Thanks to Cheryl Richardson for the image

This quote sums up Stay-cation 2013 quite nicely. I don’t think I’ve been this relaxed, rested and recharged since we went back to St. Lucia for our 10th anniversary.

Don’t get me wrong. There was a lot of physical work this week. But as hard as I worked and as tired as I was, I didn’t feel as exhausted as I did on a typical Friday at 5:30. A good thing to identify and understand.

On Thursday I planted some arugula and mache seeds as a little patio planter experiment. Look how far they’ve come:

I’m impressed.

Gs are ready for us to go back to work:

Poor animals are exhausted. I’m sure it has nothing to do with two of their lab-ish pals coming to visit yesterday and staying overnight. And it had nothing to do with them following us around for 10 days solid.

We’ve gotten a lot done and gained momentum on a number of projects. The office alas is not done. We had a couple of issues that delayed completion but we figure we can get the rest done this week and have it all set up by Saturday.

The moral of this story, however, is that you don’t need to leave town or go anywhere to have a real vacation. Sometimes what you really need is to stay home and spend time together.

This may be one of our best vacations yet. Another beautiful and cool morning. Perfect for planting and mulching fall tomatoes/peppers. I got that all done before 10 am. Hard to believe that we need to think about fall now (see the end of this post for gratuitous garden photos).

It was a day of getting stuff done:
-bar fridge/cabinet final leveling and stocking
-adding another board to tv cabinet feature wall
-patio clean up
-garage clean up
-habitat restore to donate some stuff
-post office to mail three packages

Don’t worry: we took a break. We had a taste of Italy for lunch. Jimmy’s Food Store is an Italian market downtown and we picked up some sausage, pizza dough, and lunch — they have great sandwiches. It was a fun (and delicious) break.

It was a little hotter than yesterday so I’m glad we got the outdoor stuff done early.

But right when we were thinking that we were done for the day, around 4:30 we got a call from Lowes and found out a blind we ordered was in (early by 5 days) so we went to pick it up:

We got it installed in about 5 minutes, no joke. It’s already made a big difference–our neighbors’ annoying 24-7 security light has finally been blocked!

And so we called it a day. Big painting fun tomorrow!

Here’s a collection of photos from today (I am having posting issues since we don’t have wifi until the office is reassembled so unfortunately I couldn’t weave them throughout the post as I planned):

Until tomorrow!

I’m tired. But instead of being mentally fatigued, my body is tired. And I love it.

We were up fairly early for day 5 of Stay-cation 2013 and we’re greeted with amazing weather. It was like cottage country weather at the end of a dock or Southern California beach before breakfast weather. But we needed to have a fairly fast dog walk since David the Electrician was coming by 8.

Actually 7:30. David’s a great electrician just somewhat unpredictable. So we enjoyed coffee and breakfast outside with the Gs. The Gs were outside all morning long:

As you can see, Guinness loves to be outside.

I love to be outside and used the time wisely. I picked the last of the lettuce, harvested today’s veggies, and prepared the urban farm for tomorrow’s fall tomato and pepper planting.

And Bruce found a new friend:

David installed pot lights over the new dining room cabinets, put in a plug in the no longer wet bar, fixed an outside plug, and fixed the attic light. He likes that he’s part of the process of altering the Mortroski Mid-century.

After he left, we headed over to North Haven Gardens to pick up tomatoes and peppers to plant tomorrow.

But the majority of the work today was in the office/tv room.

Godiva stays safely out of renovation’s way. Not Guinness:

Another great and super productive day was had by all. It’s going to be another in bed by 9:30 night. No one can say we’re not going to bed tired every night of this Stay-cation.

Happy Canada Day, y’all! Bruce and I celebrated Canada’s birthday by continuing to make progress on our home projects.

This morning after another extra long dog walk in the much cooler weather, Godiva and I tackled the front yard weeding. They are all native, low water plants and until they spread out more, weeds will invade.

It wasn’t as bad as the last time, though I may have gotten some sun even with the 30 SPF sunscreen

The countertop guy came by to confirm Bruce’s measurements. We have a bit more work to do in the no-longer-wet bar, but it’s adding some supports.

David the electrician is coming tomorrow to add some pot lights, move a plug, fix the attic light, and fix an outdoor plug.

We will be painting since we gutted the office once more and did a bunch of pre-painting work. Sanding mostly. Some filling.

As you can see, the supervisor is asleep on the job.

We flew the Canadian flag in front of our house and didn’t get it stolen or get a nasty note so I feel pretty good about our little celebration.

Because we’re working on the office, we have no wifi and 4G isn’t so good in the house. It’s a lovely night but the mosquitos are coming out to play. Until tomorrow!