So we meet again, eh?

Of course, RIGHT after I blogged about not getting an estimate from the Referral guy............ HE CALLED! And of course his bid was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay high. Double the highest bid I've gotten so far. (That's $6,000 if you're keeping score.)

Ahh... I love a story filled with irony.

So I told him he was double my other bids, and even if I could afford him, I wouldn't use him just for the sole fact that it took him a month to even call me back; why would I ever fork over thousands of dollars to him?

(What? And you thought I was going to politely say "No thanks" and hang up?)

(Uhh Hello, have we met?)

He may or may not have uttered some expletives at me... and then may or may not have hung up on me.

Your guess is as good as mine.

Besides the yard, another humongous project we're trying to tackle is getting the house painted this summer. I know some of you are screaming at your computer screen, "WHAT?!? You mean you don't love this pinky brownish skin color??? It's so lovely!!"

Uh, NO.

(Wait, you really like it?... oh wow....umm... This is awkward. Soooo... How about that local team/the weather?)

Actually the paint is in REALLY bad shape. It's flaking off in numerous spots (read = 95% of the house) and is revealing an even pinkier pink underneath! It's like the alien trying to break through that guys stomach in that movie...


So it needs to be repainted in a bad way. And while we're breaking out the brushes, I figured it was time for a new color. You know, put our stamp on it - make it more modern like we're been trying to do inside the house. I got three bids from local painters...

#1 The Referral guy.
This guy is a contractor by trade, but a neighbor 1 street over gave me his name. He painted their house, and it's similar in size, shape, and texture (stucco/brick) so I felt pretty confident that the bid might be the same price. But I have yet to receive it. Yeah, I know. Strange since I keep hearing all these stories about how people who do house construction are dying for work. I guess not so with this dude. He came out, spent about an hour taking measurements, writing stuff down asking my house what it's symptoms are (joking! I think?) and walked around it like 4 times. He then told me he'd have to go calculate the paint and labor and he'd get back to me in a week. That was 2 months ago.

#2 The Open the Phonebook and Point guy.
Just like it sounds, I picked a name out of the phone book at random. I had the Painting Pros come out for an estimate. They are pretty generic franchise that I think is in every city in America. Just like a Firehouse Subs or a Mr. Sandless, you can buy into the franchise and they will help start it up in your city. They looked pretty reputable online too. And I liked the fact they were nice on the phone, right on time for the appointment, and the guy smiled and said thanks when he left. (Courtesy goes a LONG way with me.) He was only here 15 minutes, plugged all the numbers into his computer, spit out an estimate on his portable printer and viola! $3,000 and they could start next week.

(Points awarded for attitude, but YOWZA! Three grand? I'll have to raise some more funds.)



(BTW still no estimate from #1. Called his cell about 502 times.)

#3 The Historic House Painter who Loves his Job guy.
Last estimate came as a referral from another friend. This guy paints all the historic houses in Springfield - a section of downtown Jacksonville. He mainly works on these old two-story houses from the 1800's that are being renovated and updated. Springfield used to be a pretty sketchy part of town but several blocks have been renovated by young couples since they can afford the cheap mortgages and don't mind living in drywall dust.
This painter was very nice, and I liked him alot but I am a little skeptical. For one thing, he took a look at the front, scratched his beard and said "Mmmm, $2,500?" Just like that. Like it was a question. I was tempted to say. "Nope. Try again." The other thing that kind of worries me is the fact that he doesn't work on stucco houses. The houses he paints are all restored wood shingles. I'm sure it's not that different... but what if there's something really wrong with the stucco and he doesn't know how to spot it? I'm probably being paranoid.
Bottom line he was a NICE guy - price is certainly better - and he LOVES painting houses. Can't beat a person who loves their job. You know you are going to get 110% of effort.

(BTW Still no estimate from #1. I called him 4 more times - got the secretary once, she claimed he would call back. He did - only it was the house phone while I was at work. Oldest trick in the book dude, do you think I was born yesterday?)

So there you have it. We have yet to get started... One of the things you must MUST do before you paint is cut all the shrubbery back so the people can get in there and paint. Plus I have to decide on a color... Any suggestions?

Make like a tree and get outta here.

So one of the perks of having a dead tree on a city street is the fact that the city will come and cut it down and haul it away for FREE. This fact can be evidenced by our neighbors who had a huge (HUGE) water oak tree taken down a few months ago. Too bad our dead water oak was in the back of the house... making it impossible to convince the city to pay for it. Damn.
Here's what our view of the street from our driveway looked like with that dead oak... (I have to say, even though it was dead, it sure was purdy.)



And here's what it looks like now. TOTALLY changes the street, no?




We're still getting used to all the sun we now get. It's almost too hot to stand out in the street and gossip. Hmmm....

Anyhoodle. We had tree issues of our own this past month. A huge windstorm blew through town and the gusts actually ended up damaging a tree in our backyard. Our weird looking tree in the right corner had a branch that split in half. Not just a piddly little small branch... Oh no. That would have been too easy. One of the main branches that all the piddly little branches grow out of. Yeah that one. THAT one split in half.

It must have happened when we were at work because I came home one day and thought, "Huh. That looks funny... What's different about that---NOOOO!"

See what I mean? Kinda looks normal at first, but then you notice the left side seems to be growing down towards the grass. Yeah. ALL those little branches - GONE! because that one split was at the base of them all. Sucks. And of course we have no chainsaw (it's like the one tool we've yet to buy) so Dave got up in that tree with a hand saw and got rid of it all.

Crazy? Yes quite possibly. BUT at least he was wearing sneakers and not flip flops - or worse, barefoot. If you know Dave - you know that's a big improvement. The man is determined to lose an appendage. I'm pretty sure OSHA has his picture up on the "WHAT NOT TO DO" side of the poster that they hang in construction sites.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary...

While the yard in the back of the house is slightly neglected... (slightly? Hmm... maybe more than slightly....) There is one section that's growing nicely. Our vegetable garden! We transplanted the pots into the ground a few weeks ago and we're finally seeing some results. The herbs are doing well, with the exception of the cilantro. I let it grow waaaaay too big apparently. But I cut it down to the roots and we'll see if it does any better. I had no idea you were supposed to cut cilantro back weekly. Did you?

Oh and uh... the garden sort of looks like a shallow grave... whatever..

Anyhoo! We actually have a teeny tiny tomato, and two very VERY small blackberries.

Grow baby GROW!

Git R done...

The yard demo is WELL underway. Dave is a ripping-up-digging-out-cut-it-back fiend!!

(Insert deep man cackle here.)

We took out the box hedges in the front, and all the dead or dying plans that were in those flower beds. We only left one lily plant - make that one HUGE lily plant - in the front right corner. I think it anchors the yard nicely.... and it was the only one left that blooms beautiful flowers. So we thought, leave well enough alone! It can greet our guests that pull in the driveway. I think losing those hedges really opens up the yard, where as before they sort of cut off the yard from the rest of the house.

Here is a shot of what it looked like when we moved in. LOTS of small bushes. I'm getting the arm shakes just thinking about all that hedge trimming...

Here's a shot mid-rip. But you can see what we attempted in trying to maintain the garden. It still wasn't really working...

So out it goes!!! Post destruction photo below. The plan now is to till and sod the yard so we can get some green grass that's nice and easy to mow.

Of course this process took Dave about 2 weeks, on and off. Most of the plants he was able to dig out with a shovel, but 4 of them required some horsepower in addition to Dave power. That's right. He drove his truck up onto the yard and hooked a chain to the bush, the other end to his bumper and then gunned it.

(I assure you, we are the reddest people on our block.)

Too bad I didn't get a picture, but you can imagine, I'm sure. It wasn't pretty, and lots of people came out of their houses to stare, but the gardens are now gone!

We put the debris on the curb and it was gone before the sun even set. So I guess maybe some of those people staring were actually window shopping?? I have a feeling my box hedges will be migrating down the street this spring.

The only contribution I had was attacking the mammoth azaleas that sit in front of the windows. They are WAY too big and were starting to get very leggy (is that the right word?) at the bottom. So I started to whack them way back, but I ran out of arm muscle after only a few minutes. So the front of the house now looks like a "before and after" picture. Great for the blog! Bad in real life... :( Ehh. I'll get to it eventually.

BEFORE (waaay before, but a before nonetheless. Note the Christmas wreath on the door)

and AFTER.

And the half finished bushes. I'll get to it, I'll get to it! Geez!

Everything I own is broken.

When it rains it pours.

This weekend started off great... and got increasingly worse. First - the good news. We got a TON of things accomplished that we needed to. I dropped off the 4 bags of clothing that have been taking up my guest room at the church for their Thrift Store, Eve's closet. Then I went shopping and got massive amounts of things that have been on my misc to-buy list for oh... about a year! Things like curtains for the kitchen, shams for our bed, CFL light bulbs, new tablecloth, etc. And then I did a massive cleaning of the house. While I was doing all that, Dave went to softball and they actually won their first game of the season! (GO FCN!) When he came home, he ripped up the entire front flower bed and part of the side bed. (GO DAVE!!) We've been talking about that for oh.... about a year, and I can not even begin to tell you how much better it's looking. (Pictures and a separate blog to follow!)

BUT that's when things started to go downhill.

Dave injured both feet while digging up the bushes (of course) thus making him a cripple and *almost* completely useless on Sunday. And then the cat got sick Sunday night and we ended up spending hours in the emergency animal clinic. To make a long story short, he has a bladder infection, which they gave us antibiotics for, and in the process found out he is diabetic. We been back to the vet every day so they can check his sugar level and we will have to learn how to give him insulin shots.

Finally last night we were all home, all 3 of us... two of us laid up on the couch, 1 of us still functioning and picking up after the other 2 (I'll let you guess who that was) But about 4 am Dave and I woke up to what sounded like a very large animal trying to dig it's way through the wall or ceiling or floor - I couldn't tell due to the lack of sleep and abrupt awakening.

