Sunday, July 21, 2013

Project-complete Septic and ALL White Paint

Project goals of the day? Complete all white paint: soffit, facia, window and door trims, etc...
The door below won't be used for quite a while, so we have bared it off. It's paint was in such horrible condition (like the entire house) that paint was hanging in strips and the bare wood was showing. scrape and painted--check! 
Please excuse the painting outfit--hideous I know. 





The house is painted! Woot! I need to get on my PC and pull before photos.

"Front" of house facing North. 


West side of the house. My favorite side :)...note the bared off door? 


Here is a closer picture of the West facing side of the house-bared off door is easier to see. Eventually the deck (right side of the picture) will extend out to the depth of the sunroom (see picture windows on left side of photo).

The area directly under the bared off door will be a shade garden with a large retaining wall. The shade obviously supplied by the deck that will go over it. 


South side of the house. The darker section of the deck will be torn down next summer when we extend the deck out to the end of the sunroom (left side of photo). 
The current deck is stable, but old and we would like our stairs to match the actual deck--wouldn't you? 

Note the gate Randy added to the top of the stairs.

Sorry about the "stored" items under the deck. Hopefully we will build a "shed" out of this part of the deck next year? Still chewing on that one.

 We are going to re-grade this entire section of the yard, so until then I apologize foe the poor landscaping. 



The landscaping will continue to this side of the house as well. Someday, after we win the lotto, we will build an addition where the ladder is located. This will be a much larger master bath. The two rooms on the end will be joined into one large room. Currently the master is on the right and the boys room is the left window and the window where the ladder is sitting.



On to the second project. Randy and I woke early and attacked the septic. As mentioned in a previous blog, I located the cracked pipe and dug a couple trenches to help drain off water/sewage to expose the cracked pipe. 


I wish I would have taken pictures of us with the rotor septic snake-quite the task!

We ensured all of the access points and pipes between were cleared and tested water flow. Of course we returned the snake without taking pictures-I'm a dork or perhaps I just decided I had enough crap to deal with--ha!

Here is my handiwork at filling in the trenches. 


We've worked hard and deserve a joy-ride! 

Friday, July 19, 2013

Backed Up

So our septic is backed up. I managed to find where the pipe is cracked and hope to be renting a septic snake tonight. This should be fun.


I wish I had my video on during all of this. I was digging around following the water source when I removed a section of dirt and up shot a 3 ft gush of poo. Yes, poo. 


Here it is squirting a little bit of water. Nothing compared to the gush from before. Scared the--well you can imagine.


I had to dig a few trenches to clear out the water enough to figure out what was going on.  Oh fun! 



Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Liam's Suspenders

Dear Lordy my kid is a ham! He was posing and showing off his suspenders!


I love this kid! Lol




Sunday, July 14, 2013

Easy Access to the Back Yard

Look what Randy and I worked on this evening. All of the children were able to help with this project! Tyler handed us rods, Liam passed our screws and Keira took photographs. 
Just a few more things to do then we can close the escrow and refinance. That does not mean our projects are over, just that we have net the 203(k) requirements, find out our new appraisal amount and can get some of our money back...:)


Friday, July 5, 2013

Coffee table makeover

I picked this table up for free on craigslist while we were living in my parents' basement. 


Its purpose was to "get us through" homework assignments until we found our own place. 
It has grown on me so I thought I would see how it would turn out with a goodsanding  and new coat of stain/paint. 

Thursday, July 4, 2013

More Painting--Exterior


We started the morning off by attending the Boy Scout pancake Breakfast--nom nom! The children had a blast on the "monkey bridge". Tyler was really scared at first but quickly got the hang of it! 



This is what painting with a scaffold is like. Not too bad, right?



However, take a few steps back...



And then a few more...yikes! Absolutely terrifying if you ask me!



Our somewhat diseased looking home is starting to look like a presentable home!