3 Days of Mulch…and Not Much Else
So last weekend I got a load of mulch dropped off. Man that shit is expensive! $35 just to deliver it! WTF! I need to buy a truck asap. So I took Friday off work and started weeding, then spraying weed killer, then laying down newspaper (its supposed to help with the weeds), then mulching…all by myself. And on Sunday night I was finally done. My legs hurt. My feet hurt. My back hurt. I begged Matt to take out the trash for me cause I couldn’t make my poor wrists lift any more bags. We fought. He finally did it.
Anywho, I found some before pics and I took some after pics so here we go.
This was the front of the house before.
This is the front of the house after. Now keep in mind that this is a work in progress. That front bed is like 8’x12″ or some crazy shit. I (haha, more like 2 guys from work) pulled out the bushes and the ridiculous amounts of irises and day lilies that were growing there and my idea is to plant half of that bed next summer, and seed the rest to extend the lawn. That bed is just way too big for anyone to keep up with the weeding, mulching etc. I didn’t throw grass seed this year because there were SO MANY weeds (seriously, one I pulled had an 18″ root), and I’m not trying to see my new lawn full of weeds and iris and day lily bulbs that I missed pulling out. That’s a ridiculously overgrown burning bush on the far end. I’m gonna tackle that thing soon, I’m swear. The dogwood needs to be trimmed too, someday.
On to the side yard. More weeds, more lilies:
And it now looks like this:
Much better, don’t ya think?!
Here’s the side yard:
Um, yuck!
Here’s the after:
I haven’t decided what else I want to plant there yet. Those tiny little hostas are so tiny cause I split the other ones to make more. See, I’m crafty like that…and broke. LOL I did get 2 azaleas (see the little pink flowers on the front one?) for half price. Go me.
Here’s the back bed right outside the back door:
Sadly I don’t have an “After” shot of that. Maybe I’ll take one tonight. But picture it with a little purple azalea in the corner and a hosta by it…with lots of mulch. Again, this bed is freakin’ huge. I plan to grow grass over half of it next year. I need to have a few yards of soil dropped off at my house, but I found out they wouldn’t bring it with the mulch and wanted to charge me the delivery charge AGAIN. So the soil is waiting till next year. I have to re-grade the back of my house cause it sits lower that the yard at this point and all the water is flowing towards it. Sheesh.
So that’s it for the yard for this year. I have A TON left to do, but seeing how expensive everything is it’s gonna have to wait! My little hydrangea that I planted last year is looking really good so far. I’m definitely going to pick up a few more of those when they go 70% off at the end of the season. They’re my favorite.
Not much to report on the inside of the house. Been busy working on the outside since it got nice out. Oh wait I lied. I did re-do the living room. I forgot about that, I should take pics. Its not done, but its repainted and somewhat decorated.
Next up I need to re-stain the deck on the front of the house. Its getting all weather beating and sad looking. I’m going to paint the railing white, I think it will look nice against the house now that you can see it and those nasty bushes are removed. I’m thinking about getting some cute little shutters too 😉
Hope you are all well! Thanks for checking in!
A Day In The Life
Random Manager: Where are the contest results? I need those! Now! Where are they!? Didn’t you do them?!
Me: Yea, I sent you an email on Monday about how I needed an answer on salesman A and salesman B. Then Monday we talked about it and you said you’d look into it.
Random Manager: I told you it was ok!
Me: No, you told me salesman A was ok, what about salesman B?
Random Manager: Its ok! I told you it was ok!
Me: No, you said you’d look into it. Then I asked you about it again on Tuesday and Wednesday and you said you’d look into it.
Random Manager: Its ok! Run the results.
Me: Ok, I’ll add in salesman A AND salesman B. They’re both ok.
Random Manager: Well, I don’t know, maybe not salesman B, I’ll have to look into it.
Me:
How I Know the Universe Hates Me
So, I haven’t blogged much but I have been super duper busy. I spend the last month or so fixing up the office. For those of you who don’t remember, here’s what it looked like before:
Don’t adjust your monitors, it was seriously that bright yellow 😦
Last year when I bought the house, the roof was leaking in this room, which explains how it quickly turned into a storage room for the past year while I finished up other areas of the house. I got a new roof right after I moved it and had no more water issues since.
So I (yes, all by myself) plastered the ceiling where it had leaked, plastered the wall where it had leaked, and painted the whole room and changed out the electrical plugs and hardware on the built in closet. It looked like a whole new room.
On Sunday morning I got up and was going to spend the day moving the furniture back in and unpacking the book boxes.
Not so fast.
Enter evil universe laugh *here*
I went in and looked at the beautiful new walls and there were 2 large, grapefruit size water pockets on the wall. I started crying. Then I poked them. Water gushed out. I shoulda grabbed a towel first but I was pissed and took it out on the wall. Then I pulled at the two big water balloons, now deflated. And they peeled right off the wall, along with the bright yellow paint beneath, and the plaster. Now it looks like this:
Evil wall. I hate that wall. I hate that previously beautiful room.
Here’s my previously done ceiling patch. You can tell its wet cause its discolored. You couldn’t tell where the patch was before.
Evil ceiling.
Don’t mind my nasty nails, it was from pulling the paint and plaster off the walls in a rage.
See where its not so opaque anymore there between my fingers. Stupid evil ceiling.
And my evil wet rug.
I hate home-ownership just incase anyone was keeping score.
House 10-Jenni 1
Ok Universe. I’m broke, are you happy!?!? Thank you thank you thank you for waiting until I spent all my tax refund on other bills to let this happen, I seriously appreciate that the most. So the insurance company has been called and is cutting me a check (minus my large deductible of course), and the roof guy is up there scraping all the ice away (which is the problem, not the roof, evidently). The roofer guy is putting heating cables in my gutters so this won’t happen again next year. *fingers crossed*
Stupid universe. Anything else you wanna throw at me? You better knock it off. You know I stress out easily.
So I spent Sunday peeling the walls and crying on the couch. I’m feeling better now…kinda.
Leave comments…and send cash! Thankyouverymuchiloveyou.
Christmas-y Stuffs
Here are some Christmas pics. I forgot my camera at the Lights at the Zoo, so I had to use my BlackBerry, hence the crappy quality. Wylie was less than thrilled to hear I left it in the car 😦 Ooops.
He hates me…really.
L to R: Amanda, Kara, Wylie, Ben, Katie, Matt, Me, and Molly – the annual “cousins” pic.
Kara and Wy freezing at the zoo lights.
And that was Christmas.
I have no pics from New Year’s cause I stayed in. I was dog sitting. I fell asleep cuddled up on the couch with the dogs and woke up just in time to see the ball drop. It was a good New Year’s Eve 🙂
Holly-days and Randoms
Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I know I’m a bit late 😉 I decided to forgo the long drive, traffic, and family fight this year and stay home alone. I had some Thanksgiving nachos around 4pm, it was great. LOL
So still plugging away at the house. Didn’t get much done except the leaves the past 6 weeks. Every weekend. Leaves. Leaves. Leaves. I have 2 HUGE Elm trees in my backyard so it was quite a job. But, of all the things I have to do in the yard, I enjoy raking the most. It helps that my neighbor is super cool and we chat while we work. She always tells me I’m doing a good job and she’s proud of me (I require a lot of encouragement LOL).
This week I’m dog-sitting. I like dog sitting. Its fun, easy, and making some extra cash around the holidays is always good.
Here’s a pic of all 3 of them cuddling up while we watched some crappy MTV (they have cable! I was so excited! I stayed up way too late watching Jersey Shore and True Life!)
Mojo tends to stay away from the other 2, he’s not real impressed with the baby especially.
So in between dog sitting I made some cookies. While I was shopping I saw this. It made me laugh.
My Buckeyes turned out great this year but boy what a pain to dip all those things. My kolachi were a bust. I couldn’t find my recipe so I used one online. It was awful. I always have issues with proofing yeast. I swear I’ve never gotten yeast to work correctly for me. And I made some thumbprint cookies with the cherries in the middle. Those taste great, but I accidentally melted the butter while trying to soften it. So they spread out like crazy. They don’t look pretty, but they taste good. I’m going to re-attempt the kolachi and thumbprints this weekend.
Some more random pics I found on my phone:
Its ridiculously drafty in my house. See below (click on them for larger):
That’s how he sleeps…all wrapped up in a cocoon.
He’s the best snuggler:
He sits and stares at me with his nose on my lap until I invite him up to snuggle, then he falls right asleep. So happy 🙂
So my next big project in the house is to start that yellow room that got all wet last winter when the roof leaked. I got the stuff to fix it…I hope. Then I need to paint and re-carpet. I decided to hurry up and start that project cause I’m really missing my knitting. I haven’t knit anything in a year now 😦 All my needles and yarn and books are still packed up and stored in that stupid room. Also, I really really really hate yellow. I’m tired of seeing it.
No Santa-mas decorations this year. Still packed in the garage. I have to go the day after and get all my stuff for next year. If I’m lucky I can find my cards and at least get those out this year, since I skipped last year. Seems like there are just never enough days in the month of December. I haven’t even started shopping yet. Come to think of it, I gotta go! I need to get on amazon.com!
OMG Funny Story…Well It’s Funny NOW Anyways
So I’m doing laundry the other night and I look to my right. My furnace is next to my washer and there are pipes and black tubes that run up and down. And I see something looking back at me. Like right at eye level. And I jump back, and I look again, and I’m like “OMG its a mouse!”. So ok, cool, its a mouse, no big deal.
So I go a little closer to grab its tail and get rid of it. Except, there is no tail. And I look at it again and it has fucking FANGS. That’s right my friends, and godddamn WINGS. It was a BAT hanging upside down on the pipes next to my head!
It was dead – thank whoever it is you pray to. Seriously, a freakin’ BAT in my house. I’ve never seen one that close. So anyways…
When I realize its a bat I go kinda running and fall backwards out the back door screaming like a 4 year old. Then burst into tears. That lasted about 10 minutes.
Then I decided to get a plastic bag and try to not touch that discusting thing (they’re seriously nasty, sick animals) and get it out of my laundry room.
Yea, a BAT. I’m scared to do laundry anymore. Luckily I have talked to many people and they have all assured me that it was probably just one bat that got in and couldn’t get out. I’ll tell ya what, if I see another I’m moving.
For the Love of Bob
Its not like I’m SO BUSY I can’t update my blog my friends, I’m just lazy! Let’s see… what’s up?
Mom came out last week and helped me paint the dressing room upstairs. Looks good! It’s almost done now! A friend from work hung the cabinet behind the toilet in the bathroom last night, so now I can finish up the bathroom. It needed some storage badly. I have way too many hair products.
Moo hasn’t ripped up the carpet again…thank goodness.
I had a date the other day…it was good 🙂 I’ve ended the self-imposed dating strike. We’ll see how that goes for me. Who knows, the strike could be on again as early as next week….
Wylie refuses to come out here and help me with my house. But I still love her anyways. (I hope you read this and feel guilty!)
I am going to Toledo next weekend and taking Wy apple picking…cause I’m a nerd…and I love apple picking!
This weekend I get to babysit my friend Scott’s daughter. She’s 3 months old and such a cutie, I’m so happy 🙂 I love little babies.
Hmmmm…what else is going on?
I love my Blackberry. Seriously, don’t get one…so addictive. I find myself waking up at 3am just to make sure that I haven’t had any new emails or that Kerri hasn’t IM’d me in the middle of the night LOL
Oh! Duh! Most important! Jodi’s baby is due tomorrow! Don’t know if its a girl or a boy but I can’t wait to hear 🙂 I talked to her today and she’s slightly dilated, but nothing yet. Hopefully she doesn’t have to go too far past her due date. Her son Aiden turns 2 next week – he’s getting so big!
Ok now all caught up? I think so. Hopefully next post I’ll have some cute pics of Wy and I from the apple orchard. Maybe some of my new dressing room too. I got some Ikea furniture to help me organize my make-up obsession. It looks good and I love that I can find everything now.
Ok I’m outtie. Leave a comment…seriously!
I hate Mondays, and evidently so does my dog
When I left for work this morning, I left my good, sweet dog behind, just like every weekday.
When I came home, he didn’t come to the door, which immediately means “Mommy, I did something bad”.
Then I found this:
Sorry about the crappy quality, I had to use my camera phone. But, that would be my living room carpet after I cut off all the fuzz that he shredded.
Evidently evil puppy was here while I was at work.
Now he’s sulky puppy:
I’m sure the neighbors got a good laugh at me chasing him around the back yard. He doesn’t come when I’m angry with him. (Not that it happens very often). I chased him upstairs, into the office, out the back door, back upstairs, then I gave up and grabbed his collar, which came off, so I grabbed him and dragged him over to me. I showed him the carpet and he looked at it and I said “bad dog! baaaaddddd!” and he started shaking and dropped his head. It was so cute and I was so mad but I couldn’t help but laugh at him looking so pathetic. Glad I can instill fear in the heart of someone lol.
I wanted to get rid of the carpeting, I just was planning on waiting until I had some money to do it!
Hiatus
As usual. Maybe my New Year’s resolution should have been to update this thing once a week. Sorry, but my life isn’t that interesting. If I’m not posting you can assume I’m doing the usual: feed the dog, do laundry, clean house, grocery shopping and I don’t feel the need to tell you all about it because I don’t want to lose what few readers I have left!
So, this morning has not gone well.
I woke up late. Threw my hair in a ponytail. Set my BlackBerry on the corner of the sink, grabbed my eyeshadow and knocked my BlackBerry into the sink while accidentally turning on the water at the same time. NOT GOOD. So, now its drying out by the window. It wasn’t working when I left. I don’t have insurance on it. Its 2 months old. I will kill someone dead if I have to pay full price to replace that stupid thing. So here’s my blogland question for you all:
Did anyone happen to take advantage of the Verizon Buy One, Get One Free on BlackBerry’s a few months ago? Cause I’d love to buy your free one (cheap)!
So then I got on the road to work, and my usual 25 min. commute took like 40 minutes because the “Tumblebus” (I have no idea) broke down in the middle of the construction area. Not to mention that its ALL construction area right now. And, I didn’t have my handy dandy BlackBerry to entertain me while I was sitting there.
Ok, so what else?
Oh, um, 4th of July was fun! I went to my Aunt MaryAnne’s place. She has a little farm, alpacas, horses, a pond. It was cool out (like 70 degrees) but it was still fun. I wanted to swim but it was a little too chilly. But Mojo swam for hours, he loves the water. Unfortunately I have no pics cause my camera battery died and I can’t seem to the find the charger right now (I swear these things just grow legs and walk off). Plus, I got to see my cousins who were in from Phoenix and Chicago, which is awesome. And after seeing them I have come to the conclusion that I really made a huge mistake when I didn’t go into Teaching. Having summers off is like the best career move ever.
Ok, back to work, I have tons to do before Friday gets here.
Better Late Than Never, I Guess
Look! House pics!
Ok, so I don’t have them all, but I hope to take some more this weekend. But, here are some before and afters for your viewing pleasure!
Here’s the KITCHEN.
Before – note the black ceiling, hideous dark red wall, old beat up dirty folding doors (ok you can’t see them in the pic, but I swear they were there), gross yellow curtains
After – light gray walls, WHITE ceiling, ugly gross curtains gone.
To Do – Paint cabinets white, get new countertops, get an island so I have some room to work, wood flooring throughout bottom floor of house, oh, and find some new curtains!
LIVING ROOM
Before – Seriously ugly orangy red color that was giving me a headache, dingy white trim, seriously cute doggy in the corner!
After – Pretty light grayish purple walls, bright white trim!
To Do – New wood flooring, pretty white crown molding, oh, and fix that piece of wood on the stairs where we kicked out the ugly open bookcase
MY BEDROOM
Before – Dirty dark yellow paint (its hard to see how dark and ugly it was in the pic), filthy floor with playdough, mascara, and nailpolish on it, yucky curtains that I swear had never been washed
After – Gorgeous greenish blue color walls, new bedding, CLEAN floors (thanks mom!)
To Do – Hang the curtains I bought (I totally forgot), look – I made the bed for this pic!, get some art for the walls
UPSTAIRS HALL
Before – EWE there’s that yellow color again! and dirty dirty dirty! Did this girl EVER clean!?
After – Clean and white!
To Do – Needs art or something, huh? Get rid of the gross green runner.
DOWNSTAIRS HALL
Before – Dark green, dirty, need I say more?
After – Clean, light gray like the kitchen, (ignore the bright yellow room in the background!)
To Do – Wood flooring, hang photos
Ok! I think that’s it for now!
Next up we are going to rip the plaster out of the walls in that yellow room. They got soaked when the roof leaked. I had the roof fixed, so now its time to redrywall. That’s going to be my office.
Mom’s been working in the yard a little for me. I hate yardwork. I’ll get some outside pics up soon, I’m swear!
Peace!
*THANKS to my mom for all her HARD HARD HARD work! There’s no way I would have gotten all this done in years!
Dandelion Picker 
