Three Things Thursday - Shoes, Wind & Amelia Earhart

#1
Sometimes I get up early to go running and it's still dark.  I try not to turn on the lights so that I won't wake up Nathan. Sometimes in the dark, I grab two different pairs of running shoes and end up having to turn on the light anyway....  :)

#2
Sometimes, where I live it can be really windy.  Ok, so most of the time it is really windy.  My poor globe willow finally gave out.  This was the last globe willow in our yard.  The other one gave out in the wind a few years ago.  Plus it took out a few sections of our fence, which was awesome!!

It also took a large patch of shingles off the front and back of our house.  So Nathan fixed that as well.

#3
Yesterday, Amelia had a Biography Fair at school.  She went as Amelia Earhart.  What a sweetie she is!

Last Night We Had a Windstorm

This occurred:

It blew out our fence.  Not just on this side of the house either.  The gate on the other side of the house was on the ground also.

A few years back, in September 2007, another wind storm wreaked havoc at our house, knocking over our largest tree.

Stinkin' wind!  

Good thing I am married to such a handy guy though.  I'm sure he'll have it better than ever as soon as he has time to get to it!

BTW - look how awesomely green my lawn was back in 2007.  I am pretty positive it hasn't looked that great since then.

No Need to Call a Plumber

After peeling about 15 lbs of potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner last week, I accidentally clogged our kitchen sink with the peels.  After trying myself to get the sink unclogged, I took a picture to send to my husband with a text that said, "HELP"! Ground up potato peels make for some very brown water!

I knew he would have to take apart the pipes under the sink, so I started clearing out my newly organized under-sink area and got my cleaning bucket set up underneath the "u" shaped pipe that comes out of the garbage disposal.  After a few minutes though, I got to thinking...  How hard can it really be to remove a pipe and put it back?

Turns out it is not hard at all.  Before Nathan could even come to my rescue, I had the pipe removed, cleared out, put back on and everything put back under the sink.  I am woman, hear me roar.  Super proud of myself!

I did't take an after picture.  Just imagine a clean, dirty-water-free sink!

A Quick Under-the-Sink Fix Up

Friday evening, I was looking under my kitchen sink for some cleaner and I got fed up with how it looked.

I pulled everything out from under there and wiped it down with a wet rag and some cleaner.

This is what it looked like:

In the back was the worst part.  Our sink had an undiscovered leak for a while and this is the damage it had done when we finally discovered and fixed the problem.

I knew Nathan had some sticky-tile in the garage from a project he did a couple of months ago.  (You can pick this stuff up at Lowes or Home Depot or get a box from here.)  While the cupboard dried, I went out to the garage and rounded up 6 of the sticky tiles.

Starting in the front, I laid one whole tile down and then worked my way across the front.  They I went to the back.  This required cutting the tile a little bit.  I actually started in the middle because one tile would fit between the two pipes that come up through my cupboard.

I didn't concern myself too much with lining the tile up on the back row like I had done with the front row. My thoughts were that it was in the back and no one would really see it back there but me.

This is the tile that covered most of the damage.  Even though there are some gaps in the tile, it will still look tons nicer and be easier to wipe out and clean.

I neglected to take a picture with everything organized and put back in there, but it seriously looks so much better.

If you don't have sticky tile laying around, you could use contact paper as well.  If you live relatively close to me, I still have a whole bunch of this sticky tile in my garage you are welcome to come and take a few pieces.

Those Darn Sewer Lines

My husband and his father spent all day Saturday digging up my father-in-law's front yard.  He had a break in his sewer line.

You can see parts of the old clay pipe behind Nathan on what is left of the grass.  It had caved in and broken. There were also roots growing in the line.

Jared sits in the machine waiting to fill the hole in.  Nathan let me try my hand at running that piece of machinery.  Let's just say that there was a lot of jerking and shaking...

 The hole.

Men at Work!

In September of 2011, we had to dig up our sewer line as well.  The sewer had backed up twice into our basement.  Thankfully both times we had only washed clothes and taken showers, so the backup wasn't extremely gross, only super gross.

I realized I had never posted the pictures of that glorious event, so here they are.

Here is the mound of dirt that was taken out of the hole.

Looking down in to the hole.  12 feet down to the broken line.

See that yellow line?  Yeah, that's the gas line that Nathan accidentally cut in half and we had to call and have repaired.

And here is the root ball that was growing in my sewer line and clogging it up.

Here is to hoping that you never have to dig up your yard to replace a broken sewer line!

a new water heater

see the water heater at the front of the picture with the blue "y" on it?  yeah, it's not supposed to be where it is.  see nathan in the very back of the picture standing next to a new water heater?  yeah....  he is putting in a new one.

isaac came upstairs sunday after church and said that there was a bunch of water coming out of the bottom of the water heater into the toy room.

thankfully...
1. this part of our basement is still unfinished, so there was minimal water damage.
2. the whole bottom of the water heater didn't give way all at once.
3. isaac noticed it when he did or it could have been worse.

it was not fun to go a day and a half without  hot water.  it was not fun to have all of the water shut off for most of the afternoon and evening.  but we survived! 

the old water heater in all its broken glory!  it served faithfully for 18 years.  may it rest in scrap metal peace!

