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

An Afternoon with Uncle Chris

Uncle Chris, meet Baby Commonia. . .

I think, in the eight years we've been down here in America's Wang, I could count on one hand the amount of times we've had family visit us that wasn't a grandparent.  It's probably happened four or five times, seriously.

Well, the fifth or sixth time was this afternoon, for a couple hours.  My younger brother Chris was in Orlando for his buddy's wedding (which he was standing in), and was able to swing out to our house for a few hours between the wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner.  Kris was still at work, so it was up to me and the girls to show him a good time.

Here's what happened. . .

First thing's first - all family members that visit our house, evidently, must have their hair groomed by these two annoying children.

Watson can sense 'dog people,' and consequently spent much of Chris' visit trying to get up in my brother's lap. . .

See the chaos unfolding in this picture?  Note the abandoned infant off to the right.  The half-deflated Valentine's Day helium balloons.  The once-refrigerated  carton of soy milk.  The piles of plastic dishes and fake food.  The blue blanket "for Uncle Chris" that Uncle Chris certainly didn't need or ask for.  The board-game wielding minors running amok.  This patio was spotless not fifteen minutes before this picture was taken.  I'm completely serious. 

Broke this limited release out (from Great Divide, one of my favorite microbreweries), seeing how it was an official Borther visit and all. . .

After a couple beers, Uncle Chris was ready to play his nieces in a knuckle-whitening bout of Chutes and Ladders. . .

Master spinner (Alayna insisted she could have Sprite, since Chris and I were drinking craft beer coffee. . .

Borthers, sharing the same square.

Uncle Chris makes his move.  Much to their disappointment, he'd end up winning this hours-long tour-de-crap.

- Brian

Star Wars, Episode VII: Rise of the Homeowners

Hi everybody.  How we doin'?

Cool.

We're still packing like crazy these days, but now we're moving as well.  FINALLY.

Yes, we closed with the sellers on May 25th. 

I took a half-day off of work 'cause there were seemingly hundreds of forms and paperwork to sign, and I legally had to be there.  Unfortunately, while we had taken the time and energy to ensure that we were at the realtor's office for closing at 9am, the title company representative did not.  Hell, the folks at their office didn't even know when/where the closing was to take place, and therefore hadn't left their office yet (a solid hour drive away).


That was cool.


Eventually, though, the title people did show up, and, after an hour and half of signing papers, we were home homeowners.  I found it fitting that the day I became a homeowner just so happened to be the 35th anniversary of Star Wars: A New Hope - one of the greatest movies of all time (not to mention one of my personal favorites. . .

This is the coolest thing you will see in your entire life.  Ever.

I guess the sellers had been ready to move out of their house once our check cleared all that bank mumbo-jumbo, seeing how we closed a week early.  This was goods news for us, since the only day the Clint and the Voigts can help us move the big stuff with the moving truck is June 2nd - this Saturday.  More or less that means we're having to move all the smaller crap (that which doesn't have to go over in the truck) on our own, after work. 

Should be a blast.

So, more or less, the hectic-ness of our day-to-day lives remains the same. . . we're just replacing 'packing' with 'moving.'  Here are some pictures of the process thus far.  Enjoy:

The Man Room gets boxed up. . .

The Library was the first room to be torn down and boxed up - making room for more boxes and additional crap.

We ended up finding a furniture set (bunk beds, a desk, and a dresser) on craigslist for $300 - a steal considering it was all in excellent shape and made of quality wood.  They even threw in a couple mattresses, of which we kept one (which became a big hit with the girls right away - see picture)

Beating up Mommy

Bodyslammin'

Toss-a-kid

On Monday (Memorial Day) we were anticipating to begin moving into the house, seeing how the sellers had vacated the premises and the selling agent had assured us everything was a 'go.'  But, as luck would have it, we ended up sitting around all day waiting for a phone call that never came - the selling agent was nowhere to be found, and eventually we just said 'screw it' and drove over to the new house ourselves.


The house was all locked up, but the side gate had been left open (which concerned me, regardless of the fact that the back patio and shed were still locked up).  So we let the girls run around in their new backyard for awhile before heading back to the house to schedule a time when we could get our house keys from the selling agent. . .

Our new backyard

Smelling flowers. . .

The side yard - where we'll be setting up the pool and soon as we possibly can. . .

The side gate

This shed was left FULL of tools, lawn fertilizers, spare parts for the house, pavers, soil, roofing material, and more - I'm excited to get into it and see what all's in there. . .

I'm not sure what the sellers were so afraid of - there's iron bars on all the windows and doors, the shed and garage have been upgraded to 'hurricane proof,' and now there's barbed wire along the back fence.  I feel adequately prepared for the zombie apocalypse.

