Office and Landscape Updates

We have been very busy finishing up tasks and preparing for my parents visit next weekend.  Nothing gives you a deadline like a visit from your parents.

Nick's office has been getting some additions.  

We got a pillow for the pillowcase by sister made Nick for Xmas, and we got the custom mat for the SI cover.  We have another mat on order for another SI cover.  I made Nick the "Woo Pig Sooie" wood banner.  So the office is evolving nicely.  

While we were working on these things inside, we were working on the landscaping in front of the house.  When last you saw, we had a trench around the flower bed brick wall.  That has been removed, and the bricks below the stucco were painted to match the exterior color.  We have also installed an edging. 

So we are now ready for my parents to come visit.  I am planning on working on the front landscaping with them.  So the next pictures should have plants.  Yeah!

Demo Day 2: Exterior Edition

This weekend (and some of the week) Nick and I worked on the front landscaping again.  We dug the dirt around the old flower bed brick wall, and sledgehammered the wall out.  

We cleaned up the exposed brick below the stucco, to prep it for painting.  

We will be finishing up the landscaping, and cleaning up the house in preparation for my parents' visit. 

Demo Day: Exterior Edition

My parents are coming to visit the beginning of March, and I planned on working on landscaping while they are here.  There is some prep that needed to be done, so we started it this weekend. 

Here's what it looked like before:

 

We took out all of the plants, weeds and all.  There must have been a ton of bark chips in the area, which we removed as well. Next came the fencing.  As you know, we removed the front fencing as soon as we moved in, but waited until spring time to get rid of this little section.  

 

After we took out the fence and stepped back, Nick immediately said that it looked so much bigger without the fence.  I told him the front yard will look twice its size once we finish.  

If you look closely at the bottom picture, you can see a brick wall.  It goes a couple more feet down.   I think it might have been the original flower bed from the 50s.  Wonderful surprises when working on a house. 

Xmas Gifts

As you know, we were in Wisconsin for Xmas last week, and we took home quite a haul.  

We got all this, and we got cash (we're buying power tools) and gift cards to Target and Best Buy.  I can't wait to go on my Target shopping spree.

This is what we gave for Xmas.

I took all of  my family's recipes and made them, photographed them, and put them in a cookbook.  It took a couple years, but it's great.  We are thinking about doing one with recipes from Nick's family. 

While we were in Wisconsin, we went shopping and Nick found a cool metal sign for his office.

We had so much fun in Wisconsin, and can't wait to see my family again.