Flowerbeds

After several weekends of hard work, Dad and I finally finished my flowerbeds this weekend.

First we ripped out all of the old plants and built a little retaining wall so we could build the beds up (they had a huge slope away from the house due to my lack of gutters). The wall actually took 2 weekends....it's quite a task!

Today we filled the beds with all sorts of bushes and plants. It's sort of hard to tell from these pictures, but there are actually several layers of plants with various monkey grasses and annuals towards the front. If you're really curious I can tell you the names of all of my plants.....I'm getting pretty good at landscape lingo! But I'm not that good....I can only tell you the common name.

Here are a few pics from tonight. If you're thinking that the two walls look different colors...you're right. I've stained the wall on the left because I prefer a more natural looking stone than the red clay. With recent rain and today's planting, I haven't been able to stain the wall on the right yet. Maybe that will be a project for tomorrow!

Gutter-less

Well, ever since I bought my home I knew that I'd need to add gutters as soon as possible. I'd also decided that I'd proabably need some sort of leaf guard since I have huge trees with tons of leaves. I had one quote from a guy that had been referred to Dad, but I figured I ought to at least get another quote just to check out my options.

Friday night, a guy I like to call Sweaty Gutter Man came to give me a quote. I should've just called off the meeting after I met him at my house and the first thing he said was, "Oh, I thought I was meeting a guy." Hmmmm...didn't they teach him etiquette when they gave him a job as a salesman? Rule #1...don't insult your customer by inferring that she has a man's name. My second huge warning was when he immediately started telling me about his financing options. Never a good sign.

The guy sent me inside to call some of his references while he worked up my quote. What do I do? I go inside and call Mom and Dad to rush over and help me fight off the sweaty salesman. The guy did have a good product, and he was very persistent, but it's never good when someone shows you a quote but holds his hand over the amounts and reveals them line by line. No peeking!

After telling me that I had a very simple house with few corners and only one level, Sweaty Gutter Man revealed how much his gutters would set me back.

(Drumroll, please.)

...a mere $7,200. Yes, folks....that's seven THOUSAND, two-hundred dollars! It was so hard not to laugh in his face. That's more money than I've spent on the remodel of my ENTIRE house!!!! Of course, Sweaty Gutter Man didn't even leave me the quote and I certainly wasn't going to ask for a copy since there's a 0% chance I'll be needing his services.

Of course, I could get a couple hundred dollars off if I were willing to be a reference and also stick a sign in my yard a couple times a year. Why would I want to do that....then everyone would know that I was the schmuck who forked over $7,200 for gutters.

No thanks, Sweaty Gutter Man....you'll have to try and sell your goods to some other sucker.

Trying to Catch Up

My house is almost completely remodeled, but my blog isn't keeping up with the pace. Sorry 'bout that.

The kitchen was a total remodel....here are a few pictures of the cabinets after we added the knobs and pulls. You can see the side of the old fridge in one of the pictures, but it's not there anymore. I replaced the fridge and the dishwasher, and I hope to replace the range soon too.

I love my kitchen! It looks fabulous, it's huge for my little house, it has tons of cabinets, and it's a good layout for cooking!














When we ripped up the kitchen floors to add hardwood, we also tore the old floors out of my laundry room. For a while I just lived with a concrete floor in there, but a few weeks ago we finally put a tile floor in there to match the tile in the bathrooms. It was the first time Dad and I had set tile, but we did a great job. Of course, I couldn't walk without pain for a few days but it was completely worth it! I just hope he agrees!

I'm so thankful that I only had to tile one area of my house. It was one of the messiest projects I've ever done! I was so frustrated because I'd get the thinset on my hand, and then I'd smear it on the tile, then I'd start to lose my balance and get it on the wall....I wanted to scream! I am so thankful I don't do tile work for a living.