New Arrivals!

Back!  I am back.

Indeed, and I am oh so ready to get to work on the house.  Itching.  Though I need a nap.  An extended one, preferably.  Yet, I'm feeling more gung-ho, let's-go-get-'em about the ever-growing, never-shortens list than I was in February.

This clicked with me the other day, plus the article linked to in its first sentence.  I mean really, fear -- so what?, you make a mistake, learn then try again.  What's the big deal?  Put all logically like that, yeah, ain't nothin' one can't do.

Well.  Welcome back, heh.

So ok, good, ready to get to work!

But Oh!

We have several new additions to the family!  Family of tools and motorized and/or powered things and such and other things that is.  Things to help things get done.  Boo-yah.

Before we begin....

I find, on occasion, here and there, ya know, it's difficult to fully express to you in mere humble text my true feelings, my shock and passion about such domestic augmentations.  As such, today's proffering will be fortified by enhancements exemplifying my genuine, authentic sentiments on these transactions.

C'mooon, it'll be funny.

Alternately, while these items are craze-inducing indeed, several of these have been, well, harder.  Emotional.  Surprising, hard, and emotional all smushed together at times.

And I share these as not to gloat, as I am far from a gloating type.  I share out of sheer thankfulness.

Without further ado, here forthwith arrived the following....

Plants!

 My favorite part of spring, scooping up annuals and prettifying the planters.

Out back on the deck.

One of three planters out front.

Our transplant plants are whooie, mighty spritely already in this early part of the season too!  Yay!

We have had A LOT of rain lately, hence the yard going jungle.

I finally planted the sad little lilac that Mike hates, reminiscent of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree, as he slipped up and said I could do whatever I wanted in the front yard.  It went in the ground the very next day in fact.  Oh yes, hold him to that, I will.

And I did.  Further.  A tiny bit.  If only Mike would let me ditch the grass up front and plant up the whole area.....alas.

I splurged on six perennials at the recently relocated uber fancy and pricey Christy Webber Farm and Garden Center though three of them I found on sale racks for five bucks a pop:  a (struggling [I'm such a sucker]) Columbine yet to be planted and two Heuchera "Caramel."

Again, LOT of rain hence jungle.  And spring recovery mode so things look, uh, a wreck.  But there's a Blue Mood Woodland Phlox split in two, Tiarella split in two, and a big Ruellia (Mexican Petunia) all up in there with the two Heuchera caramels.  It looks a bit of a mess, ok yes.

I drove past their swanky new digs (ah ha, digs, plant pun) every single day after work and espied the aforementioned sale racks, egging my raging desire to swing in.  To say everything there, plants, planters, trees, bushes, everything, is drool-worthy is a serious understatement.  I could have done tremendous wallet damage.

Next....

Cool items to give a test-it-out whirl from the friendly DeWalt people!

The DeWalt DW088CG Green Cross Line Level.  Whoa!!

All right!  I am so terribly excited about these goodies, I can't even.  And I have plans in the works for the laser level, stay tuned!

Part of the Tough System!*  Cool beans!!

Shop vacuum!*

Oh yes.  This was purchased as consequence of a certain ginger's urging.  Odd right, Mike encouraging me to purchase things related to power tools?!  Welp, he did, and there it is.  Thanks in part to my nieces for the Christmas gift card too!

Sluuuuuuurrpp!!  Man, does this thing suck!

I rewarded Mike for his inspiration by letting him know that this new arrival will allow me to finally finally finally finish the pocket door wall.  Yes, (well) over a year later and it's still not done.  Stay tuned for that upcoming adventure!

On the sucking related topic, Mike got us a new regular house vacuum* too!

Seriously, these are so accurate it's amazing.

Our previous one decided to get funky bam, just like that, and as everything requires me to spend countless hours researching online.........Mike skipped me, cut to the chase, and thoroughly surprised me.

That's the nicest Finn has been to this new vacuum.  He Hates it so much he attacks it.  Yeah.  It's oodles of fun.  Not.

Jigsaw!

Oooohhhhhh hohoho, oh my goodness, I cannot wait to test this puppy* out.  I treated myself, a rarity.  It's reminiscent of the saw I once had, the one that was stolen.  Cannot Wait!  Swoon!

Omg.  Omg.

Peony!

Oh yes.  My two faves are growing in our yard, lilac and peony.  Though.  Heh.  I suspect it'll be eons before this lil' bugger bears big bountiful beautiful smelly flowers unfortunately.

