Construction, Landscaping, and The Ladies

My husband can do just about anything he puts his mind to. I'm immensely proud of him and how capable he is. This past week he began renovations on several aspects of our home. Our home was built in the 1980's and, in line with the trends of that time, we have hollow doors. Functional, but nothing to write home about. We want our house to appeal to renters who will most likely take care of it in our absence, and so, we are doing small upgrades like replacing the doors with better quality ones to make it stand out. We would have gotten around to this sooner or later but our trip has given us the push we needed to check this off the list. I can't even begin to tell you what a difference it's made in the feel of our home. Like I've said before, it's the little things that make a big difference!

In addition to the doors, our master bedroom closet needed to be refreshed. If you have a closet or other space where you feel like a purge is necessary but don't know how to go about starting, then let me help you. Trust me, it works! The rule is that you need to make a mess to restore order. Pull every single thing out of that closet/drawer/room/whatever (which we did) and then clean the space. In our case, my husband removed all the closet organizers, carpet, and light fixture. Then he and our youngest son painted it a light neutral and installed can lights. This brought a lot more light into the space. He was able to replace the carpet himself and the result made it feel brand new! Then he put the closet organizers back in, which gave us the usable space we needed for organization. This part is the most important. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING BACK THAT YOU DON'T ABSOLUTELY WANT OR NEED! Everything left over is either sold, donated, recycled or thrown away (or in our case, boxed up for storage). When you have a clean space to fill, it's a lot easier to decide what stays and what doesn't.

Also this week, we finally brought in the cavalry (landscaping company) to help us make our yard look as manicured and clean as it did when we moved in. Talk about a breath of fresh air!! Okay, I'm making it sound like we are messy and our home/yard are a wreck. That isn't the case. The reality is that when you have kids and live in your space, sometimes things get overgrown. Sometimes you hang on to things "until the kids are older". It's just a fact of life. Well, now our kids are older and it's time to reset. I love it! There's just something joyful about stopping to look at a well maintained yard and home. If I was a millionaire (or multi-millionaire in this economy), the first thing I would do is hire someone to keep our yard beautiful all the time. I have two black thumbs, so to me, this would be heaven.

Allow me to introduce you to our ladies. We have chickens. Have I ever mentioned that? Yep! Five, in fact. Alice is the sweetest. She follows me around like an adoring dog. They are so easy to care for and there is a marked difference in the quality of eggs they produce as opposed to the average grocery store egg. Sadly, I'm going to have to start buying grocery store eggs again or find a local flock because the time has come to say goodbye to our girls. Three are under a year old and are in their prime laying years. So instead of being processed, the whole flock will be going to live with a family who are in need of some hens. We'll miss them but are pretty excited to be sending them to their new home- which happens to be a castle. Really! With stone, a drawbridge, yaks, pigs, peacocks, and everything! It will be a grand adventure for them and will give us the freedom to plant some flowers and mulch without our curious girls coming along to dig everything up. One less thing to have to deal with as summer approaches. Farewell girls! I'll miss you following me around the yard and the way you congregate at our back door. You've been good to us and one day maybe I'll write a book about you.

- Jen

 

L-R: Count Cluckalah (Welsummer), Fanny Fluffbottom (Plymouth Barred Rock),  Pixie (Bantam Lavender Ameraucana), Carlos Jr. (Black Star and named by neighbor boys), and Alice (Speckled Sussex)