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.