Updates coming soon

As predicted, I pretty much abandoned this blog (and updates to the house, for the most part). But school (read: work)'s out, so we have lots of time on our hands and have been busy around here.

I'll post some pictures later. Here's a little sneak preview of what to expect (because I know you totally won't be able to sleep until you get a hint of what's to come):

• we painted (some of) the living room and switched out the beige dirty-looking outlets with crisp white ones
  
• I got a start on my gallery wall
• the master bathroom is (nearly) complete. Just a couple more pieces of trim, 2 doors and vanity to paint.
• our garden overfloweth.
  
• Dustin is working on sealing the driveway. Not very interesting, so there won't be any pictures of that probably.

We're slow-moving people, so it probably doesn't seem like a lot (especially since none of those bullet points are actually completed projects) , but we're impressed with ourselves.

But wait! There's more! Here are some more tasks we have on the ole' agenda for the coming weeks:

• paint the trim in the living room, including the large beam that divides the living room and dining room
• paint and decorate the guest bedroom
• hang plate wall in dining room (and procure said plates). Much to Dustin's dismay.
• hang new storm door and replace rotted trim on front door

Fascinating, right? Wait til you see pictures! (/mild sarcasm)

Springtime at the Burdicks!

Well, well, well. I've been quite neglectful, just as I predicted. I'm back to update about all the spring goings-ons around here because I have a sneaking suspicion that most of my facebook friends don't care about the plants in my yard or the birds at our feeders.

I have to find my camera to take some updated pictures, so here's a general update:

A coworker at the high school library had to ton of plants she needed to divide (she's trying to sell her house and tidy up the yard). So I got FREE hollyhocks, tiger lilies, hosta, ornamental grass, echinacea and various ground covers she didn't know the names of. I've planted most of them, not sure how they'll hold up in my yard but we'll see.

I'm also in the process of double digging my garden, which is a lot of physical work. But supposedly it makes a big difference. All I have in the ground so far is lettuce and pea seeds...the rest has to wait until the last frost later this month.

We bought two inexpensive bird feeders last week and are already getting a lot of birds (I think we're the only ones feeding them). There are about a million yellow finches, some blue jays, orioles and a red winged blackbird. No hummingbirds yet (we got 2 nectar feeders for them).

I hung an American flag on the front of the house along with some hanging baskets of impatiens...the house is looking like someone actually lives here! (I just wish we could afford to build a front porch and/or a back deck. Because with all the work I've been doing in the yard, we don't have anywhere to sit out there to enjoy it!

Here's a quick picture of our front bed in late-April: