Pest Poison

Ever since we moved in we've been waging war against the local pests. In addition to the colony of ferrel cats that hangs out (and poops!) in our yard, we've also got a variety of spiders and an oppressive amount of ants. For the most part these bits of nature stay outside the house, where they belong. Occasionally we'll find a spider hanging out on the ceiling, and a number of times we've had medium sized ant infestations in isolated areas. These always fill me with a quiet (and sometimes less quiet) rage and I mutter curses to (and about) the ants while I methodically kill them all.

The ant infestations finally pushed me over the edge and I started calling pest sprayers. Ideally we wanted to go the green route, for a variety of good reasons. Unfortunately it takes up to 5 months for the natural deterrents to be fully effective, and the problems often get worse over these five months. Oh, and it costs twice as much, they need to spray twice as frequently, and it doesn't necessarily last in the heat (so your spray that should last 4 weeks wears off after 2). Hmm. Hello chemicals!

So the man came last week and sprayed. We've still seen a few ants, but today I saw some concrete evidence of deadly progress:

Yes, those are all Black Widows. Yum!

Dishes Be Gone

Today Blake brought over his ladder and we headed to the roof. Our mission: remove unwanted satellite dishes. For some reason the previous owners had not one (or even two) but four satellite dishes. Some may have been old, who’s to say, but we've got The Cable TV, so for our purposes they could all be filed under useless (and ugly).


None of the dishes put up too much of a fight. When got them all down we got to work unfastening the many feet of coax cable that was strung about the entire exterior of the house. In addition to collecting satellite dishes, the previous owners apparently collected TVs – one for every room in the house! When we were almost done I looked down to realize it was perhaps not the best job to opt out of wearing work gloves. Yum!

(Thanks for the photos Blake!)

More Treasures

This evening Keri found two more Back Yard Treasures - some sort of animal mandible (complete with small but vicious looking teeth) and an old-timey pull tab from a canned beverage. Odd and amusing.

Yard Bash ‘08

Keri’s parents were in town this weekend, and when the girls left on Sunday for some to do some girl-things we Men turned our attention to the back yard for some good old fashioned manual labor. After assessing the situation we hit up The Depot to sock up on some tools, plants and dirt.

Tools Of The Trade

Over the course of the day there was a lot weeding, tree trimming and cinder-block moving. In addition to planting a lot of new greenery, we also dismantled an old compost container, repurposing the materials into a low garden wall. This required a good amount of pick axe work which was felt by everyone the next day. During the digging we found a number of back yard treasures:

Buried In The Yard

Inside The Old Brick Stove

Creepy Guy From The Compost Pile

When the ladies came home they helped us finish the planting and watering before the sun went down. It was a team effort and the yard looks way better because of it. Here’s a before/after comparison of the area behind our garage:

Before

After

The next day we avoided all forms of manual labor and headed out to Point Dume to enjoy an amazing sunset (complete with dolphins and seals).

Pacific Sunset

Thank you to Keri's parents for all their hard work!

A guest

We've had our first guest in our guest room. Grandma H. came for a quick visit after her Daughters of Scotia convention in Sacramento. We set up the "guest wing" for her, giving her both privacy and easy access to the teapot. It was a wonderful visit. Dave will provide wonderful photos of the room at some point in the near future. I'm just happy it all worked out well.

We're ready for the next round!

Whiteboards

Dave and I now have 9,720 square inches of whiteboard space on which we can plan our lives:


We also have a little old with a little new:


Zeeker is happy. Or at least posing cutely on a desk.

Office Setup

Here's a little video of the progress we made on our office this weekend:

Popcorn Be Gone!

Just before the big move we got word from the lab that our popcorn ceilings were asbestos free, which meant that men in space suits weren't required to remove them. There's a lot of info on the web about doing it yourself, but with our time constraints it seemed best to bring in a professional. After just two days Alex and his crew transformed our ceiling from nappy to nice. They pulled down all the popcorn, spread some plaster to smooth things out and applied a coat of primer to seal it all. Here's the before & after:


Mmmm....smooth.

Ready for the Move

After a few days of packing and painting, we're ready to go. Today is the big move and we tied up some ends yesterday.

We started with the boxes:


Then we finished up painting a wall in the kitchen that needed a third coat:



Dave touched up some of the spots where the taping was less effective while I cleaned bathrooms:



The cats are going to be going over to the house before the movers come.


Maybe they will see one of the hummingbirds that frequents these flowers in our side yard.

Painting

After much deliberation, we decided on the colors and Dave and I spent the weekend of 100 degree heat painting up a storm. We've finished the dining room and living room (except for touch ups) and have one wall left in the bedroom. The kitchen is up next and then I think we'll probably focus on packing for the big move on Sunday.

Here is the view from the kitchen, into the dining room and then living room:



Now the other way (sorry about the mess in the kitchen):


And, the bedroom in process:



Dave has been taping up a storm. I had to document the destruction of his hard work:



The kitchen is on task for tomorrow. Although it will not be painted nacho cheese, I think it will be fun. Caliente, in fact.

Dinner

Last night, Dave and I had our second meal at the new house. He fired up his birthday barbeque and made some tasty hamburgers.

It was so much better than the Thai take out (and Trader Joe's sushi I accidently threw on the floor in a misguided attempt at a picnic) from the night before. We now have big plans for grilled meat in the future. It's very exciting.

The Peep Hole

It's old and I like it a lot.

The Back Yard

Video Tour of the Garage

The Kitchen

The New House