New projects in the works...sort of

Absolutely no one is wondering when new projects (usually of the tile variety) will be announced. The reason there has been no press on the subject is simple. The better than average rains we've had the last two years (hurray!) have created a gargantuan cleanup mess and I'm still trying to get things under control. That's not as easy as it was when I was a young whippersnapper of 50. Back in those halcyon days, the yard maintenance was not only easy, it was a fun challenge. Putting in a 10 hour heavy labor work day was no problem at all. Weekends were all about trying new things, digging out eyesores, and generally creating more work than was necessary.

That said, I do have a big challenge in the works. When the house was stuccoed eons ago, I told the workers to leave the back wall of the house stucco free. The intention at the time was to quickly tile/mosaic it. Welp, just like my front wall which sat around waiting for me to finish it for 15 years, the back wall has been very patient but is wondering when it will be done. The back porch and steps are wondering the same thing. 

There is hope for both those projects. I did start the area around the back door and then got stuck with how to proceed. If you haven't figured it out already, I have a tendency to dive into things without a well thought out plan. Winging it often produced more fun design opportunities and challenges that kept me going. For all you youngsters out there - don't do that! Have a plan. It can change as necessary, but have a plan. OK - enough with the life advice.

So, this is the wall in question and the beginning of the door surround. Yikes, I'm tired just looking at that.

As if that's not enough, the steps and porch without the cool bannister we had installed last year:

Perhaps by making this public, I will get going on it out of shame that it isn't done by now. On the other hand, I'm old, creaky and, at this point, pretty shameless. So there's that.