Dog Days of Summer

The heat, my god, the heat. Next week we get a new heat pump installed and will finally have AC in the house. WOO HOO! To illustrate how hot it has been, this is how Moose cools off. I think we need to get him a baby pool, something that holds more than just his face:



Dave bought a dump trailer for the lawn mower to haul all the tree/bush clippings to the burn pile at the back of the property. He can pile an awful lot on that thing:



It hauls more than tree trimmings too.



Today Moose's favorite Germans came to stay with us. Gunner & Jack belong to our friends Josh & Kim who are both out of town this weekend. The three dogs ran themselves silly around the property today while we worked. At times it felt like that scene in A Christmas Story with the Bumpus' dogs where they all charge in the back door at once.





Dave spent his 35th birthday cutting down more small trees and bushes, building his firewood pile and "this is gonna be one HUGE fire" burn pile.





He's been blazing new trails through the overgrowth each day. Eventually there will be very little of this mess, only trees.



And in closing, some BEFORE and AFTER pictures (because it makes us feel like we've accomplished something)

BEFORE


AFTER


Remember the weed garden?
BEFORE




AFTER



Sidewalk of weeds:
BEFORE


AFTER


Oh yeah, one last picture of Moose that I just think came out cool:

Paint & Weed Eaters

Just a short update as we now have 2 projects started but not finished yet.

Dave picked up a gas weed eater and tried it out today. He made quick work of the weed garden I've been struggling with for days.



Dave's dad came down today to help with the house and chopped a bunch of tree limbs off for us:



He also helped with painting and we finished the wall paint in baby's room. All that's left is the trim. Here's me in all my sweaty, overheated swollen glory:



We noticed we both wore the same shirt today. Family picture:

Cutting back the Jungle

The yard might be the biggest task related to this house. Either this house was vacant for a LOT longer than 9 months or these people just let everything go for the last 2 years. This is not just 9 months of overgrowth.

Sunday we picked up a used riding lawn mower that Dave found on Craigs List. We spent Sunday afternoon and evening sweltering in the 90 degree heat, cutting back the jungle the that surrounds the house. I weeded and pruned while Dave cut the grass, even though it was REALLY long and kind of wet.

Moose came with and ran himself silly around the property, stopping to come back and be our shadows, like always. He liked following Dave on the riding mower, sometimes getting sprayed by the grass when he followed too close.



I'd forgotten to take a picture before I started pruning and weeding so this tree's overhang was actually WORSE before I took this. Also, you can see I started weeding the brick sidewalk back towards the porch.

Before (sort of)


After:






Moving on - the GARDEN. Ugh, what a frustrating day. I started off with the idea I could cherry pick - just pull the weeds and whatever flowers I didn't want to keep. An hour into the weeding I realized it's 80% weeds and the rest are diseased hostas and wildflowers that are growing out of control. I spent HOURS and only completed one very small side of the house.

Before:


After hours of work:


Feels like I got very little done. I'm not even sure if those purple flowers growing up through that hosta are weeds or not! It kind of looks like a weed! Also, I'm starting to wonder if I should just pull everything up, till the soil, add good soil, cover with mulch for the winter and start over fresh next spring with stuff I like - Hydrangeas and bushes...etc. I know that seems wasteful but I think it might give me a better soil to start with next year. Also, it'd be a LOT easier!!!

THIS is what I'm up against:




Evil, evil weeds.

As the sun set on another day at the house, Dave and Moose spent some time wearing themselves out, running around like mad:

It all starts with a Closing

We closed on the house on Friday, after about 3 months of house searching, offers, rejections and finally one house that fit us both. Dave got his wish for a lot of land, I got my wish for a unique house with lots of charm. Along with it comes a lot of work, which is what you'll be able to watch here. We've got about 6 weeks until we have to be out of our little rental house and we plan to get contractor after contractor in there in that time to totally overhaul this house.

The house has been sitting empty somewhere between 9 months and 2 years - we never got a straight answer about that. The previous owners had interesting ideas about what colors are good for walls (GAG!) and judging from the kitchen, they really liked teal. The house was sold "as-is" so lots of random stuff was left in the house which we'll either keep, junk or sell.  On the plus side, we now own a pool table. :)

So let's start with the "before" pictures. I took these the day after we closed when I spent the day vacuuming up about 400 dead bugs that were inside the house.

The entrance to the house is very easy to miss from the road because it's completely grown over.



Our driveway is a tenth of a mile long:



Here's the front of the house, in all it's Christmas color glory. The roof will be replaced and the exterior repainted. Just in case you were wondering, we'll be choosing entirely different colors.



Here is the one room of the house (living room and dining room) we won't be changing at all, besides a new coat of paint.



The teal kitchen, complete with totally ridiculous wood burning stove for no reason:





The pantry at the entrance will probably be converted to a mudroom. This pantry seemed like it might have been a good idea if it had cabinet DOORS. Who wants a grocery store worth of food to be the first thing people see when they walk in your back door? Weird.

Moving onto the rest of the house, there is a theme for the 3 bedrooms and bathrooms - loud, awful paint colors. Check it out:






So that's it for now. More photos to come as we do more and more work.