and here is the new water heater.  i placed the blue "y" on it now.  a sort of passing the torch, if you will.
 

and here is that great guy i married, finishing the installation of the new water heater.  he is truly amazing!  (notice his handyman shirt...)

i took an extra hot, extra long shower to commemorate the installation of the new water heater.  it was lovely.

slowly, but surely

we're getting there...

spent the long weekend working on our project.  thanks to some great friends and family we are moving along nicely.  painted the walls (almost the same color the kitchen was previously but more of a browner tone) and started on the floor.  the floor is taking a little longer to put down than we thought, but it looks amazing!

i'll be the first person to say that my husband is seriously handy, but he honestly never ceases to amaze me with his skills.  i'm so blessed to have him around.

remember what looked like this:

 and then this:

well, now it looks like this:

and what looked like this: 

 and then this:

now looks like this:

and finally, what looked like this:

now looks like this (it's a slightly different angle and yes, my fridge is currently still in the middle of the kitchen):

are you sick of my house pictures yet?

progress on the homefront

because my hubby is amazing, much progress is being made at our house.

what looked like this:

 now looks like this:

what looked like this:

now looks like this:

what looked like this:

now looks a little like this (i know, it's a slightly different angle):

please note the 3 light switches hanging from nowhere in the pictures. that is my favorite part!  Also the bottom picture shows our soon to be flooring.  we picked it up yesterday and got it all out of the boxed to acclimate to our casa.

what's ahead?  finish taking out the remaining 2x4s from the old wall, sheet rock for the half wall, new paint, and we still need to rip out the old kitchen floor.  can't wait to be rid of this beauty!

big changes on the horizon at the harwood house

looking into the set up of our office/tv room;

a look at the wall in the dining area of the kitchen (apparently i need a larger drying rack for clothes):

looking at the kitchen/bedroom door from the hallway:

a look towards the doorway of the bedroom (after most of the stuff is out):

looking into the bedroom from the doorway (the wall of the right separates the kitchen from this small bedroom):

looking at the hallway and bedroom door from the front door:

the bedroom closet (which up until moments before was quite full):

more details to come...

productive saturday

i wish i had pictures to post, but i don't. we had quite a productive saturday at our house. well, i should say that nate had quite a productive saturday - but i will add in that i was a very good supervisor :)

first, nathan (with some help from me) cleaned out the entire garage. it seems so spacious now!! winter is hard because you want to spend as little time as possible outside freezing your butt off, so stuff just gets shoved wherever. it also helped that i am in a throw-it-away mood. i have been for a couple weeks. stuff that i was just hanging onto "in-case" went straight into the garbage (like our very first non-infant car seat that was 7 years old and just gross). it felt good to get rid of stuff like that.

then, while i had the hard job of going to get us burgers (and a shake for me) from in-n-out, nathan finished scraping up all the old linoleum off the floor of our old trailer. then his dad came over and helped him glue down new linoleum. this project has been on-going the past 2 years so i was so happy that he finally finished it up. now, just a few more fixes and it will be ready to sell and be gone forever!!!

while nathan was working on the trailer, i supervised the boys getting down into our window wells to clean out the garbage that had blown in since last spring. they filled an entire trash bag. i couldn't believe how much stuff was down in those things. because our back window wells are under the overhang of the house i had to promise to give them each $1 to get down there. not a bad deal for me considering how much stuff came up out of there.

then i mowed the front lawn - well most of it. nate had the linoleum stretched out on part of it and i didn't want to disturb his work. i wasn't cutting the grass, just getting all the leaves and twigs picked up. mowing is much easier than raking.

by the time i got the kids bathed and ready for bed, i really felt like a lot had been accomplished.

the yard

it is snowing, again. i wish it would just stop - actually i don't mind if it snows, i just don't want it to stick to the ground. it had been feeling so very springish lately and i am getting really antsy to be outside doing things.

i really want to work in my yard. towards the end of the season last year my little bro came over and looked at my yard to help me decide what to do with it. i don't really like how the front yard looks. when we first moved in, the yard looked really nice, but it totally wasn't my style. there were lots of roses and flower beds everywhere. i don't have a lot of time to spend in my yard so I can't spend hours weeding. i took out a few of the flower beds and let the grass grow in. we transplanted a tree or two and i took out three trees that i didn't like. then i just never got back around to doing much out there. i am DETERMINED to get something going this year.

so like i said, i had my little bro come over and help me come up with a plan. i will be transplanting a couple of large bushes that have out-grown their space and i will be planting a dwarf tree where they were. i will also be pulling up most everything in the flower bed right in front of my bay window and transplanting some of it and putting down all new plants - mostly small shrubs. i am also going to be taking out a little bit of grass by our driveway to create a small planting space where an existing tree is. i will be putting in 2 little shrubs on either side of the tree and maybe a couple of flowering perennials as well - nothing too crazy - like i said, i need simple and easy.

but like i said.... it's snowing again, so won't be doing any of this very soon.

the before pics

as promised, here are the before pictures of my kitchen:


an overview of the whole kitchen:

another view of the whole kitchen (note the pink countertops):

the countertop where we will be adding the bar:

and just for good measure, a shot of the pink floor that will be replaced soon.....