Baby Steps

There hasn't been much to post about lately, as I've been working on packing and cleaning the townhouse in preparation for the big move (I have to be outta here by Halloween). I have had a little time to "get dirty" lately though, including climbing up on the roof to clean out the gutters, powerwashing the pool cage (again...algae is gross) and being cute and domestic by potting flowers! (Who knew, right?) Forgive the outfit, it was a get-dirty day, heh...

Despite the fact that most of my work so far has been centered around getting out of the townhouse, big progress was made at the house this week as painter extraordinnaire Bill Lainhart has been putting in hours  painting all of the ceilings, rooms, closets and the front door, and along the line saving all of us one, giant headache.

The house, as is expected, is an absolute mess as he got in all the prep work Monday night (removing fixtures, placing drop cloths, etc). I promised to stay out of his way until he's done on Thursday, but sneaked over there Tuesday night to snap a few pictures of the work in progress.

 Who paints a bedroom dark green? Honestly...yeesh.

It seems as though all of Bill's prep work is done. He's painted all of the ceilings and gotten to the walls in one room...but it was the area of the house I was most excited to see done -- the master suite! I tried to keep everything colorful and bright, (hence the orange/yellow walls in the great room) but wanted to tone it down a little in my bedroom, so I chose a blue that goes with any kind of crazy bedding motif I could throw at it (my zebra comforter will be right at home!). My beautiful bathroom was still unpainted and heavily covered in plastic as of Tuesday night, but I DID see color creeping toward it, woot.

I was happy enough with the progress that I brought my first decoration from home, heh. Hey, you can't blame me for being eager to get started with the move-in. :)

Another bit of good news: The backyard neighbors have decided to go in half on a 6-foot privacy fence across our yard. Growing up on a farm in Michigan where only thing behind me was miles of farm field and the river, it has been a big adjustment so far to remember that my new neighbors are less than 20 feet away when I'm on the lanai. You can hear everything that goes on over there and vice versa, and they have two little dogs that go absolutely nuts any time I go outside, so in the end the fence was a necessity. I'll still need to be more quiet than I'd like in the backyard, but the fence will at least cut down on me having to have the curtains pulled at all times!

Of course, Sarasota County is crazy-Nazi about all types of things, including needing building permits for anything taller than a foot, so we've had to wait a couple of weeks for the permit to be approved. But the fence folks showed up on Monday and started to sink the posts, and they should be done by the end of the week! It was too dark to take pics in the backyard, but I'll post them as soon as I can get over there during the day.

Getting excited about moving into my own place after 12 years of renting! The day slowly approaches. Lots and lots to do before I go (clean, repaint the townhouse, pack everything, move, unpack, repeat) and just 12 days to go!

Oh, and for those of y'all who think I exaggerate about nearly everything...I do (I'm a writer! It's how I pay the bills.) But I'll leave you all with proof that the spiders in Florida are no joke. My rule of thumb is, if it's furry, has eight legs and is bigger than my hand, it's worth taking pictures of. How'd I do? ;)