Swinging Hammers

We have lived in our house almost 6 years now, and I must say it is quite a different place from the one Bill bought 7 years ago. We've painted, we've landscaped, we've finished the downstairs. I even surprised Bill in a huge way by tearing apart and painting the kitchen one day a few years ago.

That was the kind of stuff that would happen when my preschool had spring break. I think Bill is glad I am too busy to get ambitious about house projects now.

Anyways, a big thing on our list was to fix up the backyard. We love being outside, but our backyard is a MudHole. Well, specifically a MudHole right outside the back door. Grass refuses to grow there and every time it rains the nice muddy slop deposits all the mud right on the patio. Pain In The Butt.


But this summer, we are actually HERE. We aren't in Tennessee, or Alabama, or anywhere else for Bill's work-we get to be HOME. So this summer, is the summer of the backyard. Here is what we are working on and hope to have finished in a few more weekends:

Three weeks ago, we decided to go for it:

We tore up concrete and put in some joists....
Then we stacked out the perimeter....my arms are still sore from digging post holes.
And soon, we will be drinking some wine on our DECK!

We are really hoping to finish installing all the joists this weekend and then NEXT weekend lay the top down. After that? Drink Margaritas. Or Beer, since I don't know how to make Margaritas and I think there is beer in the fridge.

We are finally getting a new screen door on the back, too. Oh yes, that is blue duck tape you see there; the result of an overly active 120 lb German Shepard jumping on it. The door may or may not have been broken for 5 years now....

Waiting

I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new ring sling(yay ebay!)-I really cant wait to try it out with Little Dude and practice with it a bit before JR gets here! I am really hoping it comes today, but since it is being shipped from Hawaii, it might not come until later this week. I can't wait!!!

Yard-A-Pooloza went terrific! Little Dude ended up not wanting to participate, so he took a nap in his room instead for most of the yard work. Our yard and home look so lovely when everything is trimmed and weeded and washed off, if I do say so myself. I am kicking myself now for not taking a "before" picture of the driveway and house, because after power washing, it looks like a brand new place! I had no idea our driveway was actually white...is that bad? Hahah! I will post pictures later-hopefully with me in my new sling in the yard!

Also, as a pregnancy update, I have reached the point of not being able to get out of bed unless Bill either helps me or I start to rock and roll out of it due to body parts popping and hurting. Thank goodness I am almost done! I can't believe it is June already. Just a few more weeks!!

YARD-A-POLOOZA!!!

Today is our Yard-A-Polooza! Bill and I are going to tackle all the outside house maintenance, yard work, and other such things today! Yay! I LOVE working in the yard, it is just super hard to do while watching and talking with Little Dude, so having John and Bill around the 3 of us can tag team Little Dude and get tons of work done! Whoo Hoo!! We are going to:

*Power wash the house
*Power wash the driveway
*Wash the windows
*Mow and trim the lawn
*Trim hedges and bushes
*Weed the gardens
*Plant my rose
*Spray for bugs (luckily, I can't do this job this year!)
*Spray my roses for black spot and beetle defense (or this one!! yay!)

I also got a new rose bush that I am so excited to plant-it is yellow and red striped!! COOL!!!! I have about 6 rose bushes now, and though I am pretty sure I am allergic to the rose thorns, I still love working with them and taking care of them. I love the look of blooming rose bushes. Yes, every time I get pricked with a rose thorn, I break out in an itchy red bump. Smelling roses though, and having them in the house doesn't bother me at all, so go figure, I'm weird.

I'm also super excited to teach Little Dude more words while we are messing around in the gardens. (My plan is for him to help me, hopefully it won't turn into this). His words and speaking abilities are improving by leaps and bounds everyday and I love hearing new words come out!! I also have to say he is pretty good about following direction and coming when I call, but I still get nervous in the front yard with him because of all the cars that think they need to RACE to get the the park in our neighborhood. Sigh. One day Bill and I are going to build a speed bump to slow people down. Heehee.

At any rate, I am excited to get the yard going, and if you can't tell, it is crazy early on a Saturday for me to be up-in fact, I am already showered and dressed and drinking coffee while everyone else here sleeps. For some reason I just can't sleep. I don't know if it is because of yesterday's evening events, or if it is because getting up to pee a gazillion times during the night somehow gave me energy, but at any rate, Mom is up, and I am enjoying the quiet.

