Project Weekend

Jane and Richard came to visit this past weekend so as usual we got out the home improvements to-do list and started crossing things off!

 

Before our company arrived, Matthew prepared the laundry room for installing the door.  He cut out the wall board, removed the insulation, and moved the wiring out of the way.

 

The next morning Matthew and Richard figured out where the opening would be on the outside of the house and cut away the siding using the dremel.

 

 

Now there is a hole in the house!

 

Placing the new door into the hole - it fit just like it was supposed to!
























We finally have an entry way with a bench and shoe rack!  Now all I need to add is a rug and coat rack.

 

While the guys were busy with the door, Jane and I put in another flower bed around the house.  The area around the car port, air conditioner, house, and a tree is difficult to mow and maintain, so I decided it would look better if we made it into a bed.  Here is the before photo:

 

We dug up all of the grass, edged the area with black plastic edging, put down landscape fabric, and then I covered the bed in mulch.

 

The final product!

 

The flower bed didn't take too long so Jane and I were also able to work a little bit on the "front" of the house.  This side faces the woods so we really don't spend much time around it and have not done any improving yet.  Here is a before photo of the jungle.

 

Before removing the leaves and other debris, Jane got out the chainsaw and made short work of those ugly bushes!

 

I dug out chain link fence posts (we used the actual fencing for the garden) and used our garden tractor and trailer to haul away all of the posts.

 

The pile of extra fencing parts out by the road (someone will pick them up for scrap).  I had already dug up more than half of the posts before this weekend but it was nice to get them all out!

 

Here's what the front looked like when we called it quits for the day.  We will still have to power wash the house, trim the trees back, level out the flower beds, remove the stumps, and plant new plants but I think we'll leave that for another weekend!



















Jane and Richard also made a furniture delivery during their visit - a new entertainment center for our living room!  Now that we have a flat screen TV our old furniture was too big.  This three piece set is perfect for holding our DVDs and all of our gaming systems.  Thank you!!!  Now I need to find some sort of decorations to put on top...

 

And finally, I found this little guy in the leaves around the house, I think it is the smallest snake I've ever seen!

Laundry Room Renovations Part Two

In between working on other houses and our regular jobs, Matthew and I have slowly been finishing projects in the laundry room.  Most of the room is renovated now, except for the door that will (hopefully) be installed this weekend.

 

I ordered two new 16" deep white storage cupboards but they came with a little assembly required!

 

 

After I painted the walls and trim, we hung up the cleaning tools along the wall and mounted the storage cupboards above the washer and dryer.

 

Matthew then built a kitty litter box and shelf combination to go between the washer and water heater (the wall behind is not yellow like it looks in this photo, the camera flash makes it look that way).  Now kitty litter dust won't travel as far and I won't be worried about accidentally dropping clothes into the litter box!  The plan is to eventually add a Reverse Osmosis water filter and a 50 gallon holding tank to the top of this shelf for my aquarium business but for now I can use it to store all of the buckets and things for AquaAid.

Our Anniversary

We celebrated our second anniversary last night by eating out at our favorite fancy & expensive restaurant, Elizabeth on 37th.  It was a wonderful evening and we can't wait until it is time to visit again next year!