It Fits! (Barely)

 Yesterday I spent all day working on the garage - cleaning, sorting, organizing and so on, in the hopes that our gigantic Ford Excursion would fit inside.  Since our move here a month ago, the garage has been a disaster.  All the extra boxes and things got thrown in here so we could just be done.  But, it seems that we live in the center of the jet stream out here. At least that's what it feels like.  It only bothers us where our driveway is.  We have hardly any windows on the windy side and are pretty sheltered.  But getting the boys loaded and unloaded to go somewhere can nearly freeze a person... and it's not even winter yet.

 So I spent the day trying to make room so I could load and unload them inside.  Well, you see how much room we have...  There is about a foot of space to walk around on only one end.  I think I'm going to have to move that bookshelf so we'll at least be able to open the back doors.  The shelf is there because it's too tall for the basement where most of the other shelves are.  And our living room floor is very open and the walls we do have are bordered with baseboard heaters.

 Anyway, back to the garage.  You can see how we barely fit. I was originally worried about the height of the garage door ... it didn't occur to me to worry about the depth.

We have a double garage, but the owners don't want us parking on the other side due to an underground storage room, so that's just work space and storage.

Anyway, I was thrilled to get that project done, and to get the truck inside.  I do have to watch the mirrors or fold them in.  They barely fit too.  I only have a couple inches to spare.

So the garage project is what I did Thursday.  Friday was another beautiful day - unseasonably warm in the 60's!  So I took the opportunity to wash the outside windows.  I still need to do the insides, but I figured I better do the outsides while it wasn't freezing outside.

See the thermometer? :)  I also rearranged the furniture on the deck.

The picnic table used to be where the chairs are now, and we could barely get past it to walk across the deck.

Now there's a nice seating area.  I plan to move the footstool between the chairs closer to the house when we're not sitting out there so we can get through it easier.
 

 After all that work, I had to sit and enjoy the view ... and read a bit on my Nook (which is very unusual for me because I MUCH prefer real, physical books.

And this is the view from my seat :)  Can't beat that (albeit, this was taken with the camera zoomed in).

It was nice enough that the two year old decided he wanted to eat outside. By the time we ate, it was nearly 1 pm, and the deck was in the shadows by then, so it was a little chilly.  That will be a bonus in the summer, but these days we need to use the deck in the mornings while the sun shines.

 Do you like my new easel?  Found this at the thrift store for a couple of bucks.  See the shoes?

They're attached to feet.  I guess this is what the two year old's idea for this new contraption is.  I'm gonna have to get that boy some chalk...

He had a fun day and was a total mess by the end of it.  I'll do a separate post to show the fun we had with Bugga's leaves.