We spent a good chunk of Labor Day weekend doing home improvement chores. The hard work paid off. because we now have two completely different rooms in the house and they look amazing. Saturday morning, we woke up early and went to U-Haul, where Dan had set up a reservation to rent a truck. We have two Smart Cars and a Mustang, none of which will work for hauling massive boxes. Renting from U-Haul was relatively inexpensive and painless, we would definitely use them again. We had the truck for only four hours, so we had to hustle to get everything done.

This sticker was on the inside of the truck and I thought it was cute!

First, we went to Lowes and filled the truck with so many heavy boxes, that we had to dump them off at home before heading to Ikea. Here is a small portion of our purchases.

I am going to leave this as a teaser with the promise of more blog posts to come. Our house is transforming and it's exciting.

I have one more small thing to share, This is a small thing that made a huge different. Dan has replaced all of the door knobs up stairs. Here is a picture of the old ones that are original to the house and grimy from over thirty-five years of use.

Here are the new ones...

Besides being new, shiny and not an awful brass color, they also latch properly. For years, the knob in my bedroom didn't catch and the cats could easily push the door open. I love my cats, but Slinky turns into a devil at two am, when he decides that he wants to play. I would stack things against the door to keep them out. It looked terrible and didn't always work. A big thanks to Dan for small improvement that made such a big difference.

The wasps have been evicted, although a few have returned and have even attempted to rebuilt a nest. Dan destroyed their efforts and killed them with wasp repellent. We looked up natural deterrents to try to figure out how to get them to stay away. One site was selling fake wasp nests. It told us that wasps are territorial and will not built a nest in close proximity to another nest. However, last week I saw a video that one of Dan's friends posted on facebook. It was a house in England that had an attic filled with nests (huge, very scary nests) and one of the nests was an old nest in which new wasps had decided to build a home. So, we don't trust this fake hive idea. We also read that they don't like peppermint or dish soap. We went to soap route, diluted it with water and sprayed the mixture all over the patio railing. Worst case, it doesn't work. Hopefully the wasps will take the hint and rebuild elsewhere. With the wasp situation under control, Dan was able to finish his flower box project. They beautiful and every time I look out at the patio, I can't help but smile. It was really completely Dan's project, he did it all while I was at work. All I had to do was go to Lowes and help him pick out the pretty flowers. Dan took all of these pictures as he was putting it together on Saturday.

Here are all of the supplies gathered. The flowers are sitting in the planters, but not yet planted.

Since the planter boxes would not sit on the railing properly, Dan had to improvise. He bought a piece of wood and got to work with his saw. He knows how to use his tools!

He had to cut each piece of wood and nail it in the spot for stability. Truthfully, I have not taken a good closeup look to see exactly how they are situated, but Dan knows his stuff. The only hitch will be if we have done something against condo code without realizing it. I really hope that they don't ask us to remove them.

Here is the finished result.

A few closeups of some of the flowers. We carefully read all of the info on the flowers and all stated being able to take full sun. Hopefully they can also take the heat of the patio. If they die, we may need to switch to a cactus garden. We considered it while at Lowes, but the flowers were just so pretty. I also want to note that Lowes was a much nicer place to visit than Home Depot and they have a superior garden center and patio furniture selection.

This one is my favorite. I love how the bloom is multi colored. the colors remind me of popsicles.

With the exception of our gardening supplies...

we still have a bare patio. However, we got some great ideas when visiting Lowes and as soon as we have more funds, we will be sprucing it up. Right now, I am just happy to see colorful flowers each time I walk by our patio doors.

Home Sweet Home - Big Things are Happening in Glendale!

Home Sweet Home- Patio, Splash of Color