I remember my days as a renter when weekend days were spent lounging on the sofa with piles of trashy fashion magazines or some actual literature. How I pine for those days. Yes, it's been fun to personalize our house, but even when we rented places, we had the good fortune to rent from men with fabulous taste who had painted and remodeled the spaces in fun and funky ways. In fact, we stole the main wall colors for our 1952 house from our last condo. (Thanks for leaving sample paint buckets at the condo, David!)
Last weekend, Chad and I got away to Dallas for the weekend as a collective birthday present to ourselves. Our birthdays are three weeks apart. It was so nice to have room service (champagne and chocolate covered strawberries upon arrival!) and maid service and already painted walls! We stayed at the Magnolia Hotel in downtown Dallas. We needed to be far enough away from the house that we weren't at all tempted to sneak back and do any housework.
This weekend, it's back to the grind, back to the to-do list.
1. Install Chad's Closet Maid system and organize closet.
2. Clean the floor in the Master Bedroom.
3. Put dresser in Master Bedroom and finally unpack all the drawer items.
4. Plan grid for tin tile ceilings in the kitchen and bathroom.
5. Buy materials for tile ceiling project and yard projects.
6. Sign and have notarized waiver for new driveway and walkway.
7. Sign and mail contract for deck installation.
8. Rent wood chipper for all the tree stumps we dug up and all the tree branches we picked up from the yard.
Yeah... I don't know about #8, but we gotta do something with those branches and tree trunks / roots.
Is that purple flower a weed? I can't tell. I've started mowing around them because they're kind of pretty. We have a Neuton mower. I love it. It's cordless, electric and very quiet. The City of Austin Clean Air program gave a generous rebate on these mowers. The UPS guy who delivered mine commented that he was delivering a lot of them. When Chad or I are out mowing, people stop and comment on our nice, quiet mower. 