Great.

So to sum up.... the husband is broken, the cat is broken, and some *thing* is trying to break the house. Just about everything I own is broken.

Well.... the car got me to work just fine so I guess that's not broken.

(Unless I just jinxed myself)

Getting there...

Slow but steady, right? That's what my momma always..... Ehh. Who am I kidding? I'm lazy as the day is long. I still have the bathroom half finished.

In other news - the potted vegetable garden has been moved to the ground and is growing like crazy! (pictures to come) We just got back from a lovely trip to Mississippi to see the relatives, so we are still getting caught up on household chores too.

I think our next huge project will be the yard. I can not even FATHOM another summer of weeding and spraying and cutting and trimming. ACK. So Dave and I decided to rip up all the flower beds and small bushes, till the ground, and either lay seed or sod. The goal is to be able to mow 95% of the yard. Most of these flower beds have not produced any actual flowers in about 2 years (since we moved in) that is, if you don't count the dandelions and flowering weeds. So hopefully we can get that project going this weekend. Dave will need to rip the box hedges out with his truck... stay tuned for those pictures!!

Happy Friday!!! :)

I AM SO HAPPY IT'S FRIDAY! YAY!!!!!!

It's been one of those weeks at work... Hell, it's been one of those MONTHS... and a day off could not come at a better time. I feel like I've been running around like a crazy person for the past month, trying to make progress on the house, trying to make progress at work, running back and forth to my parents house to see my 89 year old grandma who was visiting for a few weeks, and of course the constant (constant!) cleaning up after the husband and cat. I am DEAD I tell ya. I know this because I had a complete meltdown last night and then woke up this morning thinking "Why in god's name did I pick a fight with Dave over BLANK?" (It doesn't even matter what the heck it was. It's usually something totally ridiculous like the dishwasher or leaving the shoes all over the house, etc.) Poor Dave. I really put him through the ringer.

BUT! Today is a new day... It's Friday... I'm on my 3rd cup of joe... I feel great... I am staying positive... and I am *penciling in some me time* this weekend. I've got 3 new decorating/design magazines and a new bottle of melon/mint/sugar scrub for the shower (smell so good!) and a pedicure gift certificate I have yet to cash in. I am taking a break this weekend!

Now Dave on the other hand... I have a honey-do list a mile long... seeing as how I added all of mine onto his ;)

3 Down... 827 Other things to go...

Three more things checked off the list this week.

1.) Painting....... DONE. I chose "Dolphin Fin" by Behr. It's dark enough that you know there's a color on the wall, but light enough to be considered a neutral. And it blends with that "marble" top on the counter. It is SUCH a dramatically different feeling than that old wallpaper had. (Clearly!) I should also note that I decided to paint the ceiling the same color. I am so glad we did. It saved us oodles of time because we used the same roller and paint brush for everything. Just kept rolling up the wall and right over our heads!

2.) Vanity cabinet...... DONE (for now.) As previously mentioned we flipped it (so it was easier to open) chopped off the scroll top, and painted it. I also decided to spray paint the inside a nice clean white and Presto change-o! Much cleaner looking!! Sorry I do not have a before picture of the inside, I just got so excited about spray painting. (I have a problem. Maybe I was a graffiti artist in a past life??) But trust me, it was a gross old dated beige color that just looked dirty even though it wasn't. Eventually I'd like to get a new one all together (or maybe some open shelving??) but for now this will do.

3.) New light....... CHECK. It's actually a Delta bathroom light we found at Lowes. I love love love it. It reminds me of the ones in the Pottery Barn catalogue. Dave was a little worried about it being only 3 light bulbs... but really, I look better in mood lighting.

Now... onto the cabinet, the new pulls, and a new shower curtain. And maybe a big piece of abstract artwork for the wall... hmm.... Oh and I apologize that the pictures are so dark looking. I (of course) didn't actually have any extra light bulbs to put into the new light. It's on the shopping list for this weekend!!

Pump it up.

So our dude did in fact show up at 8 AM yesterday, and took a look at our heater.

Side note... Dave said he actually liked the guy when he met him. So maybe he was having a bad day and just forgot he had an appointment with us on Friday...... and then tried to lie his way out of it...... and sometimes hears music when there is none playing...... ANYHOO who am I to judge?

So there is nothing wrong with our heater (of course) But we found out we actually have a heat pump, which is different than a furnace. It sort of works like a backwards air conditioner, making the air from the outside hot, unlike a furnace that uses electric or gas powered heat. "The dude," as I'm now referring to him, told us it works really well in mild temperatures, but when it gets too cold, like below 50, it works overtime trying to get any heat out of that really cold air, and thus blowing cold air into the house like crazy trying to get the temperature up. It can be very energy efficient - in MILD climates.

Too bad we live in North Florida, where it gets down into the 30's in the winter... and roughly 110 degrees every day in the summer.