Saturday, December 27, 2008

Snow!

We've been getting lots of snow up here. The difference from last year is we have to shovel our sidewalks when we get a healthy amount of snow (which has been every time it snows). I remember how I used to always LOVE snow and I'd love how it made everything so white... I still love snow, but now instead of seeing it's beauty everywhere, I find myself looking at sidewalks and driveways and how well people have shoveled them or if it's on my way to work to see if they've gotten up early to shovel... Here in St. Louis Park: "city ordinance requires homeowners to shovel sidewalks on the same day of a snowfall if six hours of daylight remain after the snow has stopped falling. Otherwise, sidewalks must be cleared by noon the following day. Failure to shovel sidewalks after each snowfall can result in a fine". So we have been very good about keeping our sidewalks cleared.. also the sooner we shovel the easier it is because once people walk on it, the snow gets packed down and it's a pain. Yesterday it actually got up to 40 so anything that was left on the sidewalks is now melted, which is great because now next time it snows we have a clean slate to work with! Here's Kyle standing in our front sidewalk last Sunday (12.21.08)
snow

snow 2
Harpo is also having to get used to all the snow we've been having.
One day after we let him out to go potty, we kept calling for him at the door but we couldn't see him anywhere... he was out there longer than usually so I bundled up to go outside and figure out what he was doing. I found him standing under the deck where there was no snow. he wouldn't come to me so I had to pull him out and pick him up to come inside... after that we started putting his boots on, he was still iffy to go outside but once he realized his boots would keep his feet warm he was alright with it. A few time I had to go out with him and stomp down some snow so it wouldn't swallow him up! And when the temperature is below zero he WILL NOT go out unless he absolutely has to.. which is only about three times a day.

It's funny how here, the weather map is depicted rather differently than the rest of the year...
weather map
If you can tell that Minnesota is located at the SOUTH of the screen. I think they do this so that we don't realize how cold it is and think to ourselves "well at least it's not -38 here like it is up in Canada, it'll be okay"

Vikings Game

Kyle got tickets for the Vikings game last Sunday (12-21-08). They ended up losing... after fumbling the ball a gazillion times! But it was fun none the less!
100_7747

100_7745

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Is the kitchen done yet...???

Thanks to the suggestion of my brother while showing him my blog over Thanksgiving... we now have painted the stand alone cabinets white... they used to be wood colored. It does look much better and also fits the kitchen nicer. Kyle painted the trim around the door that leads to the hallway, it was rather uneven some white some brown... so it's also more uniform.
kitchen cabinet thing painted

Christmas Lights!!!

Well we finally found what kind of lights we were wanting and we weren't even looking for them. We stopped in at Menards today (a store like Home Depot or Lowes) to get another snow shovel.. one that has the curved handle and can do some scooping. And took a look at the Lights... they had what we were looking for. Since they don't make the white and red alternating we just bought two red boxes and two white boxes and interchanged them ourselves :0)
getting lights ready

That's what I'm doing here in the picture. We also bought these clips to attach the lights to the gutter, roof, or where ever last weekend when we thought we were going to get lights... and I had almost put them away for next year since I thought we had given up on the light search, anyway we only had 100 clips and with the four strands there were 280 lights so we put a clip every third light... (which didn't give me my 'perfection look' but we'll work on that next year when we can afford more clips, hee hee)
Okay there is more to this story, we got the four boxes all switched so they alternated red and white (oh btw they are LED so we're saving $ and energy). So we get outside and start getting them up and figured we'd just go along the front and up the sides of the roof. So we do the right side first and get about halfway up the part that is slanted toward the top and it was getting difficult and HIGH to get them hooked on the roof. So we just decided to put up the two strands in front of the house and not deal with going up the sides since two strands covered the front... but it does look a little off sided as you can see in this picture.
christmas lights dark outside

Here are the views close up in day & night:
christmas lights night
christmas lights day

