Yard Work Begins

This weekend I raked leave for the first time in my adult life. 

Then I went to Home Depot and bought and assembled a weed wacker and lawn mower. Ben has been working on his final project all weekend, so I battled out the weeds & mowed our front yard. 

Yet another neighbor came over to introduce himself and invite us to his BBQ on Sunday night. When we weren't able to make it, he showed up at our door afterward with 2 giant plates of food. I don't understand it, but I love it. We're really winning on the neighbor front.

Grilling Season Begins

Ben's birthday grill came today! 

We were so excited that we cooked out in a thunderstorm & ate in the rain.

There is a Tree Growing into our House

It is a property line tree, so we're going to invite our neighbors over for dinner and slip it into conversation. This project is pretty urgent since the branches are about to come through the upstairs screened in porch.

This whole time we've been wondering what plants will pop up in the spring. Well, now we know! 

The next project is raking all the leaves and sticks out of the yard, then we'll buy a rickety old mower from Craigslist. The tallest weeds are up to my waste, so we should probably get moving on that.

Hairy Plaster

I was cleaning the bathroom today and came across some chunks of hairy plaster laying on the floor. Then I learned: back in the day, builders used to incorporate horse hair into the plaster mix to better hold it together.




Then I did a deep cleaning of the bathtub with Tilex and a razor. Things I never thought I'd say.

Air Conditioning Window Units- Check!

Evan and Erin suggested the four of us meet up for Friday happy hour at Indian Fusion, a tiny little restaurant in our neighborhood. Its claim to fame is that the chef used to work at Rasika downtown.

This week they finished installing AC, so they graciously sold us their old window units. Now we're set for summer heat.

There's a Cockroach in my Juice Glass.

With the warmer weather we've been seeing a few more cockroaches running around. I hate them so much but they're better than rats or mice. Luckily we haven't seen any of those yet.

This morning I woke up with a giant cockroach swimming in my juice glass. I took this picture, emailed it to Ben, and then I left. 

Sunday: Supporting the Porch

Our retaining wall and center column could kick any day now. It's stressful.

Ben bought & assembled a work table for his circular saw.

We ghetto rigged a solution until the contractors can come give us estimates this weekend:

Now we can sleep at night a little easier, knowing that our porches probably won't fall off the back of the house.

How to Remove Rust from a Toilet

I have tried every cleaning product under the sun. Ben wants to buy a new toilet. I've been determined to salvage our current one.

A pumice stone! That is the magical $3 trick (I bought mine at Whole Foods).

1. Wet the pumice stone 

2. Wet the rust

3. Scrub. Flush. Repeat. 

Like new. I get excited every time I see it. #sadbuttrue

Scraping Glass with a Razor

There is a lot of old glass in the house, and most of it is covered with remnants of a sloppy paint job. Instead of replacing the windows, I've been working on them with my glass scraper.

It's one of those projects that's really gratifying, because a few hours makes a huge difference!

Easter Weekend with Mom & Dad

My mom & dad came to visit and help out this weekend.

They brought their big red truck, which was perfect for hauling our 10x14 rug to FedEx to return it. Then we hauled all of our trash to the city dump and had a contest to see how far we could throw our trash bags.

Mom brought a peep bouquet:

We picked up some glass at the hardware store to replace the broken panel in the back door:

We ate Scooby Doo fruit snacks and watched dad in support as he fixed it:

Then he showed us how to unclog the drain:

We really enjoyed our time together. It's a new era, and so fun to be able to host them in our house instead of a nearby hotel or bed and breakfast. It was another one of those weekends where I really can't believe how much we accomplished, and yet somehow it still felt pretty low key.