Get 'Er Done!

So I have been a major slacker on house projects as of late. Why?  It's summer and in summer you have fun and Steve and I have talked about never really taking the time to enjoy Pacific Northwest summers.  Our first summer in OR we were getting ready for our wedding and house hunting, summer 2 consisted of taking off our siding and replacing it all by hand, summer 3 was (hmmm, what was it?) just working on random outside projects including landscaping and the front pathway, and oh yea, we got preggo, summer 4 was the year of little man and we even fit in a brick patio and a couple little things and this brings us to summer 5-We're toast!  however, we really wanted to finish a bunch of outdoor projects.  We have the big one done (the is the fence, aka Ben Pen) all done with the exception of attaching the copper post caps and fence hardware-locks.

The last few weekends have kept us busy with Sunday Parkways (biking all over NW Portland when the City closes down the roads and has entertainment in the local park), a trip to the coast and camping.

enjoying the beach, Gearhart, OR

Ben discovering the art of hiding in empty cabinets in the rental beach house

getting ready for "boating" while camping at Frog Lake

hiking around Frog Lake

Mt. Hood in the background

Frog Lake camping summer 2010

Anyways, on to Get 'Er Done.  I have decided to challenge myself a bit and get myself out of the whole don't do any house projects trend.  how?  my challenge to myself is quite do-able.  Just complete one project a day.  Ok, well 5/7 days as I know all too well that things come up and weekends should have some sort of fun involved.  These projects can range from something that takes 5 minutes and has been on my to-do list for months to something that takes hours from my day. I hope to do this for at least a week, maybe 2.  Oh yea and can't cheat by counting two projects that I did in one day as one for another day.

So day one, get butt in gear.  Rev your engines.  I decided that I would take on the front porch.  The first place that people see when they come to our home.  Our dirty front porch, our dirty front porch that has chipped paint all over the place.  Our front porch that needs a good scrub-a-dub-dub, a little sanding action and some good old primer and paint.  Well, can't say I got it all done today.  BUT I did get the sanding and scrub-a-dub-dub part done tonight.
I sanded the peeling parts of the porch with 120 grit paper and scrubbed it done by first sweeping, then spraying with a hose, then scrubbing with an old soft brush and then spraying off one more time.  Now it's drying for tonight.  Forgot to mention that I first removed all the furniture and do-dads that had piled up.

exhibit one, one part of peeling paint on front porch, this is a yearly fix-it project-happens with an old lady porch-she is almost 100 years old

wet porch

a where's waldo of sorts, can you find the cleaning brush?

a clean, wet, clutter free porch

Also started cooking up the multitudes of produce tonight coming from our little garden.  Hope to have some pictures soon.  Used home grown zuchs and basil to make zucchini patties (recipe from www.allrecipes.com) and then some more zuchs to make some oh so delicious chocolate chip zucchini bread with orange zest-also from all recipes.