First Mow Results In Casualty


The Mower

We broke out our brand new lawn mower yesterday and fired it up without any problems. While Ted put together our new tool chest for the garage, I took the lawn mower for its first spin around the yard. I had my Ipod on and life was good. The mower purred like a kitten and cut like a dream. I made my way around the back of the house and got to work on some of the lusher grass back there. While making a pass over a particularly high area, a rock flew out from under the mower and broke the back of the house! Busted right through the vinyl siding and the insulator board. Yipes.



I broke the house.

I cut the engine and made my way to the garage to tell Ted. We stood there staring at it for a bit. Ted made note that we don't need a security system anymore, as you could break into the house just by busting through the walls. He has a point, though I have a feeling our neighbors would be a bit suspicious of anyone breaking a hole in the wall of our house. I think we'll keep the security system for now.

Now I need to look in one of our "home repair" reference books and figure out how the hell to replace vinyl siding...

After the lawn mower incident I decided I better stick to some indoor work, so we got busy organizing the garage. This was one of the most fulfilling organization projects to date! We had "arranged" the garage after the move, but things kept piling up and we never felt as though there was truly a "place" for things. Now that we have a lawn mower and wheelbarrow and weed whacker in there too, we really needed to organize a bit better.


Before

Before


We got a nice big set of shelves and a sweet tool chest from Lowe's. I also went back later on and got a piece of pegboard and all of the hooks that go with it along with some other specialized hangers for our gardening tools. I have to admit, I had a riot organizing last night and didn't want to stop until I was done. I finished up just in time to catch the end of Zach Braff's monologue on SNL. Score.


After!

The Gardening Center

The Sports Center

Our new fabulous and much needed shelves

"The Workshop"

I worked a little in the yard today putting down some more grass seed. Ugh. So many rocks. I hope we see a bit more growth. Comparison pictures will be posted in a couple of weeks! Fun!

Operation: Outdoors.

Mortimer and Ethel are spoiled rotten. As soon as Ted got home from work today he put the kids on their leashes and led them outside exclaiming "I'm a glutton for punishment!" Mortimer was in heaven. He rolled around in the grass and climbed the hill and chased grasshoppers.




Ethel is a little more cautious and stuck by the door, only venturing out far enough to stick her head in the drain pipe.




There wasn't much of a struggle tonight once we brought them inside, though the two of them stuck close to the door in case we decided give them another taste of freedom.




In other news, we got a sweet package in the mail today from Ted's mom. We keep our dishwashing soap in a glass bottle usually used for salad oil or something. Our old one broke recently and Ted's mom and step-father noticed when they were in town last weekend, so they picked us up a new one in their travels! It's the most perfect soap dispenser I've ever seen and matches our kitchen "motif" perfectly! Thanks Pam and Jerry!





We had a Lowe's Date Night tonight and picked up some more grass seed and fertilizer to work on the lawn this weekend. We finally got a lawn mower the other night and have to take it for a test drive tomorrow. We are also dying to organize the garage, so we got a shelf and a tool chest to help with that effort. More pictures as we make progress this weekend!

Saturday Errands

We ran a few errands this morning and then decided it was time to get the garage in shape. It has been in various stages of organization since we moved in, but seemed to have blown up in the past couple of weeks with various projects we've gotten into out there. Ted put together the bike rack for us to store the bikes off of the ground and it is perfect. I hung a shelf to put the portable DVD player on in front of the treadmill (running for 30 minutes is so easy when I have an episode of Will & Grace to watch) and we basically got things put away. We still need to get some big shelves to store things like paint cans and other cleaning supplies, and we'd like to come up with some sort of easy work shop set up that doesn't take up too much space. I found this idea in Ted's new subscription to The Family Handyman:



The Family Handyman seems like a good little magazine so far. Some great ideas with "how-to" instructions and illustrations.

We had a nice heavy rain the other night and our sad little starter yard is finally sprouting a bit of grass. Yay! It's still not picture-worthy though.

Here's some pics of the garage. I forgot to take before pictures, but believe me, this is much better. Still some work to be done, but that will require some $ and a trip to Lowe's.







In other news, I got this message from the Home Owner's Association. Ted and I are all about it:

On April 10, 2007 through May 17 from 7-8:30 p.m., the Police Department will be hosting our annual Citizen’s Police Academy. This year’s program is structured a little differently. Each division of the Police Department will have an active role in this year’s program. You will also have the opportunity to ride with an officer from Uniform Patrol. I am interested in seeing if we could have at least two representatives from each community. If you would be interested in attending, I have attached a copy of the application. If you have any questions, please let me know. This academy is now only offered once a year.