Snazzy Garage door - it's just amazing what I get excited about!

Plain garage door. 

Hmmm, what have we here???

All dolled up.
Was easy breezy once Ray figured out the garage door should be open to add the panels.
He does have an oops. Do you see it?

Been meaning to post this. Original nail that came out of upper kitchen cabinets. OH MY!

Random pic from May

Just a few toads that RC has cleaned out of the pool - have I mentioned there isn't one thing working properly on the pool so far????

Daisy Belle helping her daddy with the gate in Fayetteville

We completely wore the children out when we were in Fayetteville. So much fun is clearly exhausting. 

Robin's eggs outside dining room window. Cody said that robin has been hanging around the house for years.

First day of laying down sod. Puppies approve!

Switching gears - a few weeks ago at Haven. We added a new gardening bed behind the garage. Ray torched the grass first, then a thick layer of newspaper, don't ask, then compost, manure and then mulch. 

I collected just a few rocks from Covey for the new bed. 

Just a few more. 

Not the best picture, but all done.
We added several tomato plants, which we must stake soon, some basil, rosemary, and some leeks. 

Ray getting creative changing lawn mower to mulcher. YEAH!

 

Buck at the vet. He was all excited about being there not realizing he was going to get the big snip. He did excellent, seriously didn't miss a beat, way to go Buck!

Covey's spring garden in all its glory. 

This is a white climbing rose. It's suppose to be Sombreuil but isn't. Might be Colonial White...

Pink Drift rose. I love these. Bought at Lowe's last year. They add a nice pop of color by the Mary Rose. 

Dortmund on fence, Belinda's Dream around bird feeder, lambs ear in front with Walker's Low catmint, and the white gardenia azalea under the Japanese maple. 

Cramoisi Superieur climbing rose. 

Maggie rose to left and peonies in center, possumhaw holly tree to right. 

Peonies and roses from the garden. 

Zephirine Drouhin much happier than last year. I moved this plant last spring. It was seriously not happy with me. Apparently all has been forgiven.
This is the best climber.
Very mannerly. Thornless, yes, thornless, and delightful fragrance. 

Zephirine Drouhin peaking through a Fringe tree. 

Some type of viburnum. Moved to Haven and it's NOT happy about being moved. 

Mary Rose, May Night, lambs ear, and some white gardenia azaleas in the back. 

Belinda's Dream

Whole new kitchen

We knew taking down the hanging cabinet would be a big difference but oh my, what a difference. Taking down the uppers opposite of peninsula also game changer. Reinforces that I want a much larger window in there. Ray agrees. He is brilliant! So thankful Cody is here to be his daddy's right hand man, so much better than it being me!

I'm almost positive we will do the kitchen last. I know my hubby well and he is very budget conscious but I know he'll let me do my dream kitchen - smartly. I think we'll have our very excellent dry wall guy out to fix this up. Susan and I will pick out a paint color, the guys can pop up some open shelves and we'll be ready to rock and roll. Before long that step up shelf will be counter height and then I think everything will be more efficient and look even bigger.
I'm so thrilled about this!

Cody and granddog Buck. 

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

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.