Hello from Vanha Talo Suomi!

It’s been an interesting week weather-wise…actually for longer than a week the weather turned quite dreary. We had lots and lots of rain, and not the helping kind, the okay it’s time to move to higher ground kind…Luckily the house doesn’t have any leaky roof issues…those are saved for the sauna/tool shed building, which leaks like a sieve.

Since our kitchen appliances arrived on schedule last week, we were only waiting on the delivery of the cabinets to assemble and install our kitchen. One slight SNAFU was/is the drywall finishing. We did quite a good job getting the drywall hung, a lot of hard work, and it looks great.

 

While I fully understand the concept of drywall finishing, and have even done it a few times back in the states, it really gets pretty difficult when the only tools at your disposal are for tiling. Drywall isn’t hugely popular here, and I can now understand why. Even when it is used in newer construction, the walls are almost immediately covered with wallpaper. hmph! Now I know why.

Handyman Pete will get a chance to save the day once again when he comes over tomorrow to do us the honors.

Pekka was busy the last few days working out the details of switching the straight end of the stairs by turning them 90 degrees and angling them into the vestibule rather than the front porch as they had been installed. Not quite there yet…

He also dismantled the sheathing that made up the porch walls and ceiling… 

 

We’ll see how things go tomorrow with the drywall. Hopefully the cabinets arrive and can join the appliances…

The sun came out for the first time in a long time and it quit raining at least for one day so I was able to mow the grass, which had gotten pretty long with all the rain we’ve had. The flowers and plants are doing well, and before the weather turned bad we were able to get our new flower garden space cleared out and planted with some new items. I’ve been seeding the lawn hoping to get some new grass growing so it can compete with the weeds and maybe push out a few here and there. Not a lot happening with that though at the moment. Weeds 10 – Grass 0

Early in the spring I transplanted some perennials from our old house, they are now doing well also. The background has a lot going on. There are wild roses in a bright fuchsia color and some other in white. There are also a few trees along the chain-link fence row that runs the property line on the roadside.

Here’s how the yard is looking from another view…

It takes me 3 full hours of non-stop mowing to cut the grass with a walk-behind regular deck mower. We don’t have any other power lawn tools yet! But I have my eye on this: http://www.mcculloch.com/us/products/trimmers-brushcutters/t22-lcs/

And then also getting the attachment for edging, which I feel is a “must have” for clean looking garden beds.

Pekka is off watching a horse race tonight and is now 1 week into his summer holidays from work. I’m hoping we can crank things up a notch and get lots of work done during that time. Got my fingers crossed! Cross yours too!