Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Saving for a Rainy Day...

As if getting the patio poured and garden fenced was not enough, the news of a new addition arriving in has lead us to thinking about accommodations. We have four bedrooms upstairs and currently have 6 people living in those rooms. After a bit of brainstorming we realized that the guest room was going to have to begin being permanently occupied. No, we are not getting a nanny, but we are planning on moving the girls in there. Since Jeremy's parents live so far away, we wanted to make sure we had a place for them to stay as well.
Store room

The new guest room
Our basement was not finished when we bought the house and Jeremy has always wanted to finish a basement, so why not kill two birds with one stone. With the help of his brother, Adam, the basement is now framed. We only have a couple of preliminary pictures, but we wanted to share those as well. We'll keep you updated as the process continues. While it probably won't progress very quickly over the warm summer months when there is lots to do outside, it will hopefully provide a lot of work on rainy days.

When all is said and done, there will be a store room, a bedroom, a bathroom, and a large TV/play area. We are still a long while from it all being complete, but getting started is half the battle. The framing is nearly complete and Jeremy hopes to finish that this week. Then on to wiring, plumbing, HVAC, and dry-walling. We originally were thinking we would aim for September completion, but we set a more reasonable goal of being done before Christmas. At any rate we don't need the room immediately, so it will be nice to take our time and get it done right.


Gardening 201

Those who follow our blog know that last year we were very proud of the garden beds we built. We thought they looked really great and we were excited to plant. We were also excited about the plants we started inside. The plants did well for the first month or two, but then we lost our entire crop of lettuce and spinach to a hungry deer. Bugs took out our squash, zucchini, and melons about mid-July. And the corn... well it didn't really establish solid roots.

Needless to say - with the exception of TONS of cherry tomatoes, the garden was kind of a bust. But we won't call it a loss, because we gained a lot of information. Jeremy learned about safe pesticides. We learned that our irrigation system needed LOTS of work. But most importantly, we learned that four feet of chicken wire is a laughable amount for deer. Thus begins gardening 201.

We begin this years gardening season by setting up a new fence. Though it isn't complete, it is going to be 6 feet tall. This won't completely prevent deer from getting in, but it is a lot tougher than chicken wire.



Spring is in the air... err... On the Calendar

Just like last year, the spring season has brought on a number of projects for our family. Just like clockwork, spring hit in March and projects begin taking up loads of time.

 Since we moved in, our backyard has been a mix of mud, weeds, and some crabgrass. Needless to say, it wasn't the best place for having friends and family over.





We had always wanted a patio in the back yard, so we had the good folks at CL Construction give us a hand. Once the rain let up long enough to frame and pour, we had a place to entertain and where the girls can ride their bikes.



Though these pictures don't really do it justice, we wanted to get some posted. As soon as the mud dries up a little more, we'll try to get some better shots.