So now knowing what we didn't know before, we have enough clips to do more than every third light... but we'll work on that next year. Also to avoid that jumble right where the light fixture is I say next year we get like a 8" extension thing and move the start/finish of the lines a little to the left... causing the left side to run up a little farther on the roof and it will look more even with the other side.... Hey we're new homeowners... it takes practice :0)

(UPDATED REAL STORY!!! a few days after getting the lights up in the freezing cold, one strand burned out... well it was impossible trying to get it to work. And we weren't really happy with them either since they weren't the alternating red and white that I wanted, so we put the bulbs back to the way they were and took them back to Menards... which happens a lot, we're always returned the cheaply made crap to Menards... anyway I was very discouraged that I wasn't going to find the kind of lights I wanted. But one lunch break I went to Target with my co-worker and there they were... alternating red and white bulbs!!!!!! I was so extactic! I bought them and put them up that night in negative 6 degree weather... brrrrrr.)

Sunday, December 7, 2008

painted in kitchen again

I just got finished painting the cabinets that are on the west side of the kitchen. In the pictures I posted earlier it's the wood looking lower cabinets. I painted them white. Now all I need to do is the doors... it already looks much better. I'll post pictures when I'm finished.

Christmas time..... so we searched all day yesterday for some Christmas lights... red and white ones. First we were looking for red and white alternating ones and when we realized that was not going to happen we just started looking for red sets and white sets and I was just going to alternate them myself. the four targets we went to were out of the red! and we tried WalMart and Home Depot as well, no luck there. So I think we're just going to skip decorating this year, we've pretty much ran out of time and for all I care we don't have to get a tree either... there's really no point since we're not really 'celebrating' (buying gifts and all). Maybe after Christmas when things are on sale we can find some good buys. We do have our little charlie brown tree up in the living room and I put all my other decorations out... Just no lights outside :0(

We've also become pros at shoveling, although I think we're going to get another shovel so we can both shovel at the same time. Kyle says we need a scooping one because the one we have is a good path maker but not so much a 'shoveler'... whatever that means. We've shoveled four times this week! We have to have our sidewalk out front shoveled by noon the day after a snow or we get fined.. I'm not sure how strick they are about that, but we don't really want to find out. And it's easier to shovel ASAP instead of waiting til all the tracks are in the snow. So we went ahead and shoveled tonight even though we'll probably have to again in the morning, but by the time we get to it (6:30) there will already be lots of foot & paw prints, so at least most of it's gone tonight.

Oh we also got trim yesterday for the living room, so we just need to stain it and get that up. That's about all the house stuff we've done lately.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Finished painting kitchen

We got the kitchen all painted this past weekend. It feels good to be finished with a room... well partially, we need to do something with the cabinet hardware. We have some we can put on, but a few holes are bigger than the screws for the new hardware. This will be a rainy day project... or added to the list at least. What is it with home owning and 'projects' they will never end! But that's a joy of owning our own home :0) we LOVE it!
kitchen painted 2

kitchen painted

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Our first raking

It was SUCH a beautiful day out today, which made raking the leaves a little less painful. We had raked once before a few weeks ago, but it was starting to get really bad so we got it all raked up today. I had bought leave bags the other day, one box only came with ten, which I thought might be enough. Well after filling the first two bags we knew we didn't have enough. Then after learning that Kyle's favorite part was putting the leaves in, I took over the role of holding the bag and found out that I am a pro-crusher.... so we were able to get all the leaves bagged up in 9 bags!!! If only we knew what we know now with the first three bags (they weren't crushed/packed as well). We ended up bagging up the front yard, side yard, and what was around the garage; the backyard we were able to get into our composter.

I took before and after photos, but you can tell from the neighbors yard the before so I just posted the after shots. Can you believe all those leaves?? It's not leave free (since they were falling down as we were raking) but it is much better. Oh yeah Kyle also cleaned out the gutters.
front yard leaves 2 before front yard leaves 2 after

front yard leaves before front yard leaves after

backyard leaves before backyard leaves after

Next step tomorrow.... putting plastic on the windows.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Harpo turns 2!!

