The House

“So, it's been a month since Angie & I moved into our new home. Time for an update. I've always lived in apartments or barracks, or military housing since I was born. Repairs aren't something that came natural to me, but I'm pickin up some skills.
Things I've learned to do in the last month:
Plumbing- Our guest bathroom had a (very) leaky shower head and a commode that you had to hold the handle down on forever. Both suck. My local Lowes man hooked me up with the parts and Angie & I knocked both problems out in less than an hour and prolly saved a couple hundred bucks by not calling a plumber to do it.

Landscaping- This was a physically exhausting, yet enormously rewarding weekend spent in the yard. Our back yard is huge by Nashville standards. We have an old brick patio that was surrounded by a riot of different flowers and plants. Not to mention an ugly old trellis covered by an equally ugly vine. Most of which we didn't like. We spent Sunday & Monday pulling, transplanting, pruning, planting, mulching, and drinking Sundrop. We now have a lovely little herb & salsa garden right outside our kitchen door. We also have LOADS of flowers growing against one fence and more to be planted soon.
We also have an awesome setup on the patio with a great grill which fed us all weekend, a pimp patio cooler with liquor rail, side table, and bottle opener, and a big fire pit which we also used (even though it wasn't cold).
There were loads of other small tasks over the last couple of weeks that have changed my idea of fun and rewarding.
I've had lots of fun in my 32 years, but notthing has been as rewarding as this.
I'll prolly say the same thing when we have kids!
This explains my lack of posts and time spent Trail Talking.
Time to go trim more vines!
Ciao”

“That's awesome Currahee! You should post pics of your lovely yard. : )”

“Congrats on the new pad. I just bought my first house as well, after owning a condo for three years prior, and half an acre anywhere in San Diego County is a big yard indeed. I've never been so overwhelmed with yard duties in my life! And only one of the kids is old enough to realistically go out and put a dent in the weeds. Owning the condo was a good feeling, owning a nice house on a decent piece of dirt is awesome! All the work and chores that come with it are so worth it.”

“Congrats! The satisfaction of a hard weekend of yard work is a wonderful feeling, isn't it?

I love the line "We spent Sunday & Monday pulling, transplanting, pruning, planting, mulching, and drinking Sundrop." LOL, that's the one thing I miss about living in Murfreesboro. No Sundrop in MD.”

“WTF is Sundrop?”

“Sundrop - http://www.sundropbottling.com/about.html
It was fun working in the yard. My hands were so stiff this morning I couldn't open the new coffee bag. I had to savage it with a knife!
last edited: 5/31/05 2:44:55 PM”

“Liquid crack violin”

“I prefer Roundup for my lawn care. ;-)”

“I was walking like an old man this morning myself.

Nothing like working on your own space. - Have fun.”

“I will Pixie. I wish I had before pics though. A picture of me hunched over the commode ripping out it's guts would have been funny too!”

“You really should take 'before' photos... or even better, 'before' video. We ended up doing a lot of work on our first house. To go back and see the video from when we first moved in gave us a real feeling of accomplishment.”

“The two middle chitlens enjoying their new yard. After being cooped up in a condo with a small patio on a busy street for most of their young lives, needless to say they are stoked. Worth the extra commute? yeah

”

“Owning your own home and doing stuff inside and outside gives you a great feeling of accomplishment and pride. I'd say it is well worth every dime and minute of labor I've ever put into the houses I've owned. There is always something to do. I have learned over the years which projects I'm willing to tackle and which ones I'll pay someone to do. The only problem with having someone do a project on your home is that they just never seem to do it as well as you could, unless it's just a skill you don't have. Probably the best way to learn how to do something is to look it up in a home repair guide or the internet and then ask the friendly folks down at the hardware store or nursery. Oh...and the jobs I complete at home usually require 3 trips to the hardware store for some strange reason.”

“Save one trip - buy more than you'll need and return the leftover parts.”

“I know what you mean about how rewarding doing things around the house can be. We're STILL repainting downstairs, but gawd is it beautiful!

On another note, it's been years and years since I've had Sundrop. Prolly a good thing.”

“Didn't realize Sundrop was so popular!”

“Hey, I just saw on that web site that they will ship SunDrop! I used to stock up on my trips south, but those trips aren't often so I'm usually out of the stuff. Shipping cost is pretty high, but what they heck.”

“Anything for a fix, huh Trek?”

“Just don't snort the stuff, hurts like a mo-fo.”

“Great about the house Brian, I know you both will enjoy it. I ahve done lots of work on our backyard over the years and still we are not finished. I also grew up on Sun-drop and lots of friends even worked at the plant in Pulaski where they bottle it. It is addictive, I finally got off the stuff cause of the sugar and what it'll do to the kidneys. I can't quite stomach the sugar-free stuff yet, so I just quit cold turkey. Is is good tho and I force myself to have one every once in a while.”