Where we've been...

Hey guys, I know it's been a while since I've posted anything substantial but there are plenty of good reasons why I haven't. First, our computer at home took a dive so it's being repaired now. And since work is getting crazy again I haven't really been able to post during the day either. So for those of you who have been pining and anxiously waiting for a new post (and you know who you are), today's your lucky day.

We've been doing a LOT of stuff around the house; we just put in a new water heater last night and I'm in the middle of redoing our entire front lawn. Yesterday we had the old sod cut up, but to save $$ I decided to get rid of it myself. As you can see, there was a lot of sod:

23 30-gallon bags of it to be exact. Plus 2 trash cans, 1 wheelbarrow, and 1 garden cart full of sod. And 4 hours of hot, sweaty, back-breaking labor for me. Plus 6 mosquito bites.

So now I need to order some new topsoil, and then put on the grass seed and straw and watch it grow. THEN I can plant stuff (I didn't build a flower bed for nothing!). So my goal is to done by the middle of June. We'll see if the weather cooperates.

In addition to the front yard, we put in a new water heater last night (as I just mentioned). Here's what the old one looked like:

If you look closely, you can see the classy and elegant rust stains on the top and the dried water rivulets towards the bottom. This thing is about 17 years old, getting leaky, and not being as efficient so it was time for it to go. Buh-bye!

Here's our new water heater:

See how nice and shiny it is? I have to give a big thank you to Craig's friend Larry who helped Craig install it. And unless you've seen the old heater, this one takes up much less space even though it's a bigger tank (50 gal. vs. 40).

So yeah, it's just been crazy doing stuff around the house while it's nice outside. I was telling Craig that I have all the projects lined up by season, i.e. this fall will be redoing the downstairs (spots need to be patched and sanded and then repaint entire downstairs. The new carpet will wait until next spring.), and hopefully this winter we can do a new front door and new front storm door. Our front door is wood and is warping, so when we shut the door it doesn't always catch and stay shut. Plus we can totally feel drafts in the winter.

Anyhoo, I'm going to leave you with some links that I thought were funny. Toodle-oo!

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/30/onion.myspace/index.html

http://skipadogslife365.blogspot.com/

One last reason why I've been busy: