TREES!!!!!

Three weeks ago (!) we went with our friend Jarrett to the Georgia State Farmer’s Market and bought 22 trees. 12 for Thomas and I and 11 for Jarrett – landscaping fiends that we now are.
You can hear the highway from Butters, so we knew we wanted screening trees that would grow fast and withstand, well, whatever.
So we got arborvitae – the same trees that my parents have in their back yard. Ours are ever so slightly smaller. Thomas had some deep seated need for fruit trees, so we also bought a granny smith apple tree. And I checked, it doesn’t need another tree to bear fruit.

So, we bought them Saturday and planted them the next day – luckily, we’ve been getting some pretty crazy rain, so digging all those holes wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it’d be. Still not a snap, but I didn’t want to cry. Always good.

The following weekend we installed a spigot outside and got our hose and sprinkler set up to water the new babies.

Then Thomas and our neighbor John took down the old chicken wire-esque fence that ran along the back of both our properties. They also tested out our new lawn mower and weed eater clearing out a couple truck loads of debris (plant debris, luckily). So then it was time to go back to the scrap yard. I never thought I’d be so familiar with the workings of scrap, but. . .at least it’s out of our yard and not in a landfill.

I think that’s all the pictures I have for this post – oh, there are some bonus shots of Greg’s massive wind chime and the chicken coop Dave P and Greg rebuilt for their new chickens. The chime was altered to include a bowling ball shortly after I took these pictures. And I haven’t taken any pics of the baby chickies yet, but might be doing that tonight. . .

Oh no! I forgot about my Valentine’s Day present! Thomas built me two cold frames so we could start growing flowers from seeds inside. Now we’ve expanded to tomatillos and artichokes and are keeping our fingers crossed.

Who’s Brian?

We met Brian through our friends Greg and Palmer at the beginning of the year. (you might remember me mentioning my christmas wish coming true? Turns out my christmas wish is about 6′2″ with dreads, a love of travel, countless stories, some bold body art, and a love of hobo music.
He stayed with us for two weeks, working with us putting up all of the sheet rock downstairs.

He’s since moved on, but we’ll never forget him. . .oh dang!

(was that enough of a Ta-dow! Brian?)

One of our Field of Despair finds

Around the time we were having Dead Tree taken down, we built our laundry room.
My mom and dad gave me a wonderful washer and dryer for christmas, and we had our work cut out for us before they could be anything but art!
They’re quite lovely – front loading, stacked and, well, awesome!  I can’t say thank you to them enough (mom and dad – I’m not sure the machines are sentient. They do sing though. Nothing too complex, but they’re young)

Have I mentioned that part of the reason I’ve not been updating this often is that I’ve been working. . .a lot? I think it’s made me even more giddy than normal.

Ok, so. . .Easterwood and Thomas put in the plumbing for our washer and a utility sink. Thomas and his dad moved a pole that was in the middle of the room, put in a tile floor and scooted our water heater further into the corner.
Then we put up sheetrock on one wall and painted the entire room.
Then it was time to put in the washer and dryer!

oh, wait. Then we moved the water heater back in place and found that it didn’t care for that and died. So off to Home Depot for a new one.

Then it’s time to put in the washer and dryer.

Oh, wait – I forgot about putting in the plug for the dryer. More Home Depot trips for that.

Now! Putting in the washer and dryer. I think that was it.
We’ll, except that the dryer didn’t work. But eventually we got Sears to bring us a new one and take away the defective one. After many, many phone calls, a few visits, and a bunch of parts. But they did bring that new one at 8am on a Sunday morning. . .And it works like a dream.

It’s getting nicer and nicer to do the laundry too, the further we get with the work downstairs. The warmer weather helps too. We got the new(er) dryer about a week after the new year. 

I threw in some shots of the wood chipper the tree guys brought with them – it’s still there now. Thomas spoke to a couple who are supposed to be closing on the house next door, but we’ll see. I wonder if they’ve noticed the big red monster in the back yard. . .