Peony!  Heh, yeah, hard to tell.  C'mon little guy, you can do it!

Fridge! 

Right?!  What a list.  Omg, I know.  So much for testing out that Bob Vila tip I mentioned last time about cleaning rust off of stainless appliances but so it is.

While I did like our old fridge, the ice maker was a thorn in our side.  Aka, it failed constantly.  We had the fussy thing replaced and/or repaired easily five or six or more times, I lost count.  This most recent death, our warranty expiring in June, Mike, vvvtt, had had enough.

Off to Abt* we went and our awesome sales guy from our first adventure, Shahab, omg, he went to bat for us, gave us a full and complete refund on the old fridge.  No sh*t.  I'll let that sink in.

We then applied the refund to a brand new different brand fridge, a schwanky Kitchen Aid.

Did you hear me pass out yet?

After four years.  A full refund.  Right?!  I know.  I told you their customer service was stellar; I kidded you not.

A brand new car!

What?!?!  Right?

While I did not win it, Mike, that guy, in a way I guess I did win it as it's from him.  A seriously, wow, speechless.  Truth be told though, Mike's been working on me for over a year and a half.  Probably two.

My sweet Rabbit, my most favoritest car ever ever ever, over my dead body will I ever let it go....sigh.....Mike was probably right:  it was starting to age (not really), reach that time in its life where repairs would pile up (likely), my extended warranty to expire, its value about to drop.  Soooo....

The car though?  Hard.  I cried.  Hailey rode in my Rabbit.  Slowly things she touched are disappearing and that is not easy for me.  So we stashed some of her toys in the new car.  Shrug, what can I say.

But, I absolutely will say this Golf is a true joy to drive.  And I am a very lucky woman.  It gave me pause to think about change.  How I suck at it.  How I should learn to be better.

For the surprising, hard, and emotional:  enter my parent's belongings.

I did recently read this article, (and Mom, do not take this the wrong way at all) Sorry, Nobody Wants Your Parents' Stuff, then lo, my parents announced they are selling their home of thirty three years and downsizing.

They've been batting the idea around but it suddenly became real and it was a bushwhack.

I mean, I don't blame them at all; the house is more than they need and all of it unmanageable for them.

Adding to the already hard and emotional:  they designed this house and built it.  So many memories and memories attached to items in it and then the house itself.  That now needs going through and sorting and the downsizing.

I do not envy them this task.

Further add we are at max capacity for things in our own home and I am continuously trying to send more items out than bring in.  So it's hard.  Packrat.

Here was our first take-home of items, many of which are mine from my old bedroom but mostly Christmas ornaments and decorations.

Yeah that table was supposed to be a blog post while I was working on the movie.  Yeah, that didn't happen.  Yeah, soon!

I have mentioned Christmas three times in this post.  What the hell.  I barely mention Christmas when it is Christmas.  Weird.

Well anyway.  My dad's vise.  That's cool and it will get great use.

So while these new acquisitions are fun, and while I am happy to have items with memories and items that mean something to and from my folks, it yanks at the ol' heart strings to see (lots of) other things go.  Plus it's hard to watch my parents do this as it's a difficult path for a myriad of reasons.

We'll go up to help them out.

A gaggle of torches!  From a big birthday party my mom threw for my dad.

Heh, Mike chortled we could have our very own Survivor episode in the backyard with all these tiki torches.  Hahaha!  We best be four hundred thousand percent mosquito-free this year, heh.

On a positive note, my folks have a new place lined up and my mom is quite a-twitter over redoing it, decorating it, so that is good.  She's even thinking black kitchen cabinets!!  Go Mom!!

This does not fit in and I don't care as this is the elevator I designed for Patriot.*  We need to watch the season still (Mike!) (and hey it got renewed!) but damn, my elevator, in a gif, wow!

Thanks go to giphy.com for all the fun.

Okey doke, the obligatory I'm-back-home-bake-chocolate-chip-cookies have been baked.  Time to get rolling.

All righty, let's see, where's that list......

*The DeWalt Tough System components, Shark vacuum, and Bosch jigsaw are Amazon affiliate links.  Patriot is as well but the show is free for Prime members.  The shop vac is a Home Depot affiliate link and the Abt link is also an affiliate link.  Mwah, thanks!  Please see the "boring stuff" tab for more info.