Epic Fail

Yesterday the spring that helps the garage door go up decided it had enough. So until we get this fixed, our 8'x18' garage door must be opened by hand. Ugh.

The Tree / Weeds

The tree out front needed some serious trimming. Our friend Nick's an arborist, and was kind enough to help us out. He also helped trim the bushes, and we spent some time pulling weeds. Enjoy the pictures.

Starting to pick up the branches

Climbing around...

Carter decided he'd help us out.

The end result was a vast improvement...

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Washer

Apparently our new washing machine sucks. It makes an awful grinding sound when it spins for the wash cycle. Every so often it clanks pretty loudly. :-/ So Best Buy is delivering a replacement for us on Saturday. Hopefully the second one works better...

Update: We got a new washer. Apparently this model just makes grinding sounds. Who knew?

Original House Pictures

Well, I finally got the desktop hooked up, and I can post the pictures like I said I would. I was going to post them in this blog. Turns out it's a royal pain to upload 25 pictures. So instead I will point all of you here and you can view them there. I'll post pictures of updates here though. Under 5 at a time shouldn't be bad - it's the bulk uploading that takes forever.

House Updates (No Pictures)

We've been making all kinds of updates! Unfortunately I haven't posted the pictures like I said I would. I moved them to my desktop, and it doesn't have internet access in the garage. Thankfully, however, we're no longer sleeping in the garage. So that's a plus.

What we've done:

• Amanda's family helped sand the hardwood floors, and the floors have received the last (3rd) coat of polyurethane.
  
• Mom/Chip helped us paint the master bedroom walls/ceiling.
• We recently bought new window treatments for the master bedroom (though they haven't arrived yet).
  
• I cut out holes in the walls, ran wires, installed boxes, and installed outlets in the house for cable/internet. Andy (Amanda's dad) helped me hang a patch panel on the basement wall. He also helped me mount a box on the outer wall of the house that has two coax lines coming in (one for the antenna on the roof, and one is left open for future cable/satellite).
  
• Amanda and her family painted the living room ceiling/walls.
• Almost all of the upstairs outlets (except in the kitchen) have been replaced. When we bought the house none of them were grounded so we updated each one to 3-prong outlets, adding ground wires along the way.
• Almost all of the upstairs light switches (except in the kitchen) have been replaced. No more stupid dimmer switch - woohoo!
• The nasty ceiling tiles in the basement were taken down.
• Some of the wood paneling in the basement was removed.
• New washer in the basement.
  
• Amanda painted the mailbox, front light, and exterior door handles.
• Our friend Nick is an arborist, and trimmed the Maple tree in the front yard. It was overpowering the house. He also tackled some of the bushes around the house.
  
• Almost all of the nasty weeds (and apparently one nice vine...) have been removed outside.
• The wasps, and yellow jackets have successfully been 'removed' from the shed, and from the side of the house (by the kitchen).
  

New Blog

So, I finally broke down and started a blog. I feel like a trendy-wannabe. Nonetheless, here it is. Tonight I'll try to add photos of the house when we bought it, sans updates. I'll try to take more detailed pictures of project areas when we begin futures ones. As we fix/change things, I'll post pictures of the progress. Enjoy! -Erik

PS - No, this does not mean I will be creating a Facebook account. I still vehemently oppose that.