engineer. Updates on all that soon!

I'll leave you this week with a note about Penelope: she's prepping for back-to-school as well. I've been leaving her home more trying to get her ready to have me gone all day again. When we left yesterday, we backed down the driveway and saw this:

Penny, standing on the couch, balancing on the windowsill. Waiting for us to come home. It would be cute if it wasn't so pathetic!