Where is the bathroom?

For Easter, we had a lot of family coming and going and staying with us, which was super fun! But, with all the people, it made Bill and me realize that two bathrooms get filled up quickly, and often!

Someday, Bill and I would like to have 4 children, perhaps more, but 4 seems like a really good number (that number will fill my van while still having room for Bill, Eddie, and me). Though, of course, I have reserved the right to change my mind at any given point, since I am the one pushing them out of my tiny body. Anyways, seeing how busy the bathrooms were over the weekend made us realize: We need to add a bathroom asap.

We have two boys (one due in July!). But having the groups of people over made us realize that with 4 children and their friends and our friends and family, our two little bathrooms will be constantly in use. Esp. at holidays. And the lines for showers will last all morning.

So, we have added another task to the list of home "to-do's", which we had finally gotten down to just a few small items too! Start work on the downstairs bathroom, just as soon as the deck is done.

And now I must go, as Little Dude is calling for water....again.....

A good, old fashonioned Barn Raising.....

So on Tuesday of this week my neighbors had a lot trees taken down and since they were just going to get rid of the wood bits left after the tree stumps were ground down, I decided it was a great way to get some free mulch!

Yesterday, Bill, Little Dude and I went over to start filling out our wheel barrel with some mulch for my flower garden. Then our other neighbor's son came over and started to help shovel mulch. After John got home, he came over and started helping too. Then Amy and Alan got out extra tools and their wheel barrel and an awesome pitch fork (we just had shovels) and started moving mulch as well. THEN Caroline and the kids, Cole and Keely came over to hang out and give moral support. By then Randy came over to open the gate for everyone moving wheel barrels (he had back surgery a little while ago so he couldn't do any lifting). By this time our whole little block of neighbors is helping and hanging out, all the while moving VAST amounts of mulch across the street to our yard!

We got more mulch than I had ever thought we'd get (I seriously was going to quit after getting enough for the flower garden), but with all the help, we had all of it moved in no time at all! And, even better, got to spend some really awesome quality time with all of our awesome neighbors. Alan even said after we were done that it was time to "raise the barn".

I have to say, seriously, if I ever did win the lottery, I could never move to a new house. I just couldn't leave my neighbors! And on the flip side, if a number of them start moving away, we are moving in a heartbeat. Isn't it wonderful how a great group of neighbors can make or break a neighborhood? Bill and I talked about it last night after all the fun and togetherness: we would choose this house and the sweet neighbors we have any day over an awesome new house (where toilets don't decide to flush themselves...story for another day) with bad neighbors.

No, you know what? I already have won the lottery. I have been blessed with an awesome family, a warm house, and super great neighbors that I think of as extended family. What more could anyone want?

I didn't take any pictures last night; I should've! But, here is a picture from back in Nov. of Amy, Caroline and me and our kids and Blake, Randy's son. The fire truck came to check out a reported fire in the park, which ended up being nothing, but they were so nice and let the kids explore their trucks.


Have a blessed day!

The house is almost done!

Hi everyone! There is exciting news! As of yesterday we are all done painting the upstairs and all major construction projects on our homes inside are done! WOW!! Right now I am sitting inmy nice new office (using the computer John built for me! yay!) and I have a lovely laundry room, utility room, and a fun family room! YAY! The downstairs is pretty much done!

We started all these projects 4 years ago and it seems amazing we have finally finished the big ones! When we bought our house (for crazy cheap, considering the size) half of the down stairs was not finished, and the family room was REALLY dated. It looked like a dungeon from the 50's, had there been dungeons in homes back then.

Anyways, we put up walls, put in electrical, put in new flooring, painted EVERYTHING, took down weird built in widow covers (seriously, why have a window if you are going to put a wooden overhang covering it?) We did ceiling work,window work...basically the works! And now, we are done!

We also have finished painting the upstairs, and now it is time to tackle adding the third full bath and outdoor deck/patio area. Before the baby comes we are planning on having the deck/patio and backyard landscaping done, and then before the baby turns 1 we hope to have the bathroom halfway done, if not all done. I am soooooo excited!

Being busy with so many home repair items kept our weekends full up to now....now we have been having nice, lazy weekends but honestly, I can only take so much sitting idle time....perhaps it is time to paint our bedroom again?