The slumbering beauty

You probably cant tell, but thats my sleeping husband and the pile of laundry I am currently working on-his favorite Thor shirt. I dont know if you can make out the number on the clock, but its after midnight. I wasnt home all day since I was at work, and we wont be home tomorrow because joshs uncle is flying into town so we'll be together all day tomorrow. No one knows this, but I rather suck at being a housewife. Its been nearly 2 weeks since I did a load of laundry. I just cleaned the bathrooms tonight after what I think has been at least 3 weeks (thank goodness for whoever invented those lysol clings bowl cleaners for toilets), I finally emptied the dishwasher load that I washed last sunday, bathed the dogs and washed 4 loads of laundry since 8pm. I want to have a clean house, I just never seem to be home to keep it that way. How it gets so full of ceap everywhere is beyond me...tho we are pretty much pros at dumping whatever is with us and running back out the door....anywhoooo
I felt compelled to post this. Why? I have no clue. Maybe because im discovering I like this outlet for my thoughts. Marriage is not always what it seems and I wanted to document it as it is in this moment I guess. ( if I never have another post on this blog its probably because the slumbering husband discovered this picture and killed me). Tonight the aforementioned man decided to hook a giant computer box up to our tv and take up a cubby of the entertainment center. We went to walmart for some ever so important adapter so he could complete this project. Did we get to do the grocery shopping there? No. Because we just needed that adapter. Why do we need this computer set up? Because what if you ever want to access the entire internet from your tv? (I hope you feel the sarcasm) I could give two hoota about all that. But whatev. So we now have a tv with a computer hook up. He spent 3 hours getting it set up and making sure that the sound worked. Then he nade sure to watch many YouTube videos to test it. All while im doing laundery and scrubbing bathrooms to death. In his defense, he did ask if I wanted help foldig a load before he ceawled into bed. And he doesnt feel so hot after dinner, so I shouldn't be irritated. Why am I? Dunno. But I am slightly irked about all of this evening. While I was balancing the newly dried load on the end of the bed, trying to keep him from rolling over on it or impaling himself with one of the shirt hangers, I realized that this is just our life! It just is weirdness and unexplainable stupid projects,  its messy and exhausting and totally imperfect on every level.  We argue, we get angry, I get irritated thinking that while hes sleeping and tangling himself up in the blanket I am standing on my tired feet folding his socks and going to be freezing cold since I cant get that blanket back when I crawl in bed....but this is who we are. This is our wonderfully imperfect life. We are happy in it the way it is. I love him tremendously,  and he loves me back. We irritate the living snot out of each other somedays. There are some days that this whole marriage thing is really hard. But I would never trade it, even on it's worst days, it is still the biggest blessing of my life.
So I'll go crawl in bed now, without a blanket, probably with some serious snoring and a head/arm/leg/body all up on my side of the bed. And ill probably be irritated about it for a minute, and then I'll settle in and smile to myself. Because thats my slumbering husband, snoring and hogging the bed and the covers, but he loves me. Despite the fact that he almost didnt have a clean pair of underwear anymore. And this imperfect messy life full of laundry at midnight is ours. And im okay with that.

How to Build a Backyard Patio.....Sort Of

Okay so as you can see below, we had pretty much nothing in our backyard when we moved in.  The longer we lived here the more we realized how very imperative it would be to get this giant dirt land taken care of.  Especially with two dogs who like to dig, and wrestle and run around....which brings fabulous amounts of dirt into the house and gets all over everything.  We WASH our furniture, we don't dust it.  We also wash every cup/dish/pan we pull out of the cabinets because after 2 days in the cupboard, you can guarantee there will be some dirt on those suckers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other reason is this happens when we have some raindrops 4 times a year.  I feel as though this does not require explanation or reasoning.  If you love to mop all day every day and wash your interior kitchen walls of mud splatter than maybe you would choose to leave your yard like this.  I do not like to do those things, pretty much ever, let alone multiple times a week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another massive problem is that this girl really loves to dig large holes. Here is some pouting after getting out in trouble for digging large holes. 

