patio time

I love this south side of our house where the patio is. We live on such a small plot of

land that this is the only semi-private space we have. And with all the neighbor's trees

on this side of our house, it stays shady until mid-afternoon. It's a great place to have

morning coffee.

On the double shepherd's hooks on this side of the house, I decided to go

with what I had instead of spending money on hanging baskets. 

Our patio set was given to us by some dear friends of ours who were down-
sizing. It's perfect for our space. The little table/ottoman and wicker stand are thrifted
 pieces that I've had for a long time. I'd like to find a large metal art piece - perhaps a

big sun? - to hang on the aluminum siding. I know they make vinyl siding hooks that

you can just slip under the siding, so I'm assuming they make ones for aluminum

siding, too. Or that you can use the ones made for the vinyl siding. 

The neighbor's trees that hang over the patio are the perfect place to hang

things such as wind chimes... 

and a candle holder that I use as a bird cage.

We're taking advantage of the beautiful weather before the mosquitoes

get too crazy and spending some relaxing time on the patio in the 

early evenings. The vintage colander ~ now planter ~ was a recent find at 

Goodwill. I lined the bottom with coffee filters so the dirt wouldn't fall out of the holes.

 Brian installed a new thermostat last night and no luck with either the AC or furnace

switching on. We're going to be calling a HVAC guy later today. Today it's 86

degrees but the humidity is only 28% which is really low for our area, so it

doesn't seem too hot in the house. Good thing we have a lot of fans!

 

great weekend, changing some things around, and a hot, sticky mess

 Hello, friends! I hope those of you in the US had a wonderful, long holiday weekend.

It was a quiet Memorial Day weekend around here. One of my aunts visited

on Saturday for a few hours and then Tim came home on Sunday. Brian grilled

fresh bratwurst sausages from the butcher and I made potato salad. It was just the

three of us and it was perfect. Monday was hot and humid and our AC wasn't working

so we hung out in the basement family room and watched movies. Then we went out

to dinner and sat there for two hours having a great conversation. It is so cool to

be at the point in your life where you can have an adult conversation with your child

on a variety of topics. I'm so thankful we have such a close relationship.

 I moved some side tables in the house. I had a black cabinet next to this ladder

bookshelf, under the home sign. I replaced it with a lighter arrangement. Not too

sure what I think of this yet...you know me, constantly rearranging things! It might

be different later this week. Sometimes I just have to play with things and live

with it awhile to see how I like it. Other times, I know immediately if an arrangement

doesn't work.

 

I put the black cabinet next to the couch as an end table.

 And then the black spindle table that used to be the end table, got 

moved into Tim's room.

Speaking of Tim's room (that we're still updating), I found a red rug at IKEA...

 and ordered a masculine winter comforter from overstock.com. It's cotton

and very thick - great quality. But obviously too hot for the summer. So the red

and white checked thin cotton quilt will stay on the bed for the summer.

Back to moving tables around...this black table that you see in the corner of my

office was previously in front of the living room window topped with a lot of plants.

 I then moved those house plants out onto the front porch for the summer.

 So I mentioned at the beginning that it was hot and humid (my bare feet are sticking

 to the hardwood floors and even my kitchen cabinets are sticking to the frames!) 

and that our AC isn't working. We thought it was an electrical issue in the basement

 so we had an electrician come out to the house today. He did fix some loose wires in 

the basement light fixture that Brian recently put in and then we had him install a new

 outlet in Tim's room on a wall that didn't have an outlet. But the electrician said that 

our AC and furnace not working was not an electrical or circuit issue. The weird thing is,

 the furnace and AC stopped working exactly when Brian was installing that
replacement light fixture. We are crossing our fingers and praying that we don't need
 a new furnace or air conditioner - or both! But we also realize that we've been living
on borrowed time...

Both the furnace and central air conditioning unit are the original units of the house ~

25 years old! The electrician said it might be something as simple as that we need

a new thermostat - which is also original to the house. So now we have to have a 

heating and AC man come and check things out. Frustrating and nerve-wracking,

especially with having financial constrictions.

I am now heading out to my air-conditioned yoga class. Good thing I

don't practice hot yoga!