Saturday, May 31, 2014

Today was very productive. The guys took down the cabinet over the peninsula - what an amazingly improvement. Then they took down the upper cabinets to left of fridge. It was quite the challenge. Who knows when they were installed - a very long time ago and they were all nailed in. However, my guys don't give up and they got it down - all in one piece and the wall pretty much in one piece. Life is good. They mowed both houses - I'm a very happy girl.

I'm going to see if I can download more pictures from May. I ran amuck on my last post.

Ray's favorite tools he couldn't live without


Cabinets had no intention of coming down - ever
Hmmm, what to do? Why won't they come down?

Figured it out and down it comes

Seriously, WHAT a difference!

The space is all open - looks twice the size

Next challenge: cabinets to left of window

It's down. Let the clean up begin.

Ray thinks 109 years of gunk

May Adventures

Dortmund in all it's glory


Oh my, where to start. It's been a crazy month. Two long trips to Fayetteville to get the house ready to go on the market. Things are looking swimmingly there. I have a few pictures, somewhere....Cody has just been amazing. Once we kicked into gear, got rid of the truly obnoxious roommate, and got our groove going there was just no stopping us. Announcement: Cody Culpepper DID graduate, WE THINK, LOL! We are SO proud of him. We have a landscape architect in our mist. Poor Ray. Cody has BIG plans for the two acres. Back to our amazing Cody. He sodded the back lawn - 3.5 pallets of sod, bless his heart. Created several lovely garden beds and spruced up many more. Can't keep count of how many trips to the garden dump he made. SO many. We learned if need be, we can weed eat the all the lawn, LOL! It works until Ray brings the mower.

We had dear friends drop in for a quick visit. Lizette and I were pregnant together, many candy bars shared, HA, who am I kidding. Anyway, what a treat. We got to show off Haven House. They have gone through more renovations than we have and far more experience and had excellent advice for us. I MUST find an architect, SOON. I must get a surveyor out there immediately. Ray is eager to sell Covey and I'm eager to have a working laundry room and fenced in yard before we do.

We have started foundation work - last Tuesday. Very exciting. Put in 14 jacks and you just won't believe this but need to add 6 more. We had to remove the duct work so they could work. So it's June now, HUMID to the extreme, and no air conditioning. They are coming back on Wednesday to finish up, we think.

Cody did get many plants moved. Boy oh boy, are some of them mad at us! Then with me being gone it was tricky getting them watered. Thankfully Susan and Ray took over for me. Once I got home I started dumping huge amounts of water on them and I think we just might save them all. It started raining on Tuesday and it hasn't stopped which is most likely the game changer.

Susan is AMAZING! All of the downstairs wallpaper is gone, gone, gone!!! Still has a bit left in the entry upstairs which she will do once I can sit still and keep her company. I will take pics today and post. We are also getting a bit ahead of our selves and pick out wall paint. Susan is going ahead and paint the guest bedroom and trim. Ugh, I hate painting trim so thankfully Susan is doing all that for me. My go to color BM Crown Point Sand and White Dove. It's such a beautiful room and I'm sick of the blue that's everywhere. Very eager to get it gone.

Ray and I added a few garden bed for veggies and herbs. I'm certain I'll pop in a few flowers too. We have truly lost our minds. Many beautiful rocks have found their way to Haven House from Fayetteville and Covey. We love our beautiful stones.

There was a large bed of nandinas right at the entrance of the driveway at Haven House and now there isn't. YEAH! Cody took a truck load to Fayetteville and planted them there, Lara took several, and now I can move my Valentine roses to their new home.

I have big plans for today. Ray and Cody are going to take down the kitchen upper cabinet over the peninsula and most likely remove the uppers to the left of the kitchen window. That will really open things up in there. Planning re-purposing the ones removed in the laundry room. Would also like to move the roses to their new home while it's so nice and damp. It's going to heat up the end of the week and be dry and to remind you all I'm the sprinkler system until fall. We feel like we've missed the window with summer knocking and not exactly certain what we need just yet.

For a man who doesn't want a pool, Ray certainly has been taking care of this one. We have toad frogs galore AND zillions of frog eggs. Pool guy is suppose to be at the house this morning to tweak it a bit more.

One thing that we need to do better. We have excellent plans, but don't always follow through with them. We have to do better staying on task and doing what our gut tells us instead of taking short cuts. We will work on that, meaning I will work on that.

Cody is zipping up to Fayetteville tomorrow to do a few more honey-dos. Ray and I will be busy getting ready for more company!!! YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! Wendy and the girls are dropping by on their way to Destin - just a slight detour. They saw Covey in total disrepair. Can't wait to show them what all we did and to show them Haven House of course.

I know there's more....Hope you have a great day!! Stay cool!


The nandina bed that is no longer






Sunday, May 4, 2014

WHAT A DAY!

Actually started with Friday. Ray has a new toy. A new zero turn lawn mower. He was zooming all over the place and it still took him an hour to mow. I managed not to crash it too so it was a good day. 
 
Saturday morning we were at the house early and stayed late. I had almost 18,000 steps on my Noom walk. I think Ray had 13,000 but he was up on a ladder for a lot of the day or hauling debris the dump - 4 times. We pulled weeds, burned weeds, trimmed trees and shrubs. Broke the pole saw once. Lost the chain somewhere between houses; had to re-step steps but he found it. Seriously, he is amazing. Several neighbors and friends came over visit and say hello. Gave two tours. It was a great day. A great, exhausting day. I had to re-coop today now I'm ready for another big day tomorrow. 

I have to do better with before and afters. This is before and now pretty much weed free

Ray pruning suckers off tree out front. He could reach all but one.


Before, ready to have Ray move it, HA, you can't tell but it's a big tree.
Ready to take down the TV satellite too. 

After, I LOVE this! This I can live with. 
Just need to add some more azaleas around the tree. 

Putting out new flag
Ray added a spot light too for the flag so it will stay up 24/7.
Can't wait to have Steve fix the sidewalk (I hope) and put in brick steps.