Around The House (In Less Than 80 Days)

As I said before, with spring upon us we've decided it's time to venture into the yard and begin getting serious about figuring out the landscaping and whatnot. We have already taken advantage of some of these sunny days and I think my farmer's tan is coming in nicely.

We're having a tree service come out later this week to remove some pesky plantings and open up some space for us to do our thing. This includes removing the crab apple on the north side of the house, Leslie's favorite little sapling next to the driveway, and some trees and bushes next to the house on the south side. The trees they're removing are oh so conveniently planted in badly constructed raised beds with these lovely decorative stones thrown in all around. Unfortunately, this meant we had to do some work. Before they can grind out the stumps we had to move the blocks and rocks out of the way. We got it done after a few afternoons and can't wait to get these trees out of here so we can plant something nicer.

Leslie also took advantage of the season (and some coupons we had to Lowe's) by setting up two planters at the front of the house. I have no idea what all she put it them, but they look great so who cares. And Frank likes them too.

And just in case you thought we were complete jerks and were just carelessly removing trees (and so close to Earth Day, too) - fear not! We also participated in Avon's tree sale this spring and got two new trees for the property. One is a saucer magnolia and sits in the northwest quadrant of the yard, not too far from where the soon-to-be-history crab apple currently resides. The other is a sugar maple and went in on the south end of the lot between the sidewalk and our fence. This will, eventually, provide some nice shade for that end of the back yard.

We've also begun prepping our closet for a makeover. This will involve lots of new shelves, drawers, rods, and all that other closet-y good stuff. But, before anything fun like that can be installed, we needed to get rid of what was already there. This meant dismantling the wooden shelving that was already in place and pulling everything from the walls, which we got done this weekend. The next step will be to patch and paint. We do, at least, already have paint left from doing other closets and even bought a light fixture with the closet in mind a few weeks ago. We also went through and designed the future layout - once the painting is done it's just a matter of waiting for the stuff to go on sale or for Menards to have 11% back again. This stuff is not cheap!

I also did a few things in the house the other weekend when Leslie was away. We've been meaning to replace the shower head in our bathroom for awhile. The old one worked... but not well. So this is a nice upgrade. I thought it would be a nice, simple task of taking off the old head and then putting the new one on, but of course the old shower arm broke in the process. So... once more unto the Lowe's, dear friends, once more! But no big deal, it was still an easy job. I also ripped out those rickety old shelves near the utility sink in the garage and put a paper towels roll in their place. This probably won't be permanent, but it makes it a lot easier to get paper towels (instead of hunting for them in the mess on my workbench). And that stupid shelf is gone too.

So not bad for a few days work. We've also been working on the photo wall upstairs, but I don't think I'll share anything on that one until we get it done. It's coming along nicely and looks really great. But that's all I have to share for now - more to come on Friday, per the usual. Well, unless we get too busy and I forget to post... but hey, that's life. Thanks for reading and have a good week!