Pros and Cons of Homeownership

For the past two weekends, we've been busy with outside projects, and we've been incredibly lucky to have had sunny weather during our free time, in between the record rainfall on the weekdays.

Last weekend, I decided to hurry up and mulch since we were going to have a 3-4 day sunny streak.  The previous owners of our house were landscapers, so we've been enjoying all the nice plants that have been coming up this spring.  However, since the home was vacant for more than 6 months, I had to do some serious weeding and reorganizing of the eroded dirt - I think it turned out pretty nice considering I only had a day to do it and happen to be 5 months pregnant (don't worry, I used gloves the entire time!):

I was surprised how sore I was for the 3-4 days afterwards....I must be more out of shape than I thought.  Maybe.  Probably :)   It took 24 bags of mulch and we could have used more, but it's good enough for now, considering our BugBat budget. 

Meanwhile, as I was busy maintaining the gardens, my dad and wombat decided to do something about our 4-tiered patio/deck in the back.  Originally, the home was built with a nice flat patio.  However, somewhere along the line, one of the previous owners decided to add a second layer of concrete on top, which ended up being higher than a normal step, to which they tried to remedy with a very short concrete step, breaking up the patio into 3 separate tiers.   This made it difficult to place a simple table and chairs set, since no layer was big enough to hold them all on the same level.   They also tore out one of the six original concrete squares and put in a horribly built wood deck, to make it even with the back door, breaking up the patio into yet another level.  Then, a second set of previous owners (the ones that directly sold to us) poured another slab of very cheap concrete onto the second layer in order to accommodate their hot tub.  SO......dad and wombat decided to tear up all these silly layers, beginning with the wood deck:

   

It took awhile because they also removed all the nails from the wood so we can burn the pieces in a bonfire.  They also had to remove the border of cement blocks with a sledgehammer.  We hope to use the blocks to build a fire pit soon!

The time we had to work was cut short because we wanted to celebrate in Columbus with some good friends, Brian and Mamta, and finally hang out after both wombat and Mamta passed the February Bar Exam!  We went to Level in the short north, and boy was it yummy!

That is all we had time and energy for last weekend.  This weekend, we continued where they left off.......dad rented a cement saw from a local tool shop for about $90, and they went to town removing the top cement layers.  We crossed our fingers that the original blocks of cement below would turn out alright.......

SUCCESS!!

It was a dirty job, but they worked through rain and darkness to unearth......

A SALAMANDER!   :-D

More to come next week, including a picture of the patio cleaned off after we haul away the scraps.   Then, the guys will be building a frame for the new concrete to be poured where the deck used to be.  Can't wait!   Til then, enjoy some more random pics:

Flowers

Atticus Cat

Jack Dog