What Would Jen Do

Archive for the ‘home improvement’ Category

I want to start out by saying that our house is built on old farmland.   We live on the edge of our development and the houses behind us are technically older homes that have a lot of land.  That is why we have scorpions.  And snakes.  And bats.  And once even a pair of vultures and a frog.    Because it’s old farmland, things really like to grow in our backyard, specifically weeds and tumbleweed.   Not so much grass because the previous homeowners didn’t put the sprinklers in correctly so there would be patches of dirt where nothing but weeds would grow.  Eventually the weeds and tumbleweed took over the yard and it became a very dirty and very embarrassing area.

Those old AC units have since been replaced

Those pictures were taken on a good day

Then we planted some trees

half of the trees died when we had a very cold winter and they froze to death

Then we put in sprinklers

Then we took that rock area you saw above and put in a flagstone patio

That turned out really nice and was good use of that space.  Except that the sun was there the entire day and it was so hot that there was no way we were going to use that patio.   so then one day we hired a crew to move the flagstone patio from this side of the house to the other.

Voodoo was the foreman of the job.  the funny thing about this side of the house is that there was a huge hole here for years.  The start of a koi pond that never was.  Or a booby trap, either way.  I’ll spare you pictures of the large hole full of trash and yes tumbleweeds.

Finally grass starts growing and chokes out most of the weeds, it’s very hard to get tumbleweed under control.    But if you keep at it, it can happen.

This is the backyard last month, say hello to Mojo running around. Dead trees were replaced with more fruit trees and a few desert bushes called Hopseeds.   Waaay back in the corner there is a vegetable garden that is growing weeds in this picture.

Around and behind each tree are weeds.   We can’t get them under control.    So, landscapers to the rescue.

They found some old flagstone buried under the sand and made my dogs a pathway!  I could have cried.

in closing

this

to this

Normal backyard to any of you, but paradise to me.     8 years in the making.

If you live in AZ and need a Landscaper, we highly recommend Hawkeye Landscaping.   They threw in a lot of extras, like the dogs pathway, fixed out gate, threw out some trash we had and cleaned up dog poop.  We’ll be sending them a thank you card.

Let it be known that I am not a good follower on Friday, I always catch you later.   Work computers don’t often agree with blogging.  There should be a law against that.

One day later and I’m still pretty excited about my new grown up backyard.  to some people it’ll just look like an ordinary backyard, but trust me this one has come a long way in the past 8 years and it’s literally taken some blood, sweat and tears to get this far. 

There was also another scopion casualty. The landscapers dropped a big mountain of rock in our front yard and of course the neighbor kids climbed all over it.  And of course there was a wee scorpion also climbing in the pile. The neighbor boy got stung in the hip.  He seems ok, we saw him right afterward and he was just chilling with an icepack.   His mom likes to capture the scorpions that sting her family members, and keep them alive in a glass jar.  Then every so often she pulls one of their legs off with tweezers.    She’s a lot braver than me, I just want them dead.  

this morning I must have turned off my alarm and then went back to sleep.  Fortunately I woke up half an hour later and wondered why my alarm didn’t go off.  i know for fact i turned it on the night before, so i must have turned it completely off in my sleep.   somehow I managed to still get to work on time.     Then a frozen yoplait yogurt fell out of the freezer and hit me on the ankle bone.  The day started off on a bad note, got worse when i got here to work, but has taken a turn for the better.     I guess you can’t be too upset when it’s Friday.

The house painting is finally done.  I think Voodoo is the happiest about that, it was a very stressful three days for him.

I guess you can’t really tell by this picture, but there is a definite improvement.

I think some of the biggest improvements are the patio, front door and side of the house.

We have had a couple of really busy weeks.  This past weekend we went to a birthday party, a wedding and a baby shower.    By sunday night my throat hurt from talking and laughing so much.   I even had a driving lesson.  I can’t drive a stick and Icey feels that it’s important I learn how since he drives one.  I panicked and almost cried a couple of times until he gave me an explanation on how to do it, that just made sense to me.  So after that I had no less than 5 smooth take offs.    In the middle of the lesson a security guard drove up and asked us if we needed help!!!  I guess i was THAT bad.

Today the painters showed up bright and early.  Today was spent mostly prepping the house by filling in the cracks and repairing the stucco.  if you’ve seen my house you know repairing the stucco is a full day job.   Our patio fascia was rotting away and now it’s been replaced.

Hi voodoo’s butt

also the posts at the bottom that had chipped away down to the wood, were completely repaired.  The main reason I went with this company aside from the fact that they were very nice was because they could repair this patio.

Dealing with the HOA has been tough, and that’s all I’m going to say about that!

We did almost have a pink tinged house.  the color we picked, that looks just like our house color is not exactly our house color and will turn pink.  There is a house down the street with a slight pinkish hue to it and I hate it.  So we’re going with Cashmere instead, I just hope that was a good decision.   It’s in the beige category so I guess I can’t go wrong.

