Mothers Day Massacre

This weekend started off great! We were quite proud of ourselves for making so much progress upstairs on Saturday. We started early and worked til 4 before calling it a night. We had a small BBQ planned with 1 guest but that amazingly turned in to 5. Not sure how that happens around here, but "surprise" parties have happened more than once! I am not showing any detailed pics of the kitchen til it's finished, but here is Travis steadily working away on the east beam. This beam is proving much harder than the west, but Ill go in to that in more detail in another post.

We were so proud of our efforts we decided to take it easy a bit Sunday morning. The sun was trying to come out and yard work is very tempting escape from our work upstairs.

We could go bike riding, or run some errands or just a nice walk in the sun(= cloudy not raining)

Laundry was started, we werefed & dressed...

But Sunday had other plans for us...

While brushing teeth I hear a drip drip dripping sound....

Clusiana tulips reaching for the sun

Down in the basement, the washer/dryer are in the 1/2 bath.

And this is where we followed the sound of dripping water....

 The sink is just to the right of this mess where I was minding my own business day dreaming about doing fun things...
Don't look too closely--Ew! This was one area that we hadn't cleaned out after moving in. I had lost something off the counter a month back and when I looked to see if I could reach it I noticed the previous owners too had lost things back here. Laundry items, kids toys & socks. I added "Cleaning behind washer" to our to do list.. once we finish upstairs...

Peeking.

 Well, we didn't get to wait on that. It also contained mold and wet drywall! How long has it been dripping? We don't know but a trip to Home Depot ensued. Travis has some mad skills (skilz?) and with some quick thinking and bleach he cleaned it all up set the fan on it. With a few new tools he removed the wet drywall and has all supplies on hand to make it new again!

 During this debacle, we hired a man who was in need of some work.  We figured if we were behind we could save some time in the yard and help someone else along with fixing the water issue.
After talking with him a bit we decided he sober and just down on his luck (meaning wouldn't kill us in our sleep or stalk our house in the following weeks) so we handed him the weed whacker and lawn mower and off he went.


He did a 110% job! Even mowed the lower moat, which we would just weed whack because of the slope and moistness of it. All these weeds and ground covers almost look like lawn now!!!

 The extra 10% comes from the fact that he MOWED DOWN my Autumn Joy Sedum. Which was conveniently surrounded by daffodils minus the yellow heads!!! It looks like a murder scene:



After



Good thing I take lots of pictures. I will always have the memories of it.

Picture this, plus 3 weeks of growth, but with the yellow flowers removed.

Looks like NOT GRASS TO ME.

 Now had we been supervising, we wouldn't have needed his help in the first place. But had we been supervising we would have noticed he possibly never used a weed whacker, mower or rake in his life.
But no problem right? I had never done alot of yard work before this house. It is pretty easy to figure out.
 Here he got all the weeds, left the rock and tree standing. He did help the neighbor remove the pesky Snap dragons that were separating our yards. They were only oh--18 inches tall and NOT A WEED. Another 110% for this section!

 Here, all the Bugle weed is looking GREAT! This is a section he got perfect. We asked he attempt to rid it of dandelions but leave as much of these as he could.

We do have plans for this garden, but this is filling the space for the meantime

Upon 2nd thought--wait--Didn't I have something growing in the south garden?

Oh yes. Yes I did. I planted a lily from the NW Flower & Garden show!

It was about 5 inches tall last I saw it this weekend.  No pictures to remember it by.

*Sniff*



After

So it seems that no good deed goes unpunished. This guy was blind! Like actually legally blind!
 Next time we will let our weeds grow for another day.

I keep telling myself, both those plants were free. Both those plants were free. Both those plants were free. Both those plants were free...
And now I can go buy more!! It isn't so much the plants as it is fun to watch things grow. I had grown attached to those 2 already and never would have willingly given them up. So maybe this is for the best?


Back in the house, Travis replaced the hoses that were dripping, unclogged the drain tube which alerted me to the dripping in the first place. Cut out the drywall, doused everything in more bleach and put the fan on it.
Turns out it could be the washing machine pump or a tub seal on top of the hoses, drain hole and now some drywall repair.
After Travis took it apart: Inside the washer is where the drain hose connects, it had been rubbing on sheet metal and leaking from the bottom. Along with the hoses and faucets were dripping(replaced now) and the drain was clogged.
Im super suprised that we managed to catch this NOW(a few weeks ago would have been good too) compared to the Huge mess that these 3 leaking items could have caused.




Here is how the night ended with a bucket to catch the drips from the faucets that need replacing (on top of the hoses)



Nope--Didn't clean the inside of the bucket, just the outside

 All so we could finish up the laundry before turning off the water to it.

It could have been so much worse but it seems to always be two steps forward and one step back (minus a few plants)
Im glad we caught this now before it turned in to a job to big for us to handle.
Travis rocks.


To end this on a happy note--I saw my first bird on the feeder!!!
Many more followed during the day.