Crabgrass, garden, sprinkler system

Welcome to our entryway. The roses are blooming and the tulips are bright and colorful! I missed taking the pictures when our daffodils came in - but they were beautiful as well.

We have been working on the yards this past month. A good (bad bad bad horrible) lesson we learned was that crabgrass gets spread easily by using the lawnmower. So the vicious weed from our backyard that we had been mowing got transferred to our front lawn. I spent exactly three weeks pulling out all the patches that sprung up in our front yard and then an additional two weeks digging out the entire back lawn. I still have a small patch in the backyard to dig out before we can level it and plant seed. Oh my.

The garden that Sam built is beautiful. We have been working hard at finding the right formula to get our garden going - soil pH, watering, pests eradication etc. I am just excited to see things actually growing! Yay! It is exciting. I am hopeful that we will get plenty of fresh veggies in a few more weeks to months.

Today, in the amazing heat wave that just hit us, Sam is hard at work putting in a new sprinkler system for our backyard. The area that the current sprinkler system is set up is really awkward and ugly. We have pvc pipe just running across some of the cement. So Sam is going to reroute it under an area that used to be filled with dirt and rocks. 

All the rocks he relocated!

All the dirt he removed.

The start of the new piping.

Backyard Garden

Planters and a backyard garden

Our friend came to visit and we put him to work. This was him as he claimed innocence when Sam accused him for all that was going wrong. Nice friends we are.

 Our son enjoying riding his bike while Sam worked. He is singing and having a glorious time.

Other son "helping".

A more recent day. Time to take out that unsightly bush/tree.

How far I have gotten with pulling out the crabgrass from the backyard.

 Rachel found a safe place to hang out while the rest of us work.

 Teaching him how it's done.

 Digging the root out.

 The friendly worm.

 Three planters in! On to the path!

Finished the year off with an Auger

We rang in the new year with a patched roof and a toilet and shower that was NOT over flowing with sewage! I'd say two very good things.

Hiatt Roofing to the Rescue

My uncle come over and assessed our roof leak over the garage (did you know our roof was leaking? well, it is). He patched up what he could, but the truth is, the roof just needs to be replaced. But at least now we have the roof measured and can get a better idea of how much that will cost. Thanks again, Don!

Happy Auger

About an hour before we left for church on the last Saturday service of the year, one wrong flush changed the course of the evening. Not only did the toilet start to flood, but the shower started to fill up as well. Yuck.  We had noticed that our water pressure in the toilet had been decreasing, but did not realize how severe the problem was. 

After using the snake we had, with the toilet in place, and no luck in getting everything draining again, we had to take the toilet off (I use "we" very lightly...I was at church with the kids...the hubby was doing all this). Later in the evening when we were actually a we again, I inserted the more heavy duty snake that had been purchased, while the hubby crawled under the house and followed the plumbing line. Again, nothing was moving. The bathroom was flooded, wet vacs were filled and filled again. Yuck. Really, REALLY yuck.

About an hour before the rental place closed, we finally decided we needed to bring in the big guns...an automatic auger, that is. 

One simple run with this thing and everything was returned to normalcy. Hooray! Of course there was still the matter of cleaning everything. Yuck.

yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.yuck.

Of course we had more adventures when trying to place the toilet back on its rightful place. Nothing went right. But that's just how it goes - as we have learned in almost one year of home ownership. 

Wow. One year. Craziness. Yes, that is how I would describe it.

Merry Christmas

Our first impulse is not always to laugh when our toddler pees on the unpainted bathroom door. Nor do we cheer when we find crayon or nail polish all over the newly painted walls. We don't smile and wink at our spouse when we realize our wedding ring just scratched the stainless steel fridge. We don't high five when we find a leak in our roof.
But all these experiences make our life more colorful. We get wiser, learn the hard way, and have good stories to share around the table when we get together with family and friends.
We wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas this year. We pray you find time to ponder the seriousness of the holiday as well as celebrate the best way you know how. May your families be brought closer together. May your idea of the perfect holiday be thrown out the window and may you just roll with it. May you find assurance that Spray'n Wash will get the stains out of your kids' holiday sweaters/dresses. May the sugar high result in a sugar crash right as you tuck your little ones into bed.
Merry Christmas!

Small project, Big impact

I have not been good at keeping up to date with the small projects that continue to go on in the house.

Here, Sam is continuing the never ending project that is our fireplace.

Sam also dug a trench and placed a plastic barrier between the grass line and the plants. We also added mulch. It looks so good now. The picture below is right after we did this (the big dirt patch is where we had to raise the level of the land since we kept getting a pond forming). It looks so nice now. I just need to get out there and get a picture.

Here's my muddy sneakers. Just to prove that I actually helped!

After dumping most of the concrete from the slab we had out there, Sam got to work building a raised planter. We hope to have a garden there some day!

 Sam up in the attic again. Thank you for fixing all the duct work before the cold weather came!

 Just one of the many things he had to fix up there.

 I've painted two doors. Two more to go. Not sure if it is our paint or what, but this is not an easy process! Takes so many coats and still the streaks! Oh well.

And finally - Christmas has come!

I didn't get a picture of the font door or the yard, but they are decorated too.

Rachel managed to get in both photos:)

Where are we?

Well, we are in the middle of patching holes, caulking trim and joints and painting.
Remember the inside of our closet trim?

Before caulking                                                            After caulking (before painting)

Not bad eh?

We also decided to add trim around the kids' closet. Brilliant idea, Sam! Looks so much better.

Just the top part to go (it's up now, just didn't get a picture).

This is how everything is looking now that most of the joints are caulked and holes are being patched. 

We still have to pain the doors.

Piece by piece

Here are the details.

Upstairs:
Four door frames and doors down.
Four new jams and doors installed.
New door trim and baseboards painted.
Trim sanded and repainted (insert mad face here).
Wall paint touch-ups.
Trim cut and installed on two and half doors.
More trim sanded and repainted and more new trim painted.
Baseboards cut and installed in master bedroom and half of the upstairs hallway.

Okay, that is a little demoralizing seeing all of that in such a simple list, because it was a lot of hard work. This list does not include all the runs to the store, all the mistakes, all the issues with having no plum line or square angle in the house...or the fact that our floor rises and falls like the middle of the ocean. Still, it is great progress!

Pictures here!