We came up this weekend for a short but busy weekend. Oceana has been crazy busy at work, and on top of that, she’s moving to a new suite in the same building. Her new suite is twice the size and is right at the front of the building which means she now has windows! The windows are great for marketing and for walk in clientele. Well, Saturday was salon moving day. And she had clients scheduled until 12:30. We got everything moved as quick as we could but we still didn’t get up to Lake Byrd until Saturday evening. She’s got clients on the schedule for Monday morning so that means we only get one day to get her moved. Let’s get after it!
Sunday morning we got started working on the porch again. I got all the receptacles installed and trimmed out. After that I got the porch lights rehung, installed the 2 ceiling mounted fans, and got the decorative lights hung. This place is really coming together!
Oceana’s installing the last light bulb in the string lights! 
These fans really move some air 
The porch is looking good. I can’t wait to use the lights the next time we’re up.
While I was working on the porch Oceana started working on the pavers out front. We’ve had a stack of 12×12 pavers/stepping stones sitting on the sidewalk since we started messing with the tree roots out front. We finally decided to make a walkway down to the dock with them. Oceana laid them out and we worked out the spacing so that it was a comfortable distance to stride. About that time Tom came by to chat for a bit and gave us a hard time about them not being straight. He was kidding but then Oceana insisted so we pulled a string line and she straightened them up.
Straight-ish. 
Oceana’s having fun
We didn’t have enough to pavers to finish so we made a Depot run. While we were there we looked at the options and ended up getting the larger 16″x16″ pavers. They were cheap enough at $1.38 a piece so we got enough to do the whole walkway. Once we got back we stacked the old ones back up on the sidewalk and got after setting the new ones in place. We leveled them out side to side and front to back just set them with the contour of the front yard. As I set them in place, Oceana packed the edges and between them with sand. Did I mention it was hot out? It was definitely a hot day out today. All the same, we got the pavers done and it looks great. The rest of the yard, well, not so much.
Let’s do this 
Found a front door key in the sand. Really. It works in the front door! 
Starting to look good 
All done! 
Looks nice. It’ll look good once the grass grows in.
Let me just go ahead and apologize to the neighbors. The yard looks rough, I know. I tried to load the mower up last weekend but it has been a minute since I ran it and I couldn’t get it to start. Good spark, good air, but no fuel. I guess the slogan “nothing runs like a deere” only applies to deere motors that actually fire up. I messed with it for a while before understanding the carb needs to be replaced. A new carb is on order and should be in this week. I’m hoping to bring it up next weekend and get the yard trimmed. So neighbors, thank you for your patience. And Mark, thank you for the lunch! Chicken, beans, and pasta salad. Delicious!
BBQ chicken is awesome 
The grass is looking a little rough
I’m looking forward to using that new walkway.
I really like the new lights on the porch, and the fans were a great idea. Also, the 16″ stones look really nice and inviting for the front entry. Too bad about the mower, but there’s always next week. It’s amazing you found a key that works! I would buy a shadow box frame for it and display it in the house with a label. Oceana’s salon looks so crisp and clean; I imagine it will attract some new customers. So nice of Mark to provide the BBQ chicken dinner! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
