Updates from the nuthouse (was the little house)

Goodness gracious - there is liable to be a revolt at our house.  Butch is ready to give up on renting the little house out as the first rental, if you were unaware, was cancelled due to a water leak.

WHY was there a water leak?  Well, there was a leak at the toilet that the housekeep may, or may not have made worse by turning the water off at the source.  The pipes in the house are apparently brittle and there were some issues with the actual pipe at the bib splitting or breaking off completely - I have no idea as I was kept out of the loop on that one.  The plumber was only in touch with Butch during that fiasco. 

SO... a cancelled rental the DAY BEFORE they were to check in due to 1) water leak that we thought was just a toilet 2) turned into a massive leak that was the entire bathroom and into the hall and beyond that entailed a water mitigation crew and thousands of dollars.

THEN the firt renters were in for 10 days... all seemed to be well.  There was 5 adults instead of 4 - OK, fine.  We roll with it.  They get in, get
out on time all seems to be well until the cleaning lady goes in to clean and the dishwasher is full of dirty dishes and the sink is backed up - thank
goodness it wasn't overflowing (at that time).  THEN they attempt to fix it with drain-o.  Nope didn't work.  They let it sit overnight.  Nope.  Have a renter coming in at 4pm.  We delayed them to get a handiman in to take a look at the P-trap.  Nope not the issue, so then we have to get a plumber.  

The maids in the meantime have started to try to do it their way and managed to get the whole thing to overflow and go everywhere - I have no clue what is going on but the picture was of water everywhere ... yeah. 

SO now I'm down to calling the management company back to tell them to cancel the renter incoming SAME DAY.  Yeah, tell me I don't feel crappy about that snafu.  SO.. Now we have a wet house AGAIN and the plumber coming out again tomorrow.  All because the prior renter did something that clogged the lines.  They will get this bill, thank you very much.  What a goat rope.

I have just blocked the house until the 2nd of next month when the NEXT people are coming in AND called for a quote from a full service company that will charge a bit more BUT will deal with the juggle of time/and service people.  I think in the long run it will be worth it as it will still rent out and we'll not have to worry about the juggle of getting things fixed when they go wrong from where-ever we are in the world.  That's the goal right?  Make it a passive income and start having it pay for it'self.  BUT the call tomorrow will tell if we're ready to just turn it over to someone else to fully control the unit and let it all roll off our backs and understand that the only thing we need to worry about is paying the taxes
and ensuring we are licensed and insured to handle this.  I like that idea so much better.

Gotta start somewhere.  Apparently I started in the wrong spot and went with the not-so-self-sufficent rental option.  Good news?  It's renting and for way more than I would ever ask for it. 

House update

Where we started some months ago 

New bathroom ivy

Where we are today. 

I think we shall look for one more plant stand. Apparently they are quite popular as I have been to IKEA twice in the last few months ant they had NO plant stands. Yesterday they had one. I grabbed it!!  I think one more will be in order ;)

Change of pace

Decided a while back to put hooks in the girls bath for towels. I even bought the "rack" from Ikea. I just hadn't put them up cause I dreaded THIS


Yes - huge holes from what I can only describe as towel cramming. We put the old bars back up with the butterfly wall hooks which, by the way, simply make BIGGER holes. Sigh.


And after patching and painting a new way to hang towels. ;)

Random from the phone

I love foggy mornings coming into work.






Water!!!! Yikes. Leaking a/c pan. $300 later. Yowza! I will never understand WHY GA puts them IN the attic!!


Liz's pre-graduation feast was Korean YUM!! 2 bulgogi plates and one pork cutlet plate OMG soooo good!!

Our (not so) little friends

There are two of these guys in the garage. This is the bigger of the two. He managed to get "stranded" as the door went up. He's well over 6" tip to tip.

I'm pretty sure he is the same one I walked out the other morning to him sitting on the carpet right outside the door. I squeaked and told him he really needs to find a new home. He's so fat he clunked as he tried to scurry under the freezer. BIG guy! Wonder how we would catch them to relocate them.

Screen repacement

Replace v the screen on Angela's iPod :o/ glad Butch knows how to do this!

Outdoor Curtains!

Butch putting in the wire curtain rod...

Very nice!!


Even from the inside. And it's not a super hot and sunny day yet...


Look how much shade this gives. Can't wait to see the difference this summer.

Round table makeover

Before - needs a little love








Ok maybe a lot of love...




First coats of paint...




Getting ready to tile!!








Tiles!! As of Saturday morning I had tile done. Now grout!




And we're grouted!!! Whoop whoop!

In its glory in the sun shine

And with a carpet put down along with all the chairs surrounding




And me enjoying the partial shade of the curtains in the queen chair. ;)

Wood bees

So I thought all THIS was from trees dropping whatever because it really is pollen and fluff drip time. Until I heard a buzzzzz of a wood bee. I didn't give him too much thought as we really don't have exposed wood until he stopped buzzing and I watched him crawl into HERE!




