Wednesday, September 26, 2012

On The Rocks


Today I took on a more ambitious project than I thought.  For a while now I have been annoyed when I take out the trash and recycling barrels in the morning.  They are wobbly and on uneven ground they keep falling over as I try to pull them in my rush to work.  The side of the house just has mulch, about 6 stepping stones (seen above) and a random rock about the size of a head- or so I thought.  I decided today I would start this project and begin by taking out the rock and see what I thought of using these red stepping stones to create an even path through the mulch to the driveway for the trash cans.  

So I began by digging up the relatively small rock right by the driveway blocking my path.  Simply pulling it out was not an option.  So I grabbed a shovel and started to try and loosen it.  As I used the large shovel and a small gardening shovel to start finding the edges I began to realize- maybe this rock is not so small.  About a half hour later I had managed to free enough of the rock to get my shovel underneath it and to start using the shovel as a lever to lift the rock out.  But the rock barely moved and my shovel started to bend.  So I continued to excavate the large beast that wouldn't stop growing.  I soon learned that parts of the rock were trapped under large roots and piping for the sprinkler system which doesn't work!  

Thankfully Mike (my neighbor) got home about this time and offered some random tools which I would never have even considered buying!  We got lucky a contractor lives next door!  He had a rock bar (oversized crowbar) and a giant lever system.  After using the rock bar to lift enough of it out of the ground, we were able to use the giant lever system to free the rest of the rock and force it out of its cave.  



Then came the big question- what do I do with it now?!  Considering this behemoth weighs probably over 200 pounds, we barely were able to get it out of the whole and over next to the house.  And there is shall rest until I figure out what to do next with it.  Check out this hole!!


After that I took a break.  Then I started filling in the hole with mulch and dirt from the backyard.  By using those materials in the backyard I inadvertently started another project today as well!  More on that later.  I filled in the hold with the dirt and used the remaining four red stepping stones to initiate my walkway.  Not sure when I will buy the rest of these and finish this project.  I hope to work on it and have it done sometime in October though.





Thursday, September 20, 2012

This is where we have been...

I know it has been a while since we have posted. I thought I would let you in on a little secret... Parker and I have been on vacation!

We left earlier this month and are now just getting back into the groove of things.

So where and what have we been up to you ask? Well the first weekend I went down to San Antonio to a work conference, work/fun conference is more like it. It is always nice to get to see my old coworkers and hang out. Plus I usually get a nice free dinner out of the deal which is always fun. Here is a picture of my view from the 30th floor of the Marriott in SA. I thought it was so pretty:


After the weekend in San Antonio I met up with Parker in Houston for our week long adventure of pretending to know what we were doing while taking care of our niece and nephews. All of them are under the age of 5 and totally adorable. We had a great time with them, but we were wiped out after all of the playing, carpooling, eating ice cream and playing some more! 

The first night there Annabelle made us pictures of our names. I loved them. 


We took Declan to the Zoo and then to get ice cream. He had so much fun, as you can tell! 
We put the kids to work, making them do the grocery shopping for us. 
And at night we would snuggle and be sweet... 
Or maybe not... 




We had a wonderful time on our vacation and we loved getting to share in so many fun activities that we never would have gotten to do if we had not been there all week. I am so glad we were able to give Heather and Preston (my sister and brother in law) a quick and well deserved vacation. We are recovering from exhaustion well and I will be back with fun house projects, including home made artwork for our anniversary in just a bit! 

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Done!

Behold, two months later I give you the table!!!! I had no idea what I was getting into but I think in the end it came out beautiful. I am in love with my new/old table!

I sanded and added two more coats of stain and then two coats of poly. What do you think?

I love it. Like LUUURRRRVVV it.

So you can see the change in color. It does not comeout well but the chairs are much lighter than the table now.

I have lots more to show you that we have done around the house. Sorry to be MIA lately but I am back and trying to post more often!