The dogs did good aside from barking their faces off when the guys first got here.   Then they’d forget the painters were here or something and then they’d see them again and the barking would start all over again.  Once when I was on the phone with my boss…….

So the painters will be back the next two days and I expect a huge transformation.

the day started out real nice.  I took a shower and put on a bra, two things I rarely do on a Saturday.  My husband is leaving for about a week and I thought that having a clean and put together wife would be a bonus on his last day here.

I did my grocery shopping and then we went out for a nice breakfast together.  Then it was off to the mall to find me a dress to wear to Phrainqs wedding next week, where we ran into the bride to be!!! She said the wedding starts at 9:30 so be there on time or get locked out, sounds like my kinda girl.    I’m all for being on time and can fully appreciate anyone who feels the same.

I did find a dress after going to two malls and two freestanding stores last week and walking out with nothing.  The dress is super cute, almost Lucille Ball-esque, but without the polka dots and full skirt.

We were on our way to one more mall and Best Buy when Icey got a notice that his flight out tonight was cancelled.  Way to go Jet Blue, cancelling a flight just hours before takeoff. Not only does this affect Icey, it affects his two younger sisters who were on the same flight.   And who did not even get notice their flight was cancelled.

Jet Blue kept me on hold waiting for a customer service rep for one hour and when we finally got thru, whoever Icey spoke to turned out to be less than helpful.   Her idea of helpful was basically to say sorry,  laugh at our misfortune, and can we fly you out Wednesday instead.  No?  Too bad so sad then.

Needless to say, that reservation was cancelled and Icey’s stepfather came thru and found him a round trip flight.  Thank you Andy, what a lifesaver.  Then we spent some time online and got the girls flights out as well, but they won’t be leaving until tomorrow.  Which is loads better than Wednesday.  And they won’t be on Jet Blue.

Now Icey is leaving a few hours earlier than originally planned so I basically packed for him while he ran around outside getting the house ready for the painters this week.  And we never made it to Best Buy so I hope whatever he needed wasn’t too important.

Since he’s leaving earlier I get to take him to the airport, which kind of makes me sad. But he’ll also be coming home hours earlier so that makes me happy.

This week the house is getting painted (hopefully) and I had taken Wednesday off to be home while this was going on.  I figured that would make it easier on the painters and also on my dogs.  After Icey and my friend Cat both suggested asking to work from home that day I finally got up enough courage to ask.  I expected a big no, but my boss said yes without hesitation.   I wasn’t expecting that at all  So this week I get to work from home THREE days in a row.    Which makes me feel better on so many levels.   Now I get to stay home with my dogs while the house is being painted and I don’t have to use a vacation day.

Day two of this awesome migraine I have.

I think every weekend should be mandatory three days.  There are so many things going on right now that i’ve forgotten what a proper weekend is like.  Yesterday we had the termites taken care of.  It took about 4 hours and it looked like a pretty easy process. It was just one guy who drilled holes about every 6 inches inside the garage and around the house.  then he filled them with poison and sealed them up and he was done.

Today we get to put the garage back together which is actually pretty exciting for me because i’ve been itching to organize and clean up that garage.    I’m going thru another phase where ‘omg i have to try and fix and clean and make things nice around here’, so the garage being such a big project should be enough to satisfy me for a while.

I think next we’re going to call around and get some people out for estimates on painting this house.  I sure they’d prefer doing that before summer.

Last night I had to get dressed in clothes that are not pajamas and go out in public with real live people.   Icey thinks it’s important for me to get out of the house once in a while and talk to people who are not my dogs.   Pffffft.    We went out to dinner for his little bro’s birthday and while it was nice to see everyone that showed up (Hi Erich) I was bummed that a lot of the people I would have liked to see on my one night out a month, couldn’t make it.

Yesterday when Icey was trying to do our taxes and went online to get our mortgage info, the website said we owed almost $800 in late fees!!!   We can’t possibly have late fees, we are on auto pay.   One quick phone call to the mortgage company and we found out it was an error on the website, those fees weren’t even showing up in the banks system.  ONLY on line!   so it’s nothing for us to worry about.  WHEW!!!

Petsker is slowly but surely gaining momentum.  It’s finally starting to show up on Google searches and the Twitter site has a lot of pet friendly followers.    If this site takes off then I can quit my job and do that full time instead.

Operation termite should be taking place next weekend, we just need to sign the paperwork and then clean around the perimeter of the inside of the garage and the outside of the house.  If one good thing comes out of these termites it will be the cleaning that has to go along with it.

Yesterday when I got home from work Oprah was doing her cage free chicken show and I had to to turn it off really fast, because I didn’t want to relive what i’ve seen before.

About two years ago I accidentally saw less than a minute of a video showing the condition caged chickens live in and almost threw up.

