Building Things by Christine DePetrillo

Every summer, The Husband and I are involved in some project. We’ve built a barn, vinyl sided a house and barn, installed wood flooring, built a tavern room (named Black Wolf Tavern for the bar in my Maple Leaf Series and for my werewolf of a black German Shepherd), landscaped properties, and constructed a wood shed to name a few of our endeavors. This year’s summer adventure was making a 500 square foot patio complete with a fire pit.

I’m always amazed at the thought that goes into these projects. The steps are many and the order important. One doesn’t just slap a patio down. In our case, a huge retaining wall had to be built of granite boulders. The wall had to be backfilled and leveled then filled with gravel for drainage.

The fire pit came next so it would look as if it were built into the patio itself. Pavers and bricks came together in a circle to contain many future blazes. S’mores are on the horizon. The only way I’ll eat marshmallows.

A layer of stone dust topped that and finally the irregular flagstone finished it off. Let me just say that irregular flagstone and OCD don’t mix. Yikes. One has to release the idea of perfection and accept that if you want a wild, woodsy look, you need to give up being particular about tight joints, patterns, and precision leveling. That was hard for us, but we muddled through.

And the result is exactly what we pictured.

I love these projects. It’s how The Husband and I define fun. We’d rather being doing things like this than sunbathing on some tropical beach somewhere. Plus, it’s awesome exercise. We both feel great physically. All those muscles ache just mean we’re alive and it’s good to be alive.

I’m eager to enjoy that patio and fire pit, especially in autumn, surrounded by the reds, oranges, and yellows of the trees and our mountain views. I also think the space will be conducive to writing with plenty of stimulating landscape to spark my imagination. Nothing gets my Muse revved like spending time in nature. Sometimes I think Mother Nature IS my Muse.

And I’m cool with that.

Summer is over now and school has started back up. I wonder what we’ll build next year.

Have you been involved in any major projects? If so, what? If not, what would you like to try your hand at?

Toodles,

Chris

www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com

How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Alison Henderson

I've just returned from a week without internet or television. You might assume I was camping in in the wilderness or visiting a Tibetan monastery, but you would be wrong. OG and I were in the heart of America's second largest city, working (in his parlance) like rented mules getting our daughter's new condo ready for her to move in. In fact, he's still there, bless him. She helped as much as she could, mostly driving us around to pick up tools and supplies, but she had to work, so it was mostly just me and OG.

She had expected to have all the tech services up and running for us, but nothing is ever as easy as it should be. All I'll say is there's a reason Comcast is the most hated corporation in the country. They're supposed to be coming back Monday, but I'm not holding my breath.

The week was marked by multiple frustrations interspersed with occasional successes. First, OG began to install a new kitchen faucet, only to discover that the water shut-off valve wouldn't shut off all the way. He persevered through a minor flood and being sprayed in the face multiple times while lying on his back under the sink--not a comfortable position for anyone, but especially a man approaching seventy. The faucet is in and works perfectly, but his back looks like I beat him with a fireplace poker. Even worse, he had to go back under there to run new wiring and install a garbage disposal. Both projects were successes, but he swears he is never getting under another sink in this century.

While he was busy doing that, I scrubbed twenty years' of accumulated grease and filth off the kitchen cabinets and cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floor tile grout with a toothbrush. Now that's love!

On a more fun note, PO&O and I put together this new pantry cabinet with only a little help from Dad because I couldn't reach high enough to put the top section in place.

OG plans to spend the next week replacing cruddy old electrical outlets and switches and painting, so we devoted quite a bit of time to color selection. Here's the test swatch of the lovely blue she chose for her bedroom.

The condo has wonderful space and an excellent location, but it has been rented out for the past eight years, and the condition shows it. OG assures PO&O it will be a palace by the time he's finished, but God only knows when that will be. He's already planning to go back in a couple of months for the next installment of the home improvement marathon. He wants to do a stacked-stone fireplace surround, among other things. He was getting bored because he ran out of projects around here. LOL

Some March UNMadness to Share by Margo Hoornstra

My personal form of madness isn't confined to March at all. And it's a madness which doesn't grow out of craziness, or even anger, but it does emerge as frustration. Frustration with, as they say, so much to do and so little time.

Life is busy, we all know that. And, while my to do list is similar to everyone else's, some of its particulars for this month included:

1. Wrestle my current Work In Progress - Only If You Dare - to the finish line
2. Collect financial documents and put in some sort of order for income tax appointment
3. Maintain daily social media promotional schedule
4. Complete content and line edits for critique partner's latest WIP
5. Help husband update his resume because, turns out, retirement isn't really his thing
6. Oversee various home improvement projects that seem to take forever

All of which need to be fit in around family time, couple time, exercise time, recreation/vacation time, housecleaning time (hah!) and, of course, those all time favorites, eating, sleeping and breathing time.

But, I'm happy to report two major successes which have emerged from all the busyness.

First, the bathroom remodel project I mentioned awhile ago is done, and is absolutely beautiful.

Second, my latest book - Night Stars and Mourning Doves - has been released and is available

Along with the blurb.

Elyse Monroe may be her sister's maid of honor, but that doesn't mean she has to follow the bride's example and fall in love. Battle-scarred and weary from previous relationships, she has no desire to take a chance on another--no matter how many hints her little sister drops about the best man.

Devastating life events have taken a toll on Eric Matthews. After losing his wife and unborn daughter, he's come home to heal. Serving as best man at his kid brother's wedding is the only relationship he cares to contemplate--no matter how attractive the maid of honor.

Thrown together again and again by wedding duties, Elyse and Eric reluctantly agree to explore a possible relationship--only to have their casual date turn into a glorious night of passion. Can two hearts, convinced a happily ever after will never happen, recognize love when it finds them?

To find all of my books and short stories, some for free, visit my BLOG or my WEBSITE

We've established your life is as busy as mine. Any successes you'd like to share?