It's been quite a while...

We haven't been doing much lately as far as home renovation. This summer is kind of a wash as far as that goes for a few reasons...

1. Budget. We are being much more conservative about spending and borrowing for obvious reasons. I am proud to say that we have paid off all our credit card debt in the middle of a recession.

2. The house is in decent livable shape! Woo hoo! Oh, there's always something to do and we have a long to do list still on the fridge, but none of it feels terribly pressing.

3. I broke my elbow in June from a tumble off my bike and Steve hurt his back in July. Note: This did not stop us from enjoying some nice hiking in Manistee National Forest this summer we are now both pretty well recuperated.

4. Busy with the Glenwood Sunday Market.
5. Busy enjoying the fruits of my labor in my new vegetable garden. Think homemade pesto, simmered greens, lettuces that practically melt in your mouth, etc... (We built a raised bed early Spring this year.) And we yes, my vegetables are in a cage! When it comes to squirrels, we don't play around!
6. Just enjoying summer. Plus it's been too damn hot to work much anyway, right?

I sometimes miss working on projects and get restless about doing something, but mostly it's okay. I do hope this isn't the end for us though. I think we still have a few good years in us for DIY. We aren't that old and tired just yet!

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and say hello and happy summer to all my houseblogging friends. Thanks to blogging about our work, I will never forget those days. So many good memories of working outside in the sun and fresh air, in the moment and focused on a specific goal and craft. I absolutely loved it. And I love working side by side with Steve.  So, I am sure we will get back to it at some point. We have some BIG plans for the backyard that are percolating for next year possibly.

It's not just about the house

It may sound like heresy to say this on a hosueblog, but really it's not. I've talked about this before. As we all know, any home is a part of a bigger picture, a neighborhood.

I learned a hard lesson when the beautiful single family home next door to us was leveled for condos. Speak up. If you speak up as a community, often you can stop these types of things from happening. I've seen it play out this way first hand.

The next month or so will probably be a little slow on my houseblog as I head on over to my community blog and campaign for a candidate that I believe can make our neighborhood a better place to live. If you head over there to check out what's going on, I'll warn you Rogers Park politics can get pretty scrappy.

The election on February 27th resulted in a run off between my candidate and the incumbent by a mere 54 votes! This right here shows how much every vote does count especially at the community level.

Lately, we've been living in our home more than working in our home as we usually are. It's nice. After all, we are all doing this hard work so at some point we can kick back and enjoy it right? I always say when I'm working that there is a lounge chair waiting for me at the end of this. Like there will ever be an end. I know better now.