The shovel's in the ground.

 

Pick shovel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We are undertaking our first major piece of renovation work on the house. It had needed (exterior) painting for three years or so, and the trim is in appalling condition so we're replacing it with afaux stucco product. We'll also add quoins to the corners of the house to give it a little presence.

We had a horrid railroad-tie-and-brick front porch/landing in which the bricks were sinking making it a trip hazard. There were also no handrails. Our contractor has dug it all up and is replacing it with flamed granite over concrete plus aluminum handrails. We'll probably go with "Sunset Granite" and a black handrail, the design of which we haven't settled on.

Finally, we're going to replace our aging windows with new ones. I am seriously thinking of getting integrated blinds for our main floor windows so that we don't need to worry about drapes. At the moment we have louvred shutters which are irritating as you can't place furniture in front of them (or you have to leave the shutters closed.)

It feels good to be getting going on this, and we have an excellent contractor who does one job at a time, hiring help when he needs it.

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In other breaking news, I'm still sick. Don't think either the antibiotics or inhaler are doing a jot. Missed Kathleen Turner in High at the Royal Alex on Tuesday and the TSO doing The Planets tonight because of my hacking. I haven't been able to sing with my choir for weeks. So I'm heading back to see my family doc and hope to get in on the secret, heavy-duty cough syrup. Or whatever. My lack of sleep and other nasty byproducts of uncontrollable cough have GOT to stop.