Our First Christmas Tree with Dead Tree in the back

I know, I know. I said I’d update this literally months ago. So, let’s take a whirlwind tour of the past few months (yikes!)

Just before Christmas, we awoke to the sound of chainsaws next door. Thomas went to chat with the guys and was able to talk them into taking down our dead tree for less than half the estimate they’d given us a couple months earlier.
They were already out there with their equipment, that sort of thing.

So, Merry Christmas! We don’t have to worry about a tree taking out our house (or the neighbor’s) every time the wind blows!!!!
It was really bothering us – if we were in the front yard or on the porch there would inevitably come a silence when we were both playing a sort of horror movie in our heads, staring Dead Tree.

THe guys that took it down were definite pros – scary to watch, but totally in tune with the way of trees – dead or not. They took down four or five that Friday. Had a chipper with them and took care of all the little bits for us. Then they segmented the trunk and large limbs and piled them in our front yard.
All of our friends with fireplaces got seasoned firewood for Christmas this year!

We had a little casualty, however. The unidentified bush at the base of Dead Tree got smooshed. Well, half-smooshed.
It’s growing back nicely though – if  a little harsh edged. 

And now – Pictures!

My christmas wish was answered!
We have ceilings and walls. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Dance around the room, howl at the moon happy.
(way happier than some tiny cup of yogurt could make me – but, still a good ad campaign)

did you get that?

WE HAVE CEILINGS AND WALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have pictures of everything and stories to tell, but my cameras downstairs at Butters and I’m at Kelli’s house about to go to bed. But it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything that I just couldn’t hold it in any longer.

WALLS!!!!

There’s still a lot of work to do – little bits of sheetrock here and there and ever more mudding and sanding – but we’re getting there.
We even bought our paint today – Lemon Soufflé for the kitchen walls (see my post about our test kitchen) and Parmesan for the walls in our living room and dining room.
Is it really that surprising that we picked food colors? And we weren’t even hungry!
We almost went all desserts, with crème brulée, but that was a bit dark, and, not illogically, didn’t go well with the soufflé.

See why it’s time for me to go to bed?
I’m a bit giddy. That, and it’s time for me to take some more Emergen-C and slather on more and more lotion on my hands. Sheet rock dust is turning my hands into corn husks. ick.

I promise I’ll post more this week – pictures and pictures and stories. We have a new friend that’s made this all possible and I don’t think I can give him a proper introduction without a photo. Not to worry – I have the perfect one already.

Last weekend (the one before this one, actually), Greg, Dave and Erin came over to help us start sheet rocking Butters.
It was a full weekend – Thomas and I cleaned out all the floor joists, added plumbing in the kitchen (so we can have an ice maker in our fridge) wiring some more boxes, and finished tearing out the bathroom downstairs on Saturday.
Our awesome friends came over on Sunday and we finished cleaning and taking out even MORE nails (there were a phenomenal number – I’ve been pulling them since we started working on Butters!) and Thomas and Greg worked on framing out our soffit-to-be while Dave, Erin and I worked on starting the sheet rock in the kitchen.

We only have 3/4 of the kitchen ceiling done, but it’s still a big step.
Everyone says that once you get the wall and ceiling in, the rest is much faster.
If nothing else, I know it will make us feel so much better about all we’ve done thus far. It’s a long list, but it’s not very pretty yet, so it gets me down sometimes.

But! It’s coming – there’s a teeny tiny little light way down there – see it? You have to squint a little, but I promise, it’s there! (I hope.)

See our Ducts?!

We have heat!!!!

Our furnace is named – of course – Mr. Heatmiser.
For anyone who might not get the reference, here you go!
This is one of my all time favorite claymation Christmas specials. 

Pretty soon we’ll have a Mr. Coldmiser, and actually we do, but he’s not feeling so well. Thomas fixed some things on it, and then the condenser died – I missed it, but apparently it was rather spectacular.

