The grass is greener...

...when you mow the lawn.

The lawn at our new house hadn't been mowed in seven or eight months. It was long. Notice that Chris's feet are missing.


Seriously. We measured 19 1/2 inches.


There is a definite difference after using Chris's new toy.


Front yard before:


Front yard after:


Jane, Megan and I went down to Salt Lake for the weekend to help Chris with the house. Well, I helped with the house. Megan hung out on the floor, against my better judgment (yuk).


And Jane hung out at Grandma's house. She gets in less trouble there...mostly because no one really cares what she does.

Mowing the lawn isn't the only yardwork that's happened since we bought the house (April 15th was the official day of ownership, by the way. Tax day.). Chase recently bought a new chainsaw, which obviously just had to be used.

Both trees in the middle of the front yard were dead. Or at least half dead.



They had to go.


So did the stump. Poor grass, though...


There was a matching tree in the backyard that also just had to go.


Luckily, there was one tree of this same variety that actually thrived in the yard, and I believe it looks very nice.


There are a range of bushes down the back wall, which won't look too bad once we trim them back into bushes.


But we cut down the stupid one. Well, cut out. It was already growing down. This is how it looked before we did anything with it.


Unfortunately, it was hiding something less pretty than the grass. Sigh.


In addition to the trees, the front hedges needed a little work.


They were a little high for me, but I couldn't let the guys have all the fun with the power tools.



Yeah for group participation!




This was actually the coolest tree to cut down. It was way, way too close to the corner of the house. Were we to let it grow for a few more years, the roots would pose a serious threat to the foundation of the house.

run away! run away!

Now, instead of having trees in the yard, we have trees in the driveway. Somehow, it's just not the same.


The downside to all of this is that we had not intended to do yardwork on Saturday. We intended to clean the walls inside the house to prepare for painting. That plan was originally thrown off by...


...car repairs. My car, sadly, failed safety inspection last week due to worn out brakes. The rhythm of the day got off to an unplanned start when Chris was outside working on the car and I was inside cleaning. But I didn't start with the walls, I started with what I found most immediately disgusting.



The previous owners owned three HUGE dogs, as we keep hearing from all the neighbors, and we figure they smoked. Not as bad as it could be, but everything is covered with a nasty, sticky yuckiness covered in a layer of dog hair. Hopefully the house doesn't just fall apart when we remove this adhesive that allows the hair to bind the house together...

The appliances were most visibly gross, so I started there. These are my new best friends.

Before:


After:


(get used to before and after shots--I like them, and there is a lot of before in this house that desperately needs an after)

We did get some work done pulling up carpets. Chris is better at it than I am. Good thing I'm good at packing, or I might not have a productive contribution to make to this adventure.


We bought new carpet for the upstairs, tile for the entryway, chose wood laminate for the kitchen, and confirmed all our paint colors. We have a long way to go, but we are still making progress. One day at a time. Or, more accurately, one occasional evening and weekend at a time.

On a small side note, I discovered something about the playhouse out back that I didn't know before.


Those are real drawers and cabinets. How cool is that?