Things Get Worse Before They Get Better

I just love how the anticipation of Spring has us bolting out of bed early with eagerness and enthusiasm!  After being stuck indoors for 6 months, we are READY to get in the garden and work outside.  That late blizzard we had the other day has ended and the snow is once again melting, so my husband was able to work outside unloading building materials and cleaning up a bit.  Kelly has been able to buy sharply discounted building materials at his work, which is a real help for us as we've got many little projects in mind that all require materials.  So, he's brought home quite a lot things - trusses for a new shed, benches for the fire pit area, cabinets on wheels for the garage, lumber, metal shelving and more!  All of it is very usable, but it of course requires that we find storage for it all until we can use it.  Easier said than done when everything is torn apart!  Can't be helped that the timing is bad, when you have an opportunity to get useful things for free or cheaply, you need to run with it.

 Premade wall shelves (sitting vertically at the moment) and a lockbox/chest on heavy duty casters

 Benches for around the fire pit (which is currently under 2' of snow!)

 Trusses for the new shed, OSB for shelves and snow fence (erected before winter, it helps keep the drifting down on driveways, etc.)

 Lumber and OSB for the shed, and maybe some for the greenhouse (we have some windows that we were given which will work perfectly for a small greenhouse)

 Posts and landscape ties plus more lumber and another lock box

a steel drum to fill with water for my hubby to run his outboard motors while repairing them in the garage and another lockbox.  I think (with a few modifications) we will be using this one in the coop for a brooder :)

You know how when you're trying to undertake a big project, and in order to do it, you need to make a bit of mess?  Well, my oh my, we've got a whole lot of that going on right now!  The garage is well and truly torn apart inside and out (to facilitate rebuilding shelving and benches inside and new siding is going up on the outside).

These are the shelves from the first picture, now installed in between 2 windows in the garage.  3 are installed like this (all the same height, even with the top of the windows) and hubby will put another row of them up higher the entire length of the garage.

My living room is a dirt covered disaster thanks to my cat who CHEWED his way through the protective wire cage that was built to protect my seedlings (not to mention the furniture arrangement in there is really cluttered and awkward to accommodate the seedlings in the window).

The kitchen table is overrun with garden books, seed packets and plot planning drawings.   I'm nearly done planning, but I'm constantly revising to make the most out of each square foot of garden space.  Our basement is in a state of major disarray as we try to reconfigure a few areas down there to accommodate guests next week (more on that in a minute), and the yard, oh the YARD!  It looks like a junkyard out there due to construction materials everywhere not to mention our oldest son's project car (and some parts for it) launched in the driveway.  Can you say "too much all at once" ????

Here, in our early Spring climate, we get good days where we can work outdoors, and bad days when you are forced to work indoors.  We always have several different projects on the go and have to fly with whatever the weather dictates at this time of the year.  That's all well and good, but I've got exactly ONE week before house guests arrive, so I need to get my house in order for Easter Weekend!   As the weather today is rather chilly, I've decided to work in the basement.  We pack up the younger kids' large Playmobil "city" every Spring, because we want to encourage the kids to pay outside as much as possible while they can.  That will leave more room in the basement Recreation Room for our guests who begin arriving in 6 days.  My goal is to get it all packed away (with the kids' help) and give the room a thorough cleaning from top to bottom.

Kelly is working inside the garage today carrying on with his bench and shelf building.  Soon, the mess will be tidied, and the boxes and bins will be properly stored on new shelves.  Soon, the mountains of building supplies will be put to use or neatly stored away.  Soon, the siding on the garage will be done.  Soon, I'll be in the garden and my seedlings will be planted and out of the living room.

So yes, things things DO get worse before they get better, but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel ~ it will get better SOON! :)