big things happening over here folks...

 We are finally getting to the end of things around here... I don't think we will ever finish, as Rich seems to find something we need to do every weekend.. But the big "must do to live here" things are almost done.

These were left on the list...

Furnace and A/C
Move the Propane tank
Have a concrete floor poured in the garage (it's sand)
Install garage doors and openers

When we bought our house, we were told that the heating and cooling systems were probably the original systems and this house was built in the 1970's...  That's a long time folks...30 odd years...old...

Thursday a local heating and cooling company showed up to fix that..  We now have a brand new furnace and A/C unit...  He and his one worker were here almost 12 hours Thursday..  I had planned to let them get started and then take the grandkids out of the house because we were told it would be noisy in here..  That didn't happen as the one grand showed up with a low grade fever, no appetite and a junky stomach..  so we stayed home and really the noise wasn't all that bad...

the new A/C unit

The A/C unit used to be under the deck...that is not the ideal place for it... We had it installed on the south side of the house with new lines also..  When the heating/cooling guy came to give us the estimate we found out that all the gas lines in the basement were not gas lines...they were water lines...yes...propane was running through copper pipes used for plumbing.. Not safe...at...all...

Sorry, no photo of the old or new furnace...one was ugly and dirty and nasty...the new one is just a big metal box...lol

When we moved here the propane tank was located right next to the garage...There were many times we were afraid someone was going to back into it...

We called and made an appointment to have it moved across the driveway to a small area of land that wouldn't grow grass and was hidden behind a little row of trees..

Ava...posing for the camera...

tank in front of the garage...not a good placement..

 . 

the trench...

they took the time to wash and paint the tank...

in it's new location tucked away with a pretty orange cap...

and this is the last one of Ava...

Next week we have Ron coming to pour a new garage floor...right now the floor is sand...yea...sand...Maybe we should have a beach party? before it's gone?

ok. this IS the last one ... she loved walking around the driveway "Grandma, take this pose!"she would say...

This weekend will be work free...for me, anyway...Rich is fixing a little problem with a down spot this morning.. then off to memorial for a friends dad and then tomorrow we have a 6th grade graduation for a nephew...oh wait...great-nephew...HA..we ARE getting old..  His mom was our Jr.Bridesmaid...LOL

Nancy

outside..

Even with the nasty temps lately, we have been doing outside work.  We hate outside work..oh, wait...have I said that before? Yea..we hate it..  But it must be done..

So here are the before... what you cannot see are the new gutter guards that went up on Friday...

Front Yard before, although you can see supplies there..

These plantings were at the house when we purchased it, but not tended to in a long time...

This holly (ivy?) is by the back deck...

looking down the steps on the deck

Back deck steps..

And here are the afters...  after sweating and raking and lugging and sweating and carrying and well, you get the idea...  WE WORKED!!!!

Three planters across the front of the house

Ten years of leaves were raked away from these plants, more than one dead plant removed and mulch added.

Nothing will grow here...nothing...it gets no sun..and the cats would tear up any plantings while new...   We thought about mulch,  but we figured the cats would just scatter it everywhere..so Rich carried 28 bags of white granite chips down the side of the house and i ripped them open and dumped them... It may not be the best landscaping but it looks clean...go back and take a good look at the before photo again.. See all the leaves he raked away...we didn't even realize that the concrete step went all the way over to the house...

Somehow i missed getting a photo of the clipped holly (ivy?), so look at that before photo and imagine it all clipped nice and round with black mulch underneath...believe me it's pretty..

 Rich mowed the pasture...twice...with a riding mower...

 but that was after he tore down a section of fencing, weeded and cut..

This is us in the truck driving out of the pasture...

And so we proceed....

This is our parking situation at the moment.. At the most we have three cars and a truck parked in various places..the problem is that propane tank.  It's in the worse possible position...many a times we almost hit it backing up in the snow and ice...

see how close it is??

The propane man came today and trenched across the driveway (and might have cut the phone line, uh oh!!)    Tomorrow he will return and move that propane tank across to the other side of the driveway....behind a stand of trees...and out of our way...

And more workers are coming tomorrow to do a HUGE job...  photos to come...

Nancy