Itty Bits Here And There.

So, we owe you an update and I'm here to share what you may or may not call a full-on update. Hey! Who you callin' lazy? We've been working away, just at a pace that a snail would be proud of.

Our 250 square foot deck recieved a full on makeover. The beeotch is slammin' now! We had to sadly scrap the original plan that was to be green treehuggers and reuse the old wood that we pulled up. The old wood wasn't cooperating in the least, so we said h-e-double-hockey-sticks with it and went new. How rebellious is my Environmental Scientist husband?! We live on the edge 'round here. Regular ol' envelope pushers. Anyway, you can't see the deck ... yet.  Maybe this weekend I'll divulge the details, but only if ya'll are well behaved lil' blog readers.

Anywhoosle, we've been busy lil bees Brandt's for the last month. (OMG I'm really sorry bout the silence as of late. Whoopsies!) So let's go on adventure, shall we? I'll pick up the tab. You're welcome.

We grew a garden:

We installed a new screen/storm door that leads out to the back deck:

The old crappy one.

Ewwwww.

New beauty!

Isn't she a beaut?! Mama isn't too bad herself.

*The door mat in the pics is hilarious and a gift from Katie. It says: Fo' Shizzle Welcome To The Brandt's Hizzle. Makes me smile everytime!*

We need to just come out and say it; the old door had issues. It opened opposite of the wood door. It was mildewy. It SLAMMED shut all by its lonesome. It was ugly. The handle didn't really work all the time. The screen was being held in/on by scotch tape. Nothing but class here at RHN. Regular ol' classmasters. So, with that, we called the heard on this lil lady.  She needed to retire like an old lady to a singles community in Florida.  The new lil woman is stylin', folks and she hails from a long line of royal Anderson blood. She's got a stainless handle (that works!) and her mother just celebrated her jubilee of numerous years on the screen/storm door throne. The screen retracts into the glass and opens alllllll the way. Pretty sweet, eh? Want to know the best part? She was on clearance at Home Depot. Yup, her royal family was doing their best to marry her off...and they were successful. 

The only other little projects that have been happening around here are small ones that were necessary and neglected while we had our focus on finishing the deck. 

• We bought and installed a new lolly column in the garage. If we didn't, the old rusted one was going to give way and our living room end up in the garage.
• We purchased, installed and painted four new interior doors and their hardware.
• We painted the risers on the steps heading upstairs. 
• We painted more of Ed's old bedroom furniture for Cman and he totes loves it. 
• We hung our guest book guitar from our wedding in the living room.
• We installed an awesome weather station on the roof.
• We cleaned 5 years of crap out of the gutters. 
• We trimmed back trees and bushes.
• Oh! and we had to make a giant purchase last weekend. Sadly, or not so sadly, the leaky, broken, ginormous, missing 3/4 of its shelves fridge that came with the hizzy called the herd. Bit the dust. Said hasta la vista, baby. So, we had to replace the beast her. Her replacement is totally a cousin of our heiress to the throne screen door. She's quiet and shiny and has allll her shelves. She's also got long lean lines. I'll tell ya, being twice married into the royal family we sure are spoiled. 

So, I owe you a fantastically detailed deck building and budget breakdown. I will put that together and share soon. In the meantime we are going to window shop for new living and dining room furniture. We are also working on budget plans for the basement re-do and the master bed 1/2 bath. We aren't quite sure which will be next. 

Peace out, homeboys/girls...