We had our gas turned on last week, after we’d finished installing the furnace and all the ductwork.
Yep, we.
I really didn’t have much to do with the furnace itself, but I did help with all the ductwork.

It’s been pretty cool, learning about boots, registers, saddle collars, venting a furnace (very important!) and flexi pipe (very cool – they pack 25 feet into a 3 foot-ish bag. Open the bag and watch it grow! Sort of like the pill sponge animals from when we were kids).
Oh, and that wacky red tool I had pictures of a few posts back? Those are crimpers; you use them if your extending some of the rigid piping – we did.
Now we need to finish building the soffit that will go around the main trunk that runs along the living room ceiling. The flexi pipes fit nicely in the floor joists, so will be hidden by the sheet rock, once we finish installing that.

One thing I don’t have pictures of is our newly insulated and decked attic!
Yay Thomas!!!!!
I really didn’t do anything on this, aside from bring home many rolls of insulation and help get them into the attic. Then come back the next day and gush over the great job Thomas did. And I’m not being sarcastic; it looks great.
He had me save a bunch of panelling that we pulled out of the downstairs, and he used that for decking. We really have been reusing the heck out of our old stuff. The rest of the decking will be the big sheets of plywood over the windows (yes, we still have some boarded up windows – we’re waiting until we’re done working for most of them. Then we’ll replace any broken panes.
We also used a bunch of the 2×4s that were across the plywood for shims and, well, anything Thomas needed.

Pritz and Thomas Carrying Bad Pipe

We’ve been working nearly nonstop on Butters for the past few weeks, but now it’s time for a break. Thomas is in West Virginia working this week, and we’re at a point where I really can’t do anything by myself.
Well, not totally true – I’m going out today to buy a carbon monoxide detector and battery for our smoke detector. Big time, I know.

But, I do have time to catch up on blogging!
weee!

So, let’s travel back in time – to a time of uncertainty (and here’s where I put in my heartfelt “wooooohoooooooo!!!!!”).

While the country debated, I went downstairs and crinkled my nose.
Our cast iron pipes had begun to rot in earnest. Not a pleasant smell, thought, or reality.

Luckily, we have the handiest bunch of friends known to man, and our friend Dave (Pritz) offered to help us replace the cast iron pipes with PVC.

Perhaps I should clarify. These pipes that were rotting? They were leaking. What were they leaking, you ask? Sink Water. Bathtub Water. And, oh yes, Poo Water. 

Now that that’s settled, you can see why neither Thomas nor I slept well for the two days (or, well, went to the bathroom).
But Pritz came over on Sunday and we changed everything out – not quite so hard, really, though oh so stinky and disgusting!!!!!!!!!!!!  If you ever need to hire a plumber – do it. And do not balk at the bill. These men and women are truly saints for dealing with what they deal with.
Do I need to use the P word again?

I stayed in the doorway while they cut through the old pipes (and stuff sprayed), but did help in getting the new pipe put together. We even thought ahead to the wonderful day when we will have a washing machine and added in a, umm, joint? where the out going water will join up with the main line. (I had all the terms down, but this was three weeks ago, so, no more).
Dave said I’m the neatest purple stuff applier that he’s ever seen. Thank you very much.
The mud room really looks nicer with all the old pipe gone – now we just need to, well, a lot.
I’m focusing on the positive here, not the ever growing list.

I was on my way to Butters yesterday and stopped short outside of Kelli’s door. I just had to take some shots of her towering flowers.
Our mom and dad were here last week and saw one flower on her cosmos.
About a day after they left, it went nuts.
This is for you guys!

A View of Mr. Heatmiser

I’ve gotten so far behind that I feel the best way to catch up is to put up my latest pictures.
Sorry for no story – our furnace story looks to be turning into a choose your own adventure, so I’m trying to give it a little time.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy some shots of tools and such in the meantime!