Behind Again

It's been another long week and I am again somewhat behind on my blog posting. So without further ado, the last week at Our Brick Ranch.

We decided that we couldn't possibly live without a phone line and cable jack in the office, so Dad got to work on making it happen. He is very dashing with his power tools wouldn't you say?


He ran the new wires through the crawlspace and is drilling a hole through the floor in the wall to run them up. He also installed an outlet in the closet in there so I can build a built in sewing area that I can just shut up with all of my craft supplies behind shuttered doors! Clean and baby proof!


Dan rebuilt the wall the shower head will mount to. The way it was before there was only one beam offset and the old tub handle was towards the right instead of centered. We decided that was silly and just put up another support and made it look symmetrical.

Dan also tar papered the floor and put some metal flashing up for extra water protection. He also reran the drain and the tub is actually in position but I didn't get any photos. He's also installed some of the durock cement board in the tub surround to get ready for tiling.

My Dad apparently got tired of the TP resting on the window ledge and did this. I think he's a mad genius.

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday and I worked my hands to the bone clearing a huge garbage heap/brush pile out of that back corner of the yard. I also clipped out a small tree between the fences and a bunch of blackberry brambles.

I also transplanted some plants from our old yard, including this lovely fern and a ton of red canna lilies.

It was all worth it because when I pulled back all of the dead stuff I found a bunch of these. Such lovely bulbs all popping through. Some definitely are daffodils, other's look as if they may be Hyacinths, but I'm not quite sure. I can't wait to see all of them pop up!

I love these trees so very much, despite the mess they make. Do you see that tiny lower branch? Dan is going to cut it off. Then you see that nice sturdy one above it? It will soon be holding a beautiful new swing.

A friend of mine walked into this back yard for the first time a few weeks ago and saw my trees and exclaimed, "You have to get a hammock!" That's exactly what I'm putting on my birthday list this year. Can't you see me chilling in my hanging hammock, Nemi on the swing beside me? Oh, also imagine the privacy fence that's going up between those 4x4's in the background. It will be my little piece of heaven.

Today the floor guy came. And I snuck in afterwards in socked feet to see what he'd done. He's completely sanded all of the floors, and they look amazing!

He also puttied in all of the age cracks.

And he completely replaced a whole section in the office where there were some very damaged boards the previous owners had gouged!

It really looks incredible. I can't wait to see what it looks like after the stain is finished!!!!!

He said he'll start staining on Wednesday and we shouldn't walk on it until Monday. So we are stuck finishing the kitchen and family room for the next week. I also can't have baby B over at the house because of all of the fumes. This gives me ample time to pack up all of our belongings. Because we are moving in by the 20th! I can't wait to call this house home.