It's been a while since I posted here but that's not to say I haven't been doing a lot.
First off the
Field Guide got a major reworking and it's now prettier, more compact and has better, bigger pictures, so go check that out and then come back.
I've also finished the garage, I installed trim all around the windows (using my nail gun, yay for power tools). I also installed wire mold power strips under the windows and put in some slick lights all along the wooden beam that spans the length of the garage. It was all finished off with a cambridge soundworks so I can listen to my iPod while I work on stuff. All that needs to be done now is I need to sort through the mountain of crap that's piled up outside the garage and work out what is going to the dump and what is going to be allowed back in. Oh and I need to build my own bike rack since the metal one I wanted was going to cost $400 in shipping costs and it only cost $200 to start off with :(
I also made some rather spiffy street number signs so people can find the house easier, it's just corrugated plastic sheets with stick on reflective vinyl numbers and arrows, they were kinda cheap, but look great. Top tip: use liquid nails to glue the sign to the pressure treated lumber you're hammering into the ground, it works a treat and looks great from the sign side.
I continue the battle with the rats/mice in the guest house. I think I may have it nailed now. The wiley meeces had gotten wise to the have a heart traps, then they got wise to the snippety snappy traps so I finally lamented and put out poison, and then they go and steal the stuff and hike off with it! We put the cats in there when we have guests or a party so I was worried the cats would find the poison we couldn't so I went full Jihad on the little furry buggers (the mice not the cats!) and tore the kitchen apart in there, it was old and crusty anyway and I think I found where they were coming in, there was a huge hole in the drywall where the pipes for the kitchen sink come in so I patched it up and then spackled it all smooth(ish) and put a small kitchen cabinet (the only one not really demolished) over the pipes. It looks a whole lot better now but there's no kitchen sink. We decided to leave it like that for now, but if we ever do finish it off, we're going to put in laminate hardwood floors on the ground floor and get some IKEA
free standing kitchen stuff for it. It'll look really great, but we're trying to cut back on spending right now, so just having it rat free will be nice :)
I've also done the usual yard work and trimmed all down the driveway, but as always there's lots more to do.
Check out all the wood we had, ready for a nice cold winter. Well it was pretty mild, rained less than half of what it normally does. We were able to ride our bikes pretty much the whole winter long and only burned half this wood. We're pretty set up for next year (2007) now! Thanks so much to Ag for stacking it all while we were busy working on the front garden/driveway. Sorry this post is so late, it was all drafted up here and never posted.
Well this was a long time ago! but I cleaned the chimneys myself this last summer. It was a pain cutting a round brush to fit in our oval chimney insert. But now it's done it'll be a doddle to do every year and we can be safe knowing we have a clean chimney and save a bunch of money doing it ourselves. The chimney for the studio apartment was much easier even if it was two stories in the air.
The past two weekends we've been hard at work with tons of help from the In-Laws and my mom landscaping the small patch of yard in front of the pool. This area has always been consumed by weeds which isn't really a great first impression when you drive up to the house. With our baby's arrival, I've been really pushing to simplify yardwork. So instead of Hubby having to weed whack this section of the yard, we've planted drought and deer resistant plants and installed a drip irrigation system. It will be awhile before the amount of time this project has consumed will actually pay off since it only took him about 30 minutes to whack the weeds in this section versus the 2 three day weekends that were just used. However, at least the yard looks much more presentable. Now if the plants can survive the deers, moles, and gophers, we'll really be making progress!
The water heater in the garage has been off for 6 months and when that happens the water normally smells pretty sulfur-y and we want to steam clean the carpets and the last thing we wanted was them to be even worse afterwards. So I set out to clean the water heater. Last time I just threw some bleach in the water inlet and ran it through, it seemed to help. This time I was going to put some vinegar in there for hopefully a more mild approach. However I had one of those element removing tools that I had never managed to get working on the old water heater in the house causing me to just cave in and install a new one. So I drilled some bigger holes in the tool closer to the hex part of the wrench and it worked a treat. I didn't like what I saw inside. Each element was pretty caked but what was worse when I stuck my finger in the bottom element hole I could feel what felt like gravel ewww.... What followed was a lot of flushing water through, rocking the water heater and poking at it with various spokes and long screwdrivers and you can see the pile of gunk that came out. It was all scaly flakes and took ages to come out. That pile's not even all of it. Think about that next time you think about using hot water to clean your teeth or for cooking (ugh!). If you haven't flushed out your hot water tank, perhaps now would be a good time?
I should be a general contractor, seriously, it's only taken me 4 years to finally finish the medicine cabinet in the bathroom! This has been quite a contentious issue in the house for quite some time, after the contractor we hired to remodel the bathroom kind of stiffed us and left us half finished we got everything done but the medicine cabinet which I was sure I could do myself. Well it's finally done and while not perfect I'm pretty happy with the outcome.
It's been two years since we did the landscaping by the pool and boy did the hard work pay off. Whilst quite a few of the plants have been attacked by huge rabbits, moles, and gophers with big, giant pointy teeth and a vicious streak a mile wide, the garden for the most part is thriving. I'm sure the 60 inches of rain we got this year has a lot to do with how well it's growing. I'm very thankful for all of Mom's, Hubby's and Hubby's parent's help with the garden over the past two years. It's very nice to sit by the pool and enjoy all the beautiful flowers, butterflies, bees, birds, and lizards who also enjoy being in the garden by the pool.
