Elbow Grease Part Deux

The fun continues this weekend. We picked up that huge pile of branches the tree created (it took four trailer loads). Our enormous lawn takes about 45 min to mow (that's just he backyard). And it's been going crazy with all the rain we've been getting. So Eric mowed the lawn and he does a better job than I do. He goes all the way back to the edge so everything's in a straight line. You should see how I mow -- it's hilarious. Lines all over the place. Anyway, I planted flowers and he mowed.

This is our current project that's not quite finished. We got a start on it on Memorial Day. The side of our garage has beautiful rose bushes that line it. Of course you cannot tell from the top picture because we really let it get out of control. It's the mini-jungle. There is lava rock in between all the weeds. And the roses were mostly dead growth. So we spent about 3 hours raking the lava rock out and I pruned the rose bushes. The bottom picture is the final product -- it looks great and we're not even done! We plan on putting down some light colored river rock (that lines the house). It's going to look so great. We are well on our way to making this house a home!

Elbow Grease

We've been doing a lot of work around the house this May. It started on Mother's Day weekend when my folks came out and we tackled the basement floor. The next day (Mother's Day itself -- what a treat for my Mom!) we went outside and my dad tore into our Jungle. There was a humongous tree right off our deck that was mostly dead. We decided to do away with that and it went smoothly. Years of cutting trees on their land has proven my dad to know how to handle trees.

This is how the tree started out. You can see the dead stuff on the left that's black.
Eric had the good idea to use a rock on one end of a rope to toss over the limb they were working on. It's hard to get a feel for the size of this tree, but it was pretty darn big. Lots of branches to crash into the side of our house.
Part I of the tree -- this went pretty smoothly.
This portion of the tree required my puny muscles to help. Eric and I were putting all our weight into this. The branch we were working on was tilting back towards our house. This was the one we were most worried about crashing onto the corner of the roof. Whew! Mission accomplished! I think Eric tripped over the sandbox.
So then came the task of cutting this behemoth down into more manageable chunks (although when Eric and I lifted the chunks into the wheelbarrow we just about had a hernia. We couldn't even get one off the ground.)

Basement Project

A few weekends ago, my folks visited enroute to MN for their summer. We took that opportunity to get some projects done with the free labor available. First, we epoxied our laundry room floor. It's a fairly spacious room, but it was just a concrete floor and a single dingy light bulb. I don't know I never put a higher-wattage bulb up there, but when we took it down to replace it with shop lights I realized it was a 40-watt bulb! That's like night-light quality. No wonder it was like walking into a cave. So we put this cool epoxy paint down, sprinkled paint chips, and VOILA! What an upgrade.

Step One: Carefully consider electricity. Don't be fooled, I was contributing nothing to this conversation.

Step Two: Read instructions three times. And then read again.
Step Three: Apply epoxy. Scatter chips . Keep saying epoxy because it's a fun word.
Step Four: Inhale paint fumes and apply erratically.
Step Five: Enjoy Gucci basement!

Martini...Two Olives, Please

We're still here!

Ok, we're still around. We just have had a seriously long dry spell of anything interesting. But these last few weekends have been pretty busy fixing up our house. I have many pictures, but don't have them with me! I'm sitting in a hotel room tonight and have plenty of time, but no pictures. More to come...