Aspirations

In Spring the Sailboat comes out!

So it's Spring in Chicago and we know this how? Because it's raining. And because the grass is turning green--in places. I don't know about the rest of you, but for us, living in a city with dogs and a small backyard, we inevitably turn to lawn repair in the Spring...and Fall, year after year after year.
Perhaps there are some among you who have beautiful lawns that green up perfectly in the Spring, with no brown patches. You have adorable little crocus sprouting in perfect clumps that pass on just before the first moving of the year so you don't have to mow the prettylittleflowers. But alas, with two diabolical little dogs using our small yard as an (ejem) potty all winter, that is not to be at the 2-flat.


So rather than aspire to the perfect lawn, we aspire to be lawn-free! For perfectly manicured lawns are not only high-maintenance as we all know, they are not very environmentally-friendly. For now we continue dutifully repairing our sad little lawn every Spring, but we look forward to the day when we can eliminate this chore and put the push mower to bed permanently.

At least the rain helps the grass grow faster...

Our plan is to create a patio in the center of the yard surrounded by garden beds full of perennials and vegatables, maybe a pergola and a tucked away seating area where we can sit quietly and read a book in the shade. An oasis of privacy in the city. A staycation if you will, although more often than not, I can be found working in my yard rather than reclining. I'm convinced if I had more comfortable outdoor furniture, I would be more likely to recline. Time will tell...

Now where were we?

Dear Readers,

I must apologize for my lack of posting. More and more it seems, life has a way of taking over and my blogging falls by the wayside. I still think of you, my fellow housebloggers and even when I don't read as often I wonder about your progress --in my quieter moments.

The problem is when I don't blog, when I come back to it, I just don't know where to start. Should I post about the yard, the patio, a great field trip we took (house-related) or my garden plans?

I suppose it doesn't matter so much. So, to catch up a bit I'll start by saying Happy Mothers Day, Happy Memorial Weekend. I missed both of those!

And I'll show you these photos of our lawn taken last weekend. Spring repair went pretty well. It is amazing how different the yard is in the growing season compared to early spring. Now back to work and my next post.

Thanks for reading!

Chicago 2-Flat

Win some lose some

As I've mentioned here, I've been off houseblogs the past month so I could help out with our local Aldermanic election. Unfortunately, my candidate lost, but we made a really great effort. Considering the fact that we had much less money, and resources, we lost by only 247 votes.

On election day, I was up at 4:30am and at the campaign office at 5am. I got to the precinct at 6am and didn't get home till almost midnight. Much of the day was spent outside in front of the polling place and trying to get out the vote. It was fun, but very draining.

This weekend, Steve and I got back to some house projects. I worked on some major lawn repair and Steve was taking care of some inside jobs. He installed the last of the shoe molding in our kitchen and fabricated and installed missing thresholds from our bedroom and dining room. Then, he started on patching our old booboo with the swinging door, so we can finally finish that project. We purchased special hardware that will hold the door open and have not been able to install it because of the mistake. Instead, we've had a box of bricks holding the door open.

It's so nice when these little tasks get crossed off the list. That is the plan for this summer- lots of smaller jobs. We have plenty of those!