My day off

I finished my eyeball mask:

And the stove has been installed. The building inspector has to sign off on it before we can use it, but it's in:

It is accomplished

Well, our new found Irish friend completed the restoration of our stone wall today. I'm quite pleased. With the addition of some fill, some grading, perhaps a little terracing, that pasrt of the yard will be looking rather spiffy.


Not too shabby for two days work, I must say! Patty will be back in October, and promised to check in and see if we need more work done. We may. We may.

Another Brick in the Wall

KG's new boyfriend apparently came over today to do some more work on the wall. I must say I'm impressed, especially considering the weather was not pleasant today. From the forked tree to the left was all rebuilt today:

He knows how to stack stones:

This part of the wall was intact, but loose on the top. He cemented smaller stones to make a nice, stable top:

It should look pretty darn nice once it's done!

The Pluck of the Irish

So, KG had the day off on Friday. She took her car into the shop for a much needed oil change. While she was waiting on said oil change (and repair/replacement of faulty oil cap) she came to the aid of an elderly Irishman looking for a car rental office. He had a thick accent and couldn't understand why U-Haul didn't have any cars.

At any rate, she hooked him up. He was so grateful, he returned a while later to thank her, and offer his services as a stone mason. Turns out he's from County Kerry in Southern Ireland. And he's a stonemason!

He showed up this morning, and sure enough, for $1250, he's rebuilding our stone wall, with Old World skillz! I'll be sure to take more pictures as it progresses. Hopefully during the day:

In other news: I bought a 42cc 18in Homelite chainsaw today. My stepfather and I managed to fell one of the offending trees along our perimeter. Three more to go. It didn't take long, and there was only one hairy point when the tree decided it wanted to fall through the fence and into the church's playground. Thankfully, we managed to talk it into leaning the other way and getting caught on one of the other trees. An hour later, we managed to get it to fall into my yard, where it literally exploded. It appears carpenter ants had eaten out the entire center of the tree.

Rock the Vote

DIY Network is having a contest to give a makeover to America's worst front yard. I submitted two pictures in the hopes of getting on and getting some much needed help with landscaping. Get your butt on over here, and help us out by rating our lawn the worst!

Always Look On the Bright Side

Sure, it's only the first week of December and we've had a solid week of sub-freezing temps and varying amounts of that silly white stuff kids seem to love. It's been unpleasant and a bit of an adjustment, true. But on the plus side, it's perfect zombie weather. If this was post outbreak, most of the zombies would be frozen now. The ones that were still mobile would be very slow. Sure, it wouldn't be totally safe, but you could move around pretty freely and be able to off a good number of them.

Not a bad thing. Not a bad thing at all.

I'll up the positive ante by mentioning I am also the proud owner of a pretty good sledding hill. It's not giant, but a plastic saucer would get you flying pretty good. In addition, there'll be enough snow to create an army or two of three foot snowmen.

Pretty, pretty good.

Home Improvement

I'm almost afraid to say it, but this place is finally starting to shape up. Last weekend I installed storm doors on the front of the house. KG's mother and her boyfriend came up during the week and replaced all the rotting boards on the deck and power washed 10+ years of scum off of it. It looks almost new. Today they replaced the patio slider. Not only does it actually slide now, but it has a screen. No more bugs in the house!

This weekend they're coming up again and we'll start replacing all the windows.

The backyard looks pretty good. We acquired a wooden swing set and a kiddie pool. The fence has been repaired, and we have new wooden steps covering up the busted brick ones.

Once we get the windows done, the only major thing left is the roof. Then we can start with all the updating and cosmetics.

Our little home feels more like a home every day.

Death and .........

My, how things change when you become a home owner. Massachusetts has once again decided to hold it's allegedly economy spurring "Tax Free Weekend." That's right, folks. Anything you purchase ( excepting cars, tobacco products, meals and single items over $2,500) this weekend is tax free. You can keep the 5% sales tax. Buy or die!

In the past, I would have been tempted to drop some change on new CDs or DVDs. Maybe an electronic device or two. New toys for the kids. Or, more likely, I'd refrain from spending any extra money and stick with the usual slew of groceries, etc.

Today, I hit the Depot. Walked out with a 24ft extension ladder (for cleaning gutters and trimming trees), 2 aluminum storm doors, a gallon of exterior wood stain, a square, a level, a center punch, a hacksaw, and 2 reflective driveway markers.

I saved about $40, but the interest rate on the credit card will more than compensate for that.

Did I forget to say "woohoo?"

I have arrived

I own a fucking lawn mower! 190cc 6.50 ft-lbs gross torque.

Huh? At any rate, it cuts grass.