Exterior Activity

Friday saw landscape beds completed, sprinklers turned on and the professional painters working. First to arrive was the crew from the Aesthetic Gardener. While they had finished laying the sod on Thursday, not all the beds were covered with bark/mulch. Friday morning a crew of two arrived. They finished this task and fertilized the lawn and applied Preen weed retardant to the bed areas.

The rest of the big trailer-full of bark was used.

We'll have to come up with some plants to hide the AC unit.

Before noon the crew cleaned up and were on their way.
[sorry for the sun-spot in the picture]

Jay Strahl, owner of JJ's Express Painting, arrived mid morning with his helper and went to work on the walls above the basement door and the east dormer. They primed bare wood and filled nail holes first...then went to work on the final coat. It looks very very good.

We hadn't planned on painting the dormer
...but it had some mold that was power washed off....

...and since they were up there a fresh cost of paint seemed like a good idea.

32 foot extension ladders are tools of professionals...

It was a good decision to contract out this part of the work.

Looking Good ... Very Good

Just after noon Jason from West Ottawa Sprinkling came and turned on the lawn irrigation system [sprinklers]. He made sure all the sprinkler heads were operable, set the controller timing, and adjusted the spray pattern. Now the new sod will get a good soaking 3 times every day until it gets established. Sorry, no pictures.

Before Thursday when the sod was installed we were tracking a lot of mud up onto the new entry decks. They got pretty grungy. I decided to clean them off on Friday. And in doing so reverted to skills...and tools... I had gained as a boater. The entry decks are a composite material [plastic] just like the fiberglass of the boat we used to own. Buried in the garage was our old boat cleaning stuff, which has now become deck cleaning stuff. [I guess we just exchanged one "deck" for another.]  Bobbie snapped a couple pictures of me swabbing the deck......

I found the old boat brush and even a bottle of boat soap.

But the deck was quite different.

3283 will be hosting some guests this weekend. It's nice that most of the landscaping is complete. We'll be able to sit on the deck with friends and enjoy our home with friends without the construction site feeling. And we all will definitely:

Be Happy and Have Fun.