2010 House Chores

Here is a list that sits on our fridge....

right where you can see it every time you walk by it, open it or glance at it. It is the list a made in January of things I wanted to get done around the house.

When I presented it to Nick in January the first thing he said, "So these things don't have to be done till December?"

"Yeah, it's for the whole year"
he pauses, "Well then I will look at it later."
Great.

The first thing I wanted to tackle was the lawn... it was real, real bad. Not only did I realize this, but my mom would make 'subtle' hints whenever she would come over like:

"You know... when you drive up to your house, it kinda looks like a foreclosure"

or

"I bet your neighbors hate how you and Nick take care of your yard."

Thanks Mom!!!
It has been a work in progress for 2 years now- here is the beginning:

This is right before hurricane Ike, the first summer we moved in.

both trees were rotting (as you can see the massive holes the friendly woodpecker put in the sides) so we had to get rid of those.

Nick and his Dad tackled cutting down both trees & grinding down the roots the 2nd summer we lived here (last year). Here is the mess...

don't you love Nick's car?! My mom also makes lots of 'subtle' comments about that too. My husband just chooses a golf membership over a car payment. Priorities.

that was a long day for those men. So for a whole year we had ugly beds and no trees, even prettier!!

Fast forward to this April and we started checking off things on my fridge list.

My mom and I power washed all the sidewalks and driveway

(our neighbor's sidewalk and then ours)

we re-did all the flower beds and planted a new baby tree! Here is the whole after picture....

we planted everything a few months ago, but I wanted to wait until it all grew in

our shrubs in the back are still growing in, I think I want to let them grow at least another foot taller. My Dad went crazy with the chainsaw and cut everything to a nub. I asked him if he was sure it would look okay...

My mom responded in her sweet voice, "Well, I mean it couldn't look much worse than it did."

My mom really is the greatest. She spent her whole day picking out the flowers with me and then the whole evening at the house with my Dad transforming our yard. I am very grateful for their hard work.

the next weekend, Nick went and picked out this tree with his Dad and then planted it. Poor guy- that was hard work digging the hole and getting the tree in. Austin and I sat on the bags of mulch and watched, while eating mandarin oranges.

Three goals checked off the list... lots more to go!