Sunny Sunday!

Oh my.... clear blue skies. 

High temps in the mid 70's. 

I think Spring might be here?  

It was time to catch up a few things 

around Our Old House 

now that the temps are cooperating.

I had this wonderful old enamel wash pan that was out in the garage when we bought the house.  I had a bunch of succulent plants that I had wintered over inside.  Time to put the two together.....   I think this will sit out on my cute red patio table as a centerpiece, but it can be moved if need be for meals outside.

We have signs of spring cropping up all around the house and yard.  Yup, all of the snow is gone and we are reveling in the warm rays of sunshine, chirping birds, and a few open windows on the house.

The flowers are all poking up their leaves around the house....  and soon we will be having tulips!

So far we have some star brites and daffodils (or narcissis?)

Duke and Ducky's new headstones we bought last year 

made it through the winter cold and didn't crack.

Steve was able to start working on the motorhome.  As you recall, we had a bad coolant leak all the way home from Florida.  Every 100 miles we had to stop and add gallons of water to the system.  He knew the leak was near the water pump, but not sure exactly until he could get under there and check.  Since the weather was finally cooperating, he got the water pump off.  Happily, it only looks like it's an O ring at a inlet hose connection that appears corroded, kinda hard and possibly the problem.  No leaks from the end of the shaft, so the seal is holding.  He will change the O rings, and probably the gasket too.  Better than replacing the entire waterpump at $500 or more!


Once that was done, we were ready to tackle the garage!  SPRING CLEANING!!!!  We cranked up the radio, got out the gloves and went to work.

Here are the "before" shots.....

He serviced the snow blower to stow it away for summer, and got the lawnmower ready for the upcoming season.  I sorted and cleaned and stacked and threw away a lot of stuff.  We called a metal recyling guy to come get some old pipes and fittings.  Chilton is not having their annual bulky item pickup this year, so we would have to dispose of everything ourselves.

I have a large number of shipping boxes stacked up, as well as clutter and junk and things that have accumulated over the last three and half years in this house. We started out with a clean garage back then.  What happened? 

We brought out our supervisor and district manager to check up on us.  They cracked the whip and told us to get that clutter cleaned up and find their TOYS!!!

We managed to locate their frisbees, tennis balls, tie out ropes and outdoor doggie dishes.  Lucky dogs!   We even set up the lawn chairs for a coffee break and tossed the ball for them a few times.  Happy dogs.


It didn't take too long....

Steve erected my new shelves over in the far corner of the garage for organizing my shipping boxes.  They are made from an old set of shelves that had been down in the root cellar room of the house. The unneeded shelves were over on the far left and he took them down.  (we kept the shelves on the right for my canning jars)  I love the old stone and brick walls in our basement.

Soooo why am I blathering on and on about some stupid shelves?  Well... because they have a history connected with the house and the family that lived here for four generations.

The boards are from a piano packing crate from many many years ago....   probably salvaged after the family bought this piano in this photo below.  The company is a local business just down the block where the piano was shipped to.  How cool is that?  Here is young Joan Kopf Baldock at the piano.

 And here is George Baldock Jr. along with his sister Joan at the piano. 

This room is now my Loom Room for my studio.  

The piano is gone, but the crate remained in the basement,

recycled as shelves all these years. 

Now it's getting a new use out in the garage, 

nailed up in the corner to organize my shipping boxes! 

and... before you know it,

 the garage was clean! 

The kids gave Steve some gift cards for his upcoming birthday this Thursday,  so he is going to head to Home Depot and pick out some new bench building materials and legs and supports to make his work area spiffy. He has to have a place to hang out once he retires, right? 

My last project involves something I came across a year ago....  and now I will finish it up. 

Background story:

 20 years ago, I owned a cool old English Tudor home in Green Bay. 

It was a two family home, which I had an apartment in the upstairs for rental income.  I loved this house with it's old original woodwork, classic charm, and style that I have come to appreciate in older homes.  I used to sell real estate, and this type of home excited me, rather than cookie cutter boxes in rows and rows in new developments.  But I digress.... 

This is when I first met Steve.   He built me a wonderful birdhouse to match my house.... and I just loved it.  What a sweet thing for a guy to do.  He lived on a very very tight budget while we dated.  Many of the gifts he bestowed on me were handmade.  So Precious!   (plus he got a crew of guys together to replace my roof, but that is another story) 

When I sold the house 2 years later (because we built our new home together up in Oconto)  I left the birdhouse behind in the yard, thinking it belonged with the house.  Steve said he would build me a new birdhouse, and leave this one for the new owners.

Last year, I was heading up to Green Bay for a doc appointment, and had extra time to drive around.  As I was driving past my old house, I thought I would stop and take a few pics.  A renting tenant lady stuck her head out the window and asked if she could help me?  I told her I was just snapping a few pics because I used to live there.  She came out to chat a bit.  We had a nice visit, and I mentioned a few queries if the backyard was still the same, with my gazebo I built, the trees I planted, and the birdhouse Steve made.  The birdhouse can be seen in the foreground in this pic from long ago. 

She said "funny you should mention that birdhouse... my son just bumped into it last week, and the post was rotted down at the ground level.  So it fell over!  I put it in the garage and notified the landlord.  He said it was okay to toss it out because the roof broke.  I had missed putting it out for garbage pick up this morning so it's still laying the garage! Do you want it?" 

I replied:

"DO I WANT IT????  OF COURSE!!!!"  

I loaded it up in the trunk of the car and went home with a treasure more precious to me than anything I could think of!  Here is a video clip of when I got it home and notified Steve that I had something in my trunk: 

I took the birdhouse yesterday and repaired the broken roof pieces.  Then I cleaned it up in the afternoon and let it dry.

Here it is all scrubbed up

I am not going to put it back outside. 

I am going to keep it indoors, probably out in our front porch.

To look at it. Smile. Remember. 

Now I have to decide if I want to repaint all the faded details,

 making it all spiffy and good looking? 

 Or should I just seal it in well with poly

 and keep it in it's original paint to preserve the memory? 

What would you do?