House Pics

I sent the picture #1 to our builder so they could see the "finished" product with grass. They e-mailed back asking for a high resolution image so they can use it on their website. I started thinking, this picture is lacking in so many ways, because now we have leaves on the trees, greener grass, and flowers in the front beds. So I decided to take a new picture (#2). I feel like it's a better picture overall, because of the more even lighting and more attractive scenery. I know the blue sky is missing in the background, but the weather just wasn't cooperating today. I might have to go out later and see if the clouds have cleared a bit more. Which picture do you like best?

#1

#2

OK, the clouds cleared up a bit. Here's picture #3 taken at golden hour.

We have been busy

Sometimes I think I get so busy doing things, that I forget to take pictures (or blog about it). I had to remind myself to stop every once and a while and get the camera out these past few weeks. We have gotten a couple of major projects done recently, and I am exhausted!

Margaret and Jerry came to visit the grandkids (or so they thought) in mid-February and ended up being lifesavers for our biggest project so far, second only to installing our wood floors last year. Over a three week stretch, we laid over 10,000 sq ft of sod in our yard. That's about a 1/4 acre (in case you were wondering). Yikes! My hands still haven't forgiven me for all the digging rocks (millions of them), raking dirt and lifting 40 lb rolls of grass repeatedly. It's a job I vow NEVER to do again in my life. But the results were worth all the back-breaking labor.

Here's the work in progress:

 

The results:

What's even more amazing is to see how far we've come in just one year:

I'm almost done with the front flower beds as well. Margaret and Jerry helped me plant some shrubs while they were here. And a guy from Dustin's work let us come to his house and dig up tons of irises and day lily plants. I transplanted them a couple weeks ago. I'm still waiting to see how they will do in their new home. And since I'm so impatient waiting for all these beautiful flowers to grow, I went ahead and planted some pansies already in bloom to add color to the front of the house. For later this summer, I've started some seeds inside: zinnias, shasta daisies, and some others. Oh how I love flowers!

The other project we completed was to get our logs milled. They were lying in our backyard ever since our land was cleared last year. I wish we would have done it sooner, because some of the wood was rotten and couldn't be used. But we still ended up with about 1000 board feet drying in our garage. Dustin discovered bugs in the wood stack last week and sprayed it with bug killer. We don't want all the wood destroyed by termites before we even get to use it. Our plan is to build some new furniture and make lots of other fun projects.