Stall In Plans

It seems our floor is soft, so now we have to fix it before we do any upgrades. I suppose fixing a floor is an upgrade of sorts. We have no idea how much this is going to cost or how much time it is going to take. For now it's on hold.

Since the bathroom remodel job is on hold, I guess I'm back to landscaping.

Our Aging Neighborhood

We have been talking about refinancing this old country home and taking out extra money to finance a complete remodel. Before we can do that we need to figure out a few things. Is it worth it? Do we like the neighborhood now? The neighborhood was getting older, but now everyone is selling out and a new younger neighborhood is sprouting up around us. We can hear the neighbor kids when they are out playing and it sounds like there are a lot of kids living near us. Do we want to move into an older neighborhood where there are fewer kids?

I know we will have the grandkids over often so maybe the age of the neighborhood doesn't really matter. I think it does. We need to consider it as we decide what to do.

We have done a lot of work in the past couple weeks. The outside of the house looks so much better. We've been working in the landscaping, and on the house and deck. We had a tractor out here for a couple days and that made a huge difference in the amount of labor required to clear around the trees.

This is a lot of work, but we can see progress.

Yard Work

I am so pleased with the progress of our landscape. With a steady schedule of a few minutes here and there working in the yard, it is starting to take shape. We have a long way to go, but as we drive up to the house it actually is starting to look park like with our massive lawn all tidy and neat.

I have been out manually cutting back blackberry brambles and under brush from the edges of the lawn. The blackberries take over so quickly, it is hard to keep up without using some sort of chemical. I have a problem with using chemicals to kill them off though. I don't want to add any more chemicals to the land than is absolutely necessary. So I'm out cutting them back, then I'll dig up the roots. It is really hard work, I don't need to hit the gym this month! But I'm thinking of hiring a bulldozer to finish off the job. We'll have to see if it's in the budget next month. For now I'll keep the clippers handy.

Landscaping On Our Own

My family is all in on the landscaping project today. It's exciting to see what we can accomplish within a couple hours when we are all working together. We have been moving rocks, cutting back shrubs, hauling in top soil to fill in some of the low spots in the yard. The curb appeal is far more appealing now than it was a couple weeks ago. It's hard work and we are hungry. This is probably a good night for pizza and a movie at home. Although, I could use a good soak in the hot tub.