Labor Day Labors

My days are still being filled with unpacking, day after day of trying to find a spot for everything we own. It's weird to have so much room now though, I have to admit. Weird and WONDERFUL.

We went on a shopping spree to Lowe's with a 10% off card and filled 4 carts with stuff. Among other things, we purchased all new light fixtures for the kitchen and Dave installed them. I thought the one shade looked like a safari hat so Dave humored me and tried it on. See...this is one of the reasons he's so great.



The little shelter that is behind the house came with a weathered picnic table and charcoal grill. The concrete foundation was stained badly and really dirty so Dave power washed it along with all of the wood on the structure and the table and benches. I painted the picnic table bright red (and a few bugs in the process, accidentally)

BEFORE


AFTER


I know this makes me a nerd but - I see Hank Hill standing next to the grill, arms folded, shaking his head disapprovingly whenever I look at it.


While cleaning the side deck off a few weeks ago, Dave discovered a plastic patio table that matched the 4 plastic outdoor chairs we found in the pole barn. Problem was, they were all really worn and gross looking, even after a good cleaning. So I discovered they make spray paint that is made for plastic, bought a couple of cans and viola! It's like a brand new outdoor furniture set!



Did I mention we have no internet and no cable TV? Comcast has to run cable from the road, up to our house, which is over 400 feet - and it's all at their expense, so you can guess how quickly they are moving on this. We've been told it could take 3 months. Which I assume means much longer than 3 months.

Another new exciting purchase: a washing machine! The house came with one from 1992 that was full of rust and pretty gross. The new one is one of those front loading machines and we had to run a test cycle to make sure it didn't wobble during the spin cycle. It's no replacement for TV though, no matter how entertained Dave appears.



So after the successful spin test I was excited to do laundry. I threw in a load and went back outside to work and Dave went down to the end of the driveway to work on fixing the fence post. I went back down to check the cycle and found this:



Not only was the hot water hose to the washer leaking, the sump pump in the corner broke sometime during the wash cycle and water was rushing out of the cover, creeping across the floor from the corner. I waddled my gigantic self up the stairs, outside, and down the driveway (did I mention it's a tenth of a mile long?) yelling "Dave!!!" I don't run fast now that I have 25 extra pounds strapped to my midsection. Poor Dave spent the entire day replacing the sump pump and pipes running into the hole, several times being sprayed in the face when the pump would kick on and break off another bad pipe connection, spraying a jet of gross water vertically.

Moose had his cousin Miller stay with us this weekend. I found them sitting by the side door like this, which made me say "awww."



But shortly after I took the photo, Moose looked over his shoulder at me and rolled onto Miller, as if he's a small black pillow. Miller is thankfully very tolerant of Moose's oblivious nature: