Resurrecting the Yard

These tulips always sprout up in the Spring, then die off after a couple weeks.

'Sup gang.

Here we are in the first weekend of May, at long last.  This month is like Summer's Pre-Season (similar to what November is to December), and this is when we Houghs really start itching to be outdoors throwing back drinks with friends, boating on the lake with family, or being out in our backyard bronzing and doing yard work. 

This weekend didn't see as much of the former two activities, but plenty of the third.  Kris had been pestering me for weeks - nay, months - to set up our gazebo (yes, Kris bought a gazebo last fall and the large box has been sitting in our garage taking up all kinds of valuable space.)  I've kept telling her 'no' because the rain and snow kept coming and I didn't want the assembly to get all jacked up, but this weekend we've had nothing but awesome, sunny weather.

We have this magnolia tree in the backyard that is absolutely gorgeous. . . for about two weeks, while the flowers are in bloom.  Then all the petals wither and fall off the tree and the tree looks like any other tree.  Still. . . for those two weeks we get some pretty awesome pics.

Well, today I finally relented.

Alayna and Kris start assembling the infamous gazebo on the patio. 

While she and Alayna threw together the gazebo, Yours Truly began trimming a crap-load of trees in our backyard that I've been wanting to scale down for years now.  I then, rather stupidly, decided to burn all the brush so that I wouldn't have to worry about bagging it up in those lawn bags you can pick up from hardware stores.  The trees took forever to catch on fire, as they were still full of moisture, so when they eventually did catch fire they shot up the most ridiculous amount of smoke I've ever witnessed in a backyard bonfire.

Whoops.

Anyway, we had ourselves a labor-intensive but enjoyable Saturday, and felt pretty damn productive by the end of the evening, all things considered.

Check it out, folks. . .

Close up shot of the magnolias (is that the name of the flower, or the tree?)

I offered to help them a few times, but they were being 'independent women' about needing a man's help.  Oh well.

(You can spot the smoke starting to climb up from my fire in the background, there.)

I took a long, long time - with plenty of cardboard, firestarter, kindling, and gasoline - to get this thing going.  Those tree branches were far from dead.

Kris attempts to hang the hook from the center of the structure.  Almost has it.

She loves her picture being taken.

Just about finished with the gazebo. . .

Guess which child this is.  Go ahead.  Guess.

The neighbors must have LOVED me today. . .

Taking a break (and yes, I'm aware my lawn shoes are gross.)

Finished product (though Kris and I later this weekend went out and bought a set of black-and-white matching chair cushions - I'm sure you'll see pics of those in May's installment of monthly randoms.)

Not a lot of smoke now - after hours of burning trees, I had a solid bed of coals going.  Anything that fell into that pit of death instantly caught on fire.

Spied the girls 'fighting' in the backyard - I took this of the two of them screwing around from inside the kitchen.

Spotted.

After dinner, we decided to play some cards with the girls under our newly-assembled gazebo.  I honored the occasion with one of my all-time favorite beers.

The dogs love the recently-mowed grass (while my rider was being worked on by the folks over Ace Hardware, I had to push mow the entirety of the property - takes about two frickin' hours.)

I hate this game.

Umm. . . time to play a new game.

This squirrel fell out of the tree once and the dogs almost got him.  He then clamored up this super-thin branch - a mere seven feet off the ground - that was on the verge of snapping under his considerable girth.  This squirrel must eat babies or something.

The girls wanted to 'do my hair' while we were winding down from cards.  Not sure if I'm gonna keep my hair like this or not.

Later that evening, winding down with our usual couch hang-out in front of the TV.  Definitely deserved after a day toiling way in the yard, I'll say that much.

- Brian

The Den

The process begins. . .

'Sup, Internet.

So we've been in our house now for like, oh, three years, thereabouts.  In that time, we've made plenty of exterior and interior improvements, but nothing overly structural in nature. . . until now.

Our basement (for those of you unaware) consists of a long, big main room, with three other rooms branching off of it to one side (the kids' room, the Captain's Quarters, and storage room), and two rooms off to the other (the laundry room and crawl space.)  In this large room, we were forced to house a hodge-podge of stuff, and none of it really went with the rest:  a TV area for the girls, my exercise area, and Kris' office.

While this wasn't initially a huge deal to us, the problem became evident as we began to host more and more parties with our circle of friends.  During our larger affairs (Halloween and St. Patrick's Day, most notably), we'd have about 20 - 30 kids running around the basement, and we'd have to get creative in putting away our belongings that were fragile, expensive, dangerous, or any combination of the three.  This meant hanging a bed sheet over Kris' office cubicle, blocking off entrance to the Captain's Quarters with the treadmill, putting the rest of the exercise equipment in the storage room, etc.

I came up with the idea of putting a wall in the basement about a year ago, and in theory this would continue from the existing wall (the one that frames the Captain's Quarters) and bisect the main, long room of the basement.  My plan was to create a fourth bedroom, essentially, as this newly-created space would already contain the code requirements of a.) an egress window, b.) a closet (currently being used as Kris' office space), and c.) existing light switches, vents, and outlets.  This wasn't due to our desire to sell the house, mind you - we're going to be buried in this frickin' house of ours - but rather to increase its value for refinancing purposes whenever opportunities arise.

Morgan let me borrow this huge truck in order to pick up supplies for the wall.

When all this Covid-19 bullshit broke out, Kris and I found that we suddenly had nothing but time on our hands, so we got my step-dad, John, to give us a hand in finally throwing up a wall.  It took him and I two days to build the wall itself, and then about a week to put in the door/door frame, add on all the trim, and layer on multiple coats of wall cement in order to smooth out the surface (because there was lots of time required between coats in order for the layers to dry.)

The end result, as you're about to see below, was the creation of our fourth bedroom, which, for the time being is housing my exercise equipment and Kris' office.  For all intents and purposes, we're all referring to this new room as 'The Den.'

Check it out:

This part took a long, long time - building the frame with 2x4's.  Lots of measuring, cutting, and locking into place.  I don't have the patience for construction work.

With the drywall panels up on one side, I was able to throw up rolls of insulation (wearing long sleeves, obviously - you don't want that shit on your bare skin.)  We could've skipped this step, but I wanted the wall soundproof, in case the kids were blaring the TV and Kris needed to work in a quieter atmosphere.

Double-wielding drills as we throw up the other side of drywall paneling.

Covering all divets and bumps with drywall cement. . .

You can't really tell from this picture, but this new room is a lot bigger than we initially anticipated.  We thought it'd end up being cramped, but after selling the spin bike and removing the old TV stand (I'm going to mount the TV on the wall in this room), there's more than enough space for everything.

The door - which was definitely a bitch to put in right - and the trim, all up and ready to roll.

All that remains now is some paint (Kris' department) and decor and we'll be in business (you can expect pics of the finished product once we wrap it all up.)

- Brian