I borrowed this from another site

Cage-Free Systems

Because of public opposition to battery cage confinement, many egg producers are switching to cage-free systems. While these systems generally offer hens a higher level of animal welfare than do battery cage systems, the mere absence of cages doesn’t necessarily ensure a high level of welfare.

Most cage-free hens live in very large flocks that can consist of many thousands of hens who never go outside. However, unlike battery hens, cage-free hens are able to walk, spread their wings and lay their eggs in nests. Cage-free egg producers who obtain certification under the better welfare standards programs must provide perching and dust-bathing areas for the birds as well. These advantages are very significant to the animals involved.

While I don’t believe that cage free hens are running around smiling I do believe their quality of life is higher.   And that’s why I will spend double on cage free eggs.  I also cannot bring myself to buy white eggs anymore, but that’s a whole different quirk.

Don’t even get me started on the whole organic happy meat thing, i’m working on it and that’s another battle.

My house has termites, which apparently a lot of houses do.   And that Termite guy who randomly showed up is coming back tomorrow so we can sign the paperwork to get this taken care of.   bye bye money.   There are definitely other things I had in mind for that money.

So while I cannot buy the cheaper eggs, I cut corners everywhere else that I could.  I either cut or completely eliminated some bills and am now not only thinking twice about purchases, i’m thinking three times.  This year is about saving money, making things happen, taking care of business (figuratively and literally) and maybe a little bit of self improvement.  and so far so good.

Also today I totally repaired a leaky sink with my own two hands

I have been sick for like a week and I swear every other day it’s worse. I start feeling better and think I’m good to go and then the next day I’m feeling sick again. I cannot miss any more work, I missed last Thurs and Fri.  I went to the Dr last week to make sure it wasn’t bronchitis (it’s not, at least not yet) The Dr. gave me antibiotics to fill ‘just in case’ and I’m right on the verge of filling them in the hopes that whatever it is i have goes away.   Not a smart move, I know.  I’ll wait and see if my snot turns colors first! 

As soon as Icey started feeling better he started doing all kinds of things around the house.  He replaced the garage door opener mechanism, like the whole little box thing that controls the garage door.  Ours was old and super cheap and decided that it wasn’t going to close anymore unless you used the control inside the garage.   so there was a lot of pushing the button and then running out of the garage and jumping over the sensors so they wouldn’t see you and then stop the door from closing.   or just getting out of your car, going back into the garage, hitting the button, going inside and then using the front door.  pain in the butt, but that’s done.

right in the middle of that a man walks up to the house and says “Icey?” and he says yes, and the guy says he’s here from terminix. and Icey is like i didn’t call you.   and the guy says i talked to you last night. turns out he wanted a guy by the same name one street over but the same house number.  but as luck would have it, we needed a termite guy and were fixing to call one anyway!!!  so he came back after that call and gave us a quote.

then Icey replaced the kitchen faucet which had decided to constantly leak and then replaced the track lighting in the kitchen which burned out bulbs in about 4 days. if it still burns out bulbs then we need a real electrician out.

i ordered a new dyson for nearly half the cost of what you pay in stores.  i have used and abused my old one like you would not believe.  it’s fallen down stairs, been rammed into walls and is generally falling apart.  the new one got here last week.  it’s the ball one, which is kind of hard to maneuver until you get used to it.   and even tho i had just vacuumed the day before with the old one, the new one was nearly full after going over the living room.  my carpet actually does look nicer (for my carpet).   The old Dyson is now the upstairs dyson, because i’m too much of a princess to lug a vacuum up and down the stairs.

Our neighbor Phil’s friend Warren came to town and apparently thinks doing odd jobs is FUN.   he pulled out all of the bushes in our front yard, assisted by his 4 tiny helpers (2 dogs and 2 kids).   the 6 or so random and stupid bushes we had in our front yard were just a mess.  they had bad placement and it made no sense.   it looks a lot better now and we plan to start over with small bushes that we pick out on our own and that we plant exactly where we want them.

ohhhhhhhhhh my vacation is getting closer by the day.  I had one dr. appt on tuesday morning of that week and just as i was talking about cancelling and moving it, they called and cancelled and moved it themselves. HOORAY!  so now i only have one place to be for sure that week and it’s the spa.  i’m nervous and excited about going to the spa, but i think that i’m really going to end up enjoying myself.  the rest of the week i’ll be eating, cleaning, watching tv and movies, taking long baths and hanging with my dogs.  i might even read a book.    this weekend i’m making sure i get all my shopping done so that i don’t have to go out if i don’t want to.   and now i feel even less guilty about taking this ‘me’ time since I have to take an extra 5 days off this year anyway.  i can’t believe i’m this excited to stay home.

the garden has been almost fully harvested at this point, only the artichokes remain.  pretty soon we’ll (Icey) will plant the second round of vegs.  i think there are squash and habaneros involved this time.    it’s been a learning experience for sure but i think our first round was successful since we got A TON of carrots and some really good parsnips and cabbages.