Update: 10-28-10 I realized all my old blog pictures that aren't hosted by flickr are now missing!!!! I've updated these pictures so you can see them :-)

Sunday (the 26th) we celebrated Harpo's second birthday. Isn't he so cute!?!?! He got a new collar and I made him a bunch of homemade treats, which he LOVES!
100_7582 100_7588 100_7590 100_7585

New collar:
100_7581

Halloween Lights outside

We got our halloween lights put up earlier in the week, they are around the shutters on the window. I forgot to get a picture and when I remembered it was already dark. You can somewhat see my Obama sign in the right window :0) Don't forget to vote Tuesday!!
halloween lights

I took a better picture the morning after Halloween. We enjoyed passing out candy!
halloween lights 2

Kitchen halfway painted

We started painting the kitchen last weekend, the color of the kitchen is a blue called: Americana. We got above the cabinets all finished with two coats. In one picture you can see the full wall on the left side, it just has one coat on it and the edges aren't painted at all. This weekend we plan to do a lot of leave raking, it's suppose to be nice out and will probably we our last nice weekend.... so the painting will probably be put on hold until the next weekend. We also haven't put the cabinet back on in the corner above the pantry... there are a few white touch ups we need so we'll probably keep that off til we're all done.
kitchen painted kitchen painted 2

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Decorating for Fall/Halloween!

This weekend we went to an apple orchard... turned out that apple picking season is over :0( and they were only selling them out of these huge bins... BUT we did fine this little greenhouse down the road where we got some pumpkins and things to decorate the front of the house!!

Here is Kyle and I at the pumpkin place, my friend Sheryl took the picture.
pumpkin patch K&D

And here is the front of our house. Del (Kyle's dad) got me the little scarecrow you see standing near the house, it fits perfectly there. And then we made the other scarecrow today with some clothes from Goodwill. You might not be able to see, but we have some orange (Halloween) lights in the window, hanging from the inside.
front of house fall
scarecrow

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A few things here and there

We got a few things done last night, I found this little shelf at Goodwill that I painted white to match the cabinets. Anyway I needed a spot for my plant by the window since it can't be on the window sill with the window being shut. Kyle hung this up last night.
plant on shelf

We also got a few pictures hung. I had already hung some on the office and in the dinning room. But last night we got a few on the stairs going up to our bedroom and our diploma's hung in the fine arts room. (Our neighbor Cele ("seal") ) calls it her fine arts room with her computer, sewing machine, piano (or some kind of musical instrument I can't remember). Anyway I told her that I have a room like that as well!
pictures in stairway
pictures in office

I also got the kitchen primed a little, I'm going to finish it today. I got all the spots above the cabinets... now there is no bright red, woo hoo!
Before......
kitchen pre prime

After....
kitchen primed 2

Before....
kitchen pre primed 2

After....
kitchen primed

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Winter is approaching!

When my mom was here she bought me some bulbs to plant before it gets cold. Well I went to plant them in the front flowerbed while she was here and found multiple layers of the plastic weed barrier and many inches of rocks. SO that of course brought about a project; which needs to be complete before it freezes here (the other morning it was in the high 30's). We ordered a sieve online and it came in over the weekend so Sunday and Monday (just me), and tonight (we) worked on getting the rocks out. We are putting aside the blue/grey slate rocks to use again, but getting rid of all the other rocks and adding it to our concrete pile for now (which will get hauled away eventually). Anyway we reached the halfway mark today!! Not sure if you can tell from the pictures. The little bush in the middle, it's roots were all intertwined in rocks, so hopefully it will do better now that I gave it some dirt to nest in.
100_7483
100_7482

I also picked up a little ornament for our yard! :0) Gotta love 50% off sales!
100_7484
It says Harvest Greetings in case you can't read that.


