*Lyrics from Neptune City by Nicole Atkins. I heard this song on Pandora the other day and really liked her voice. Not sure how I feel about her more recent album yet, but I can confirm that her voice is attractive to me. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

DURING: Our plan is to redo the railings to match the other side of the house, use cedar to wrap all the pressure treated (i.e., ugly) lumber, and to replace the storm door that pretty much failed after our kitchen renovation.

Yeah, so, yeah. I’m a crap blogger. I mean, I hope you like what I post when I get around to it. But, I’ve been pretty unable to keep up lately. I have (what must be) a hundred half-finished projects sitting around the house, ones that I’m hopeful will be worth posting (I’m taking pictures as I go, but nothing is ready to share), but for now you’ll have to settle for some progress pictures of half done-i-tude.

Allow me to list for you the projects that I have brewing:

• refinishing a desk for my oldest niece
• working on a baby mobile for my baby niece
• halfway through a canvas art painting project thingy
• redesigning my blog, including adding lovely house tour function (among others)
• refreshing our basement with paint, new carpet, and did I mention paint?
• re-skinning our kitchen entryway, and rear porch stairs
• lining bamboo shades with white fabric for my mom’s condo
• curtain making for the hallway and guest room
• just generally tidying and finishing up spaces for house tour photo shoot

Yeah, seriously, I’m busy, just not done with anything. Which is frustrating. Add to that list the photos I need to take for updates on old projects for both my site and Dave’s site (also a redesign/development in progress), and the overall strain of trying to do all of that simultaneously, and yeah. The blog is the first thing to get cut from daily life. But I have high hopes to rekindle my regularity, and to put even more effort into this little space.

So, for today, let’s take a look at how much of last week shaped up, with plenty of before and during pictures to give you a sense of just how crazy I am, and how I clearly think there are more hours in the day.

Project: kitchen entryway and rear porch staircase refresh (and a glimpse at Project: basement). Players: Team Carpentry and me (with essential support and help from Jeff, Kizzle and Tine). Progress: demo and prep. Completion estimate: end of week, weather permitting. The truest look at the BEFORE for the kitchen entryway is in this post, the best look at the rear porch stairs is in this post. For the current state of affairs, please peruse the following gallery. Enjoy! xoxo