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April 07, 2007

Getting it all together

I know that all of my posts recently have centered around the house. To be honest, I would like to write about something else, but the truth is that this is what has been taking up the vast majority of my time.

I've heard from many different people before we purchased the house that there is always something to work on and/or fix. How true this has turned out to be. I still need to finish painting the downstairs area, as I haven't had much time since my vacation to work on it. In addition to the living room, there are still boxes yet to be touched that REALLY need to be unpacked. And on top of it all, the yard looks like crap.

So I'm hitting different areas to keep it all interesting.

Last week, I began working on the yard. There are weeds EVERYWHERE. Crabgrass, clovers and a whole other assortment of junk litters both the front and back yards. I purchased a spreader and some lawn feed/weed killer to begin the work of getting my yard in some kind of condition. I spent last weekend spraying weeds with a bottle of weed killer.

While I was doing this, I had an opportunity to meet my new next door neighbor. He's a great guy ... offering me a beer and an opportunity to talk in his back yard. We talked about all kinds of things, but the most interesting thing that I heard from him was about how he has gotten his yard to look so good. I got a few pointers from him regarding watering the lawn and mowing, and I took them to heart. He also said that when he first started working on his yard, he brought in a company to get it started. I told him I was thinking about doing the same, and he highly recommended doing it.

So early last week, I called a lawn company to see what kind of prices that they were going for. I got a call back around Wednesday ... and to my surprise, they were only $38.00 per treatment with absolutely no contract required at all. Considering that I had spent $15.00 on the lawn feed and another $15.00 on the bottle of weed killer ... this really seemed like a good deal. After you add up the time I spent getting the feed spread and the weeds sprayed, I was already well over $38 dollars. Not to mention that this is a professional company that knows what they're doing, it just seemed to make sense to have them come out a few times a year and get my lawn into some kind of decent shape. I've scheduled for them to make their first trip out in the beginning of April, as I had already feed the lawn once already.

This weekend, since it's cold as hell (in Spring, mind you), I'm spending my time working on the boxes that have yet to be unpacked. The office hadn't really been touched since we moved in, so I made it my priority. I spent the day unpacking all the boxes, organizing desks and the closets and the plastic storage shelves. I realized today that the storage shelves took a considerable beating during the move and that they're probably going to need replacing. Amanda and I may go tomorrow to look at new storage units to see if there is anything out there that may be a little more sturdy than the units we currently are using.

Otherwise, for the most part, the office has been completed. There are some pictures and things to hang on the walls. I'm not planning to paint this room, as it is pretty small. I'm concerned that putting anything other than white in here will make it look way too small. I figure if we get enough large pictures on the wall that will take care of the "too much white" factor that we currently have.

Finally, Amanda and I are planning on getting the spare bedroom in order ... possibly even tomorrow. She wants to go and look for a bed to put in the room. When we moved, we gave away the futon that we used to use for a spare bed, so we haven't had any extra place for people to sleep when they come over. Amanda's dad, Dewey, stays over quite often these days when he's in town repo'ing vehicles, so it's a pretty big priority to get something in there soon. We'll probably go out tomorrow to see if we can find a mattress, box spring and bed frame for some decent price. I'm hoping to keep it around $200-$300 max if at all possible.

He's to hoping...

~out...

Posted by ed at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)