Kris checks out the neighbors' yard. . .

Some of our new trees (that white PVC cage-looking thing might have to go. . .)

Abby explores the Orchard

I think we may have to get rid of a few of these trees, seeing how they're so close together.  I hate to do it, though.

Everywhere I look, there's more house stuff left behind for us - definitely appreciated.

This hose is much nicer than our current one - the sellers, seeing how they're moving into apartment next, left us three different hoses along with all their yard stuff.  That'll save me a small fortune.

Spying in the house

The Front Door (even though its on the side of the house)

The window on the left is the girls' playroom, the one on the right the kitchen sink.

Front of the house (that's the Study window)

Front yard

The driveway.   The sellers just finished this paving job a year or so ago. . .

The sellers also left behind the Virgin Mary shrine at the front house.  This is awkward for us, seeing how we're not Catholic and neither one of us has the stones to throw Jesus' Mom - who is cemented into the ground - in the garbage.

This is going to be a pain in the ass to mow. . .

A day or two later, on my way to work, I was finally able to meet up with the selling agent (randomly behind a Publix - don't ask) and pick up the keys to our house.  He handed me the keys in a loose bag, and none of them were labeled.  Some were to the front door, others to the back door, others to the iron gated doors, others to the iron gated windows, some to the shed, some to to the lock on the front fence gate, others to the lock on the back fence gate, etc.

You can imagine how much fun it was to walk around and try these things out around the house.

So, armed with our new keys, I finally moved our first load into the new house once I got out of work, and the move-in process was on. . .

The Living Room

Kris had me bring the girls' bike over, as she was bringing them over with her (and a van-load of boxes) once she got out of work. . .

Note speaker/iPod set up.  I made it a point to bring those over in the first load. . .

The Girls' Playroom

That crystal ball light is going to be replaced.  Soon.

They left behind a TV for us.  We have too many TVs already as it is, so I'm entertaining the idea of opening up my own appliance store once we finish moving in.

The miniature Kitchen Nook - fitting our table in that area should be interesting.

The Girls' Bedroom

Thankfullly not as small as we remembered it, and with a set of bunk beds they'll have more room than they had in their old room. . .

The closet's kind of small in this house, so we're going to have to get creative.  We bought a dresser along with the bunk beds and desk, so we're hoping it'll fit in there. . .

We're planning on painting the girls' room, and put it to Alayna to determine which color.  She chose purple. . .  so that'll be interesting.

Girls' Bathroom

(Note handsome man in bathtub, ladies.)

On the left, you have a coat closet (which we'll probably use for the vacuum, dust buster, etc.) and the girls room. At the end of the hall is my study. On the right, at the far end, is the garage, following by another closet (to be used for board games and puzzles, etc.) and finally the girls' bathroom.

The Study

First beer in the Study. . .

Initially I had envisioned this whole wall being wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling books. . . but with closets down one wall and a large window taking up another, I don't think it'll work.

Regardless, I'm very pleased with this set up.

View from the Study. . .

Game Closet

The Master Bedroom

That cable business in the corner was pushed back into the wall with ease - I wasn't about to have that crap in my room.

Not sure what's up with all the light spots, here - hopefully its not ghosts.  If so, hopefully they're cool and not a bunch of jerks.  Or pervs.

Walk-in Closet (prior to professional carpet cleaning)

Two sinks again - Huzzah!

The Garage

Although technically its a two-car garage, I only envision us parking one in here - I like having the extra work and storage space. . .

Like in the shed, the sellers left us a TON of useful tools, household cleaners, supplies, and storage racks/cabinets - all of which I'm sure will come in handy. . .

New Washer & Dryer - definitely a step up from the pieces of crap we had in our old house. . .

Not sure why there's a bottle of Head & Shoulders out here in the garage. . . maybe they liked washing their hair in a sink?

Aside from faulty latches that I'll have to replace, this workbench area is awesome. . .

If this palm tree falls during Hurricane Season, our cars are screwed. . .

Abby partakes in their first 'meal' in the new house.

Post-meal running session. . .

Door leading out to the Patio from the Kitchen

The Patio - probably my second-favorite room in the house.

Patio window, looking into the Living Room

The window to the left is the Living Room, the ones on the right the Master Bedroom. . .

Not too thrilled with the bizarre cable mess sticking out of the wall (its like that in a few rooms), but at least they're easy to push back into the wall for later use. . .)

These screen windows are layered with multiple vinyl panels that can be adjusted to let in air, keep rain out, etc.