I'd almost forgotten what it is like to have a quiet, peaceful weekend. No crazy running around, trying to get things organized; no packing of things into boxes for storage; no workmen around drilling, sawing or hammering ...
We are into the second week of 2010 and there is finally calm at the Walters household. We are actually getting to relax and be lazy, which seems like a rare treat!
The house still gives me a bit of a (pleasant) shock when I see it as we're coming down the hill towards our cul-de-sac, because it looks so different from the outside. The colour of the new siding goes very well with the roof and has brightened up the appearance of the whole house. The new windows have new curtains to go with them (Bruce spent the last Tuesday in December putting up the rods and curtains, before Ranee and family got here) and the rooms actually have some empty space in them, instead of being covered by boxes and junk. The only thing left to do now is put up Mummy's paintings and some other pictures/photos on the walls.
I think the best part of this whole experience has been discovering how much I enjoy decorating a house - choosing the colour/design of the tiles, carpet and curtains and seeing how well everything goes together now has been such fun. Taste is such a personal thing, of course, but Bruce and those who have seen our "new" house seem to like what I've done and even our contractor approved of the colour choices!
I'll try to take some photos for a "before and after" post. Don't know how many "before" photos we have, though - Bruce and I kept forgetting to take those before the replacement jobs were done.
It was fun have Ranee, Randy, Courtney and Roshan here after Christmas. We got to see and do a lot, but there wasn't enough time to do everything we had planned. Isn't that always the case? Their puppies are so cute and seemed to have a lot of fun in our backyard. It was a huge playground for them. Beau played with them every once in a while, but both he and Belle weren't thrilled by little creatures jumping up on them all the time. They did like racing around with the puppies, though. That is what Beau needs - a dog that will race around with him in the backyard.
Speaking of the backyard, our birdfeeders have been getting lots of visitors in the last few days, because of the cold. We've had below-freezing temperatures for most of the last week, which is rather unusual for this time of the year in this part of the country. We even had a couple of bluebirds make a brief appearance on Friday, after we'd had a sprinkling of snow and rain that froze on the ground. We're hoping they return - they are such beautiful birds, and it is a thrill to see a flash of blue every now and then.
The snow and rain we had on Thursday evening/night led to icy roads on Friday, but happily that is the day of the week that both Bruce and I get to work from home, so we didn't have to deal with the craziness on the roads. There were quite a few accidents in and around Atlanta, and it was a relief to not be a part of the mess. The snow was pefectly timed for us!