Why yes, that little stinker is in there boring away at my shelf. Yikes!!
Not sure if I can get the whole plugged while he's away from home or not... Guess I'll just let him eat this shelf :(



Yep that big ole bee went into the hole. Here's the kicker it went in the hole she created through the metal hole!! I thought she went into the hole you can see. Nope - sneakier than I thought!

What a wet dreary day

And cold too. Burrr ok not as cold as my siblings in Utah but cold fir here. Just under 60 degrees at 9am. I am wrapped in a blanket with coffee and a Danish on the back porch. Think I'll go inside and back to bed. The water sounds out here are making me sleepy!!

I tried to upload a video from phone so you could hear and see this, however YouTube isn't playing nice :(

There is a constant drizzling rain that is running down the roof and into the gutters making a very nice burbling sound. Ahhhh rain and a nice place to curl up and listen to it ;)

All this rain does mean my table project is put off for yet another weekend. However I am not unhappy i spent last weekend in the sun working on that "last" flower bed.

In truth I still need to mulch behind the wall too, however that requires no digging or real prep. It's simply a matter of getting many bags of mulch and putting them where they need to be. Well that and possibly laying down some paper bags prior.. Not the work that putting a mini retaining wall and pebbles takes so I'm grateful!

Next major project will be a patio on the upper level and a built in stone fire pit. Possibly crush stone or pavers around that.

Oh and even with it raining I have seen a few doves, lots of finches and a male cardinal at the bird feeder this morning. Love my back yard!!

Maybe I'll talk Butch into hanging my porch curtains today since there's not a lot else to do?

Finishing up the yard work...

 

But first a visit from our little friends in the neighborhood - there are two of these guys chasing each other around (which makes me thing it's not really two guys after all)

 

They have discovered the bird seed...

 I finally did go out and shoo them away, but they are just so cute!!

 

On the yard.  I didn't take a before, however, when taking my "pool's open" pictures as seen here:

http://donnasworddoodles.blogspot.com/2013/04/weekend-warrior.html

it was taken from the yard overlooking this corner... the forgotten corner... until this weekend.

I didn't even let the girls off the hook on this one, I made them come out and put it all together with me.  The good thing?  I discovered better edging stones.  I found TALLER ones so I had to only buy 25 instead of 50.  Still it was 6 bags of pea gravel, 8 bags of mulch (I bought that Sunday after recuperating for the night!). 

 

Georgia Clay is like concrete .. so we actually had to soak the ground to dig any of the holes - I sure hope having the mulch on there will help the poor verbena spread out.  I now have a total mix of colors, but I think I'll be happy with it - this side is all purples.  I originally started out with red.  I have not seen red since that season.  :(  I then found some rescue pinks - they all perked up quite well and have really done well.  So - now we have purple on this side.

 AND this morning on the very corner of both sides there is now a nice clump of society garlic.  Thanks Sally for sending it home with Butch.  I didn't even have to have him dig the hole on either side.  I got them in the ground, watered and will watch them flourish, I'm sure!!

New bed spread for my room

It took me a while to find one that I liked. It took a while for me to commit to it, however now I'm glad I did :) It's a nice change.

Moving and shifting clutter ...

The entry way "before"

 

 AFTER
 

 

Why on earth would i replace a perfectly good sofa/entry table, you ask?  It's not a great answer, but it's a good answer, it was to empty one more of THESE from the attic:

 

 

Now all of the table clothes and napkins that were in here are now in the drawers of my lovely new entry table.  The entry table is ... well, in the way right now, but will be shipped off to be loved by someone else in the near future, I'm sure!

 

 

I had to come in for it's close up shot... LOVE the red color and LOVE the hardware... shocked at where I found this little gem... are you wondering too?  BIG LOTS.  Yes sir, Big Lots had this cute table - more than I would have anticipated for Big Lots prices, however having been pricing these types of chests for a while, it was less than a chain store!!

MLK weekend

Shoveling Mulch!

The girls did an excellent job of spreading out the mulch and Liz was a good sport driving the wheel barrow.  She was short enough not to have to bend over to keep the front from digging in on the soft dirt.

 Dad overseeing the efforts :)

Unrelated to the weekend, in all reality, however I had been toying with some updates for the house... I am tired of my red bedspread and it's going to be replaced.  It took me a bit to warm up to this one - a day or two of it sitting in the bedroom, before I would actually take it out of the package and lay it on the bed.  I'm still not 100% committed to it as I have not removed ANY of the tags... however, I have another pictures somewhere that shows it in relation to the red curtains and red footstools and it really does look nice... a red throw pillow and it will be the perfect "addition" to the bedroom and the now faded to burgundy (you can see it in the background of this picture) bedspread will be retired - well, thrift store bound!!

In other updates that have not made it to the blog, the cameras were established in the last few weeks as well - we're "under watch" now.  We can see when folks are coming and going from our phones and computers.  Fun stuff.  Ahhhh love technology!