Slowly getting back to normal

My life is always chaotic, always busy, even when I have downtime I feel like I should be doing more.  Part of this comes from my lovely wife nagging encouraging me to do things around the house.  Most of it comes from ideas engrained in me by my parents.  My parents were always on us to find something to do, keep yourself busy, don't just lay around.  I think that is an important lesson to teach my son as he grows as well.  I have worked with all spectrum of people in my life from the uber-worker to the complete slacker/waste of space.  I prefer people who are somewhere above average but below uber worker.  Usually because they have similar beliefs as I do and also because they get things done.

Needless to say the last few weeks have been chaotic to say the least.  We have been busy readying the house for the coming of our son. Only 95 days until the due date!  I was also busy doing some long overdue yard remodeling.

Let's start with the yard, I have a patch of grass between my sidewalk and driveway retaining wall that is slightly sloped, about 25' long, and 5' deep.  It gets an absurd amount of direct sunlight, which leads to me having a brown crunchy section of my yard from about June till September.  No amount of water, fertilizer, or seed can solve this problem.  Time to do some landscaping.

Before:

This was after spending about 3 hours tearing up the old grass, and grading the soil.

After:

I put in a weeping cherry tree, a bottle brush plant, a Ogon (mellow yellow) Spirea, some cottoneaster, a broom bush, and some other filler shrubs, and built a decorative stone wall.  I also need to order some mulch but that is another project for another day.

This past weekend my family was coming over for a late birthday party for yours truly.  My wife put together a nice family get together with the requisite dinner and beer!  What better way to celebrate my birthday by getting rid of the NASTY anodized gold light fixtures and ceiling fans around the house that I just despise.  Who better to help me with this than my handy brother Andy.

I should have taken before and after pictures but these fixtures were so heinous that I am embarrassed to publish them.  So you get the afters:

Two of these lights replaced the two pineapple shaped gold monstrosities in the hallways.

Yes the quality is terrible, but this replaced the malfunctioning fan in the nursery and adds a soft light to the room.  (yet its too bright to leave on to take a picture with my cell camera)

This is now the wall light in our kitchen.  The previous light was dull and anodized gold.  Take my word for it, this is a marked improvement!!

This is the new fan in the dining room.  It weighs ALOT!!  It also has a fancy remote control so when I am exhausted and hot on the couch adjacent to the dining room I can turn the fan on without getting off my @$$.  This puppy can move some air!!

The wife and mother in law were also busy this past weekend putting up the border in the nursery.  I think it turned out very nice!

Aside from that my company has opened up a 4th store in the Pittsburgh area so I have been working a fair amount of overtime.  Money which will be used to furnish the nursery with a nice bedroom set that we ordered this past Friday.  Once the furniture is in, we will only have 1 more project left for the nursery and that is building the custom closet to add some storage to the room.  Then maybe, just maybe I will have some free time available to go Fly Fishing.  Then again I am sure I will find something else to do!