Saturday, September 20, 2008

Taking it Easy

As you have probably noticed, we've been taking a break from the whole 'house work'. My mom came to visit last Thurs through Tuesday. It was great to see her and have our very FIRST visitor in our new home. We think she really liked it, and I know she liked the fact that the house that is getting put up across the street is bigger and better, therefor our neighborhood is getting built up (woo hoo for our property value!) Also during her visit (well the last day) she got us some patio furniture. We did have a couple of fold up camping chairs out there, which was suiting us just fine except for the fact that the whole weekend my mom was here it was raining and she kept saying "I wish you just had some plastic chairs I could wipe down and sit down to have a smoke"... well her wish came true (the last day).
lawn furniture

They're noting fancy, but will make due for now. Our deck is so big, it helps to have something out there. And besides we got the whole set for $15 at the thrift store!!!
Today we did get back to a few house chores. Kyle lowered the blade on our reel lawn mower and mowed the yard (the front, not the sod yet). We could actually tell it got mowed. All the other times you couldn't really tell we even went over it... it helped to lower the blade. That took a total of about 10 minutes (we have a small yard, lol).
I got the kitchen walls washed, which was a PITA! I was using hot/boiling water, which worked, just scolded my hands. I was wearing gloves, but it wasn't like they were insulated. Hopefully it got all the goo off and we can putty, sand and prime in the next few days. We've picked out the paint we want for it, but haven't purchased it yet, not sure when we really want to get it done. We mainly want to get the coat of prime on to fix where the wallpaper pulled some of the drywall off.
I also did laundry today and hung the sheets out to dry! I was amazed how fast it was before they were dry, it took no time at all AND we saved electricity by not using the dryer!! YIPEE
sheets out to dry 2
sheets out to dry 1

Speaking of being green, our compost is going very well, the bottom is already turning into dirt! It's great to be able to have a place to throw weeds, random twigs from all the trees in our yard (btw we don't have a tree in our yard, but we get sticks, funny eh?), and any kitchen scraps we have (egg shells, veggies that went bad before we had a chance to eat them, coffee & tea grinds, banana peels and apple cores).
Well that's about it, off to registry land :0) Oh the joys of wedding planning! (which I've been able to start doing more of since the house work is winding down...)

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

The little culprit!

Alright I should probably start from the beginning of the story...

Our neighbor Cille (Francille) has a little tomato plant on her back porch on the side that is next to our house. We one day she was so excited about her one red tomato! She came back the next day and it was GONE all that was left was a little leaf that was on the top. Later in the week she noticed one of her green tomatoes gone.

Well a few days after we layed the sod I noticed something had been digging at the edge of my composter. I didn't think it was harpo because for one he's not really a digger and for two his paws have never been that dirty. So I brushed the dirt back into the hole and put the little piece of sod back in it's place. Well a few hours later it was MOVED!! This little culprit has made it's way into our yard as well!

Kyle and i put a stone there blocking the little hole this creature chewed in my composter and since then we haven't seen any activity. Until a day or so ago I noticed a little circular hole in our sod! That little sh!t is at it again!

The other day when I got home from work after parking in the garage I was walking up to the house and heard the fence rattle between Cille's house and ours... so I ran over to see if I could catch this little devil. No luck, I think he ran under Cille's deck.

Well tonight I looked out the window to check on our sprinkler to see if it was done watering or not and THERE HE WAS!!!!! He wasn't on the sod but over to the side with a HUGE acorn looking thing in his mouth, and he was digging at the ground (not on the sod or I would have shot him) (with what I dunno). Anyway this damn little squirrel has caused a heep of trouble in our backyards... who knows what he's doing to our other neighbors. And all my life I thought squirrels were so cute and I'd love to watch them eat at my grandfathers.... but low and behold squirrels are just like children... cute and adorable but little stinkers deep down!
All images are copyright of Daisy Simpson. It is unlawful and illegal to copy, scan, alter or edit the images in any way. This depreciates the photos value as well as my reputation, I take great care in capturing and editing each image and they are each important to me. Thank you for respecting my passion and my copyright.