Day 43 - Trellis Grids and Furniture Swappola

Brrrrrr that wind was still blowing cold all day yesterday in Wisconsin. The wind chills were down in the twenties. The sunshine was deceiving. We messed around with a few little things in the house in the morning and then decided to take a nice long afternoon nap. Somehow this retirement thing is getting to where we like to lay down and take a nap if we can in the afternoon...

When we woke up, we figured we would brave the wind and get out in the sunshine and attach those two wooden trellis grids to the pergola.

We had two little supervisors

watching out the window from the She Shed door. 

First Steve had to cut little notches out of the overhang on the sides of the walkway. I just love this little oscillating tool he got from Harbor Freight with the plunge blade.

Once the notches were cut, we test-fitted the left grid into place. Perfect! Using the level we were able to attach it on both of the bottom edges with long 3 and 1/2 inch coated deck screws. Up on the top we attached it to the sturdy pergola roof support bracket. That thing isn't going anywhere.

The sunshine looks so inviting, but don't be deceived, it was bitterly cold in the wind!

I love how neat and trim it looks on each side, perfectly balanced and symmetrical.  I can't wait for the flowers to start growing and blooming in the flowerbeds.

On the back side of the walkway, facing out to the backyard, we will put two full sheets of regular diagonally cross-hatched lattice, painted red. I don't have that done yet. But we will take things one step at a time and do a little bit each day. Slow and steady wins the race.

But I'm thinking the red background 

will make those white grids stand out even more 

and look just totally adorable.

We put the tools away and went inside to warm up.  We made up some nice homemade chicken vegetable soup for supper, which hit the spot and made the warmth go straight down into our bellies.

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We next had a serious discussion about the furniture in our she shed. I really really love this white furniture that we had on our enclosed front porch from Chilton. Twice now over the years I have sewn new covers for the cushions, complete with velcro on the back so they can be removed for washing.

I liked how it looked and it was so crisp and clean and white and blue for in my she shed.  Kinda delicate and feminine and She Shed-y, if that is a term?

During the six months or so, since the she shed has been completed, I've kept this furniture in the sunny area looking out the big windows to the backyard.

Steve finds that he spends a lot more time down in my She Shed than we originally thought he would. But he really misses his very comfortable mission recliner chair... that is up in the living room. It was his very special chair he bought 8 years ago when we moved to the house in Chilton. And I must admit, it is very comfortable. So much so, that we bought another one that matched it a few years back. That one only had imitation leather, not real leather like his. But it was close enough.  Even if it didn't quite match, exactly.

Sometimes I would notice Steve just sitting up in the living room all by himself, sitting in his chair.

I asked what he was doing. He would say "just relaxing in my chair"....

Awwwwww  But then he would wander back down to the She Shed again to spend time with me --- while I'm working on my various projects. He would prop his long gangly body into the delicate little blue and white sun porch furniture and try to get comfortable.

Well, seeing as it was going to be his birthday TODAY, I decided I would do something special for him.

I SOLD MY BLUE AND WHITE FURNITURE!!!

A friend of our daughter wanted it and snapped it up right away as soon as I put it for sale. Once we carried it out of the She Shed, we were able to bring down our mission recliner chairs from the livingroom and put them in prime viewing position in front of the big french windows looking out over the big beautiful backyard.

Aahhhhhh we added the little stained glass reading lamp and the end table between our chairs, just the way we had them when we lived in Chilton.


I must admit, they are very comfortable to sit in. We sat in them all evening, playing cribbage together, and looking out the window. We even set the little matching foot stools by the window for the dogs. They just love it. Those are the footstools they used to sit on by the window in Chilton too.

We set the matching long ottoman over near the doorway to the she shed, perfect to stow away extra cuddly blankets and quilts, as well as to sit down to put on and off our shoes.

Last night, we turned on the backyard spotlight after dark, and we were treated with the view of three beautiful young deer nibbling away at the bird seed on the ground underneath the bird feeder. They really weren't scared of anything.

We watched them for quite some time. Silly Binney didn't even notice them even though they were right there behind her through the window. Finally Finnegan saw them and he gave a little rumble in the throat, but not enough to bark or jump or scare them away.

It was pretty comfortable, and it made us smile. That was a nice way to spend the evening.

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Things are pretty cold in Wisconsin yet, the trees barely have the tiniest buds on the tips of their branches. Nothing is really opening up yet and that is a good thing. Because this morning we woke up to snow!

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This morning, I got another hare-brained idea. Because we took the chairs OUT of the living room, we needed to put something else IN that space. I wanted something that would match the couch, and fill in the space where the two mission chairs had been. Hmmmmmm

What would be better than an empty space? Another mission chair!

I looked on Marketplace, and there was an exact duplicate of Steve's mission chair, complete with the leather seat. Not the imitation leather like mine, but the real leather!

Steve's real leather on the left,

My imitation one on the right.

We wrote to the gentleman selling the chair this morning, and yes, it was still available.  It was the same price that I got for selling my blue and white furniture, so we would be Even Steven.

So here was my plan, we would go and buy that leather chair and bring it back to our She Shed and put it side-by-side with Steve's leather chair. Now we will have a REAL matching pair!

Then my other mission chair with the imitation leather can go back up in the living room where it was, and take up a nice spot next to the fireplace there.

And that is exactly what we did. We spent a good part of the day today driving quite a ways to go pick up this chair. It was exactly as advertised, he even gave a little bit of bargain room on the price, and we did our social distancing while we conducted our business.

So that is how I decided to honor my sweet husband for his birthday, by giving him a comfortable spot in my She Shed that he can hang out and enjoy spending his time with me.

And the imitation leather mission chair, which is perfectly fine by itself, is now by the fireplace in the livingroom.

I also baked him a birthday cake early this morning. I put on chocolate chips, because if I put on 62 candles it would set off all of the smoke alarms in the house!!! Lol!

Happy Birthday, darling Steveio

Let's see those social security checks

start rolling in! 

Now to settle in for the evening and 

celebrate his birthday!