While I was working, Christene taped everything off and put paper up. I think that’s the hardest part and am so glad she was willing to help me.

Ignore the tape falling off the ceiling. I’ll take care of that tomorrow when I start painting.

For my birthday Joey gave me money to fix up the master bathroom. I’m starting to wonder if I should have asked for money so I could pay someone to do it for me

I hope I can finish before Friday when Spring Break is over!

Last November I came home one day and found this in my front yard:

Totally unexpected. When I called the HOA they said I should have known that they were putting in a secondary water line (irrigation water). Yeah. That was my first thought. Anyway. Little did I know (and they probably didn’t know either) that a almost a year later they would still be working on the secondary water line.

Here are pictures of everything they have added to our yard.

A cover for the hole they made last November:

I am not exactly sure what the white thing is sticking up out of the lawn. I am hoping that it will be covered or hidden somehow.

A sink hole:

Not a planned addition, of course, but something that needs to be fixed now. My dad put the wood in the hole so that someone wouldn’t trip and get hurt.

Valves of some sort (I’m guessing):

and finally this thing:

Probably the best addition, wouldn’t you say?

I’ve talked to the HOA about how bad my yard looks and they don’t seem to understand or care(?). I did, however, have one of the board members come and look at the sink hole (a month ago) and she said “yeah, that will need be to fixed”. The hole is still there.

My whole yard needs to be redone. The ground is uneven and there are dead spots everywhere. I told Joey that we will probably have to sell this place when there is snow on the ground.

Next year I am running to be a board member on our HOA! I’ll whip them into shape (or at least not have to pay them every month!).

Earlier this month we received a note on our door from our HOA requesting we stain our deck if we haven’t stained it recently. Last summer we were planning on staining our deck but the weather did not cooperate (it rained a lot) so we put it off for another time and then with the expense of having a baby, we weren’t planning on doing it this summer until we read this:

“On September 1, 2010 the Association will have the decks inpsected. Decks not maintained will be subject to being done by Associations contractor at the owners expense (cost billed to owner will be $550).”

How nice of them to not even give us 30 days notice!

Here is what our deck looked like last year:

Here is what it looked like after day one of staining. We spent 7+ hours and only finished around the railing:

Day two we spent ~3 hours and finally finished:

So it took us a total of 2 days and ~10 hours to stain our deck for a $125.00. Not $550!

I have been wanting new blinds for the windows for a while and we were finally able to spend the money and get some nice ones. Well, actually, I convinced Joey to let me spend part of our tax refund on new blinds.

One of the families I see referred me to a guy that does free estimates and installs the blinds for a pretty good price so I gave him a call. He did a great job and even cleaned up after himself. If you are looking for someone to do your blinds (and you live in Utah), I can get you his information.

Here is a before picture of our windows downstairs:

The blinds stayed closed all the time because I had such a hard time reaching the wand to tilt them open. Plus, light still came through the blinds so it wasn’t a big deal if they stayed closed. Kind of a sad looking room.

And here is what they look like now:

They are easy to open and they really shut out light when you close them. I couldn’t be happier! Joey even said that he likes them

We also replaced the ugly curtains in the stairwell with venetian blinds since our cats like to sit in the windows. Here is a before picture:

And here is what they look like now:

It will take the cats some time to get use to them but it really makes the stairwell look better.

Now that the blinds are done I can start working on the nursery!

After talking to the construction workers and our HOA, we learned that they are putting in a secondary water line (irrigation water). The HOA apologized for not thinking to call us. I am just glad I know what’s going on.

They should be done by Wednesday.