She also really enjoys making forts under the patio. Obviously. (You can't tell from this photo, but she was like a foot deep and 2 feet under....dang dog)

 

So we decided that the first thing we would do to fix these problems was extend our patio out a little bit, give us some space for a grill or some patio chairs, somewhere you could stand without being in the dirt. We thought this would be a fairly simple and cheap task. Better than hiring someone to come pour concrete anyway, and less permanent in case someone ever needed to rip it out. So we began on the last cool day of May when it was about 80 degrees.  We started with digging.  There were hours and hours and hours and hours of digging.......and of course I have no pictures of that accomplishment.  It was hard as rock, took pick axes and sweat and blood and almost tears.....but we got about 3 inches down so we could FINALLY get started.  The next task was to visit the good ol Home Depot......about 7 times since you can't pick up 3500 pounds of concrete in one trip.....weird.  After 7 trips your patio should look something like this.

 

 

 

 

In case you didn't want to count, that's about 100 bazillion 12x12 concrete tiles.  actually it's only about 234.....roughly.

 

Next, you should buy some cheap lumber and outline the area in which you plan to place about 234 bricks, making sure it is level.  During this step you should also call your Dad and have him come rescue and help you since you are completely exhausted and entirely clueless about how massive home projects really are.

At this time, you should return yet again to the Home Depot and buy a ridiculous amount of sand in no less than 3 trips...... pour that sand into your framed area and spread as evenly as possible with the back of a metal rake.

 

Have your genius Dad show you all the tricks to actually making a patio work.  Using a very straight piece of lumber, level out your sand about 2 feet in front of you as a working space to lay your tiles.

Here you see Josh laying the tiles. starting at the edge and being careful not to put huge dents in your sand, slowly lay the tile flat.  It is best to create a small indent with your finger first along the edges of the two tiles already in the ground so the tile just fits right in.  then you are less likely to undo your leveling.

After you drop a tile in, have your dear old Dad pound that sucker with a rubber mallet.  Actually pound very lightly!  It's only to level out the tile a little bit and get it situated.  This should be done after every tile.  Obviously I was slow on this whole picture thing.

 

Take a rest in the wheelbarrow because you are now hot and exhausted.

 

 

 

 

In the places where the patio doesn't measure an exact even foot, turn a brick sideways and you'll save yourself the hassle of freaking out about how it's off by half an inch.  Plus, your exhaustion will get the better of you and you won't even care anymore......

 

 

 

 

Isn't it lovely?  On a completely different day, when you have recovered from the horrible tiredness of building out your patio, clean off your wooden border so you can install some bricks to make it look finished.  This is the sort of part I mentioned in the title.....see most people actually make a border with bricks and mortar.  Here's two things you should know.....1) I am lazy about DIY, but I am extremely picky that it looks nice.  2)  I am extremely cheap and could not afford the amount of mortar.  Nor did I want to spend extra days on this thing.

 

We inherited some free thin brick a while back!  You should probably have some sort of brick on hand for the next part.....this thin stuff is perfect cause its light weight and it looks just like a normal brick once attached to your border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next, visit the Home Depot YET AGAIN.  Buy an insane amount of wood glue.  Or just a gallon and a small bottle you can squeeze- preferably one you can handle squeezing for like an hour, or sometime until your hand falls off.

Add a decent amount of wood glue to the back of your brick and lay that sucker down on your wood.  I am OCD about making sure the glue looks nice even on the backs of things, so that's why mine has this loopy design.  Don't over glue.  You don't want that stuff dripping everywhere, that just causes you massive pains later.

Remember when I said I was lazy?  Lay out like 7 bricks at a time, put glue on all of them, turn them all over onto the wood, save yourself some time and give you glue arm a break!

 

 

Try to space the bricks fairly evenly apart.  For perfectionist purposes and for the laying of mortar later.

 

 

 

Here's what it should look like when you are all finished with the glueing process.  I have yet to mortar between these suckers, but once I do, you will never know that there is lumber underneath.  Tricky tricky. 

 

Happy Patio Building!

 

And I leave you with the addition of these two areas.  We had a massive amount of excess tile left over.  And guess who was trying to build a fort under the AC unit?  You guessed it.....so we fixed that problem by blocking her out with pavers......or so we thought....she's started digging under those this week. Freaking furry kids. 

 

In case you were curious, our total cost for this project was around $700.  That included all of our tiles, lumber, mortar and sand.  Not too bad, considering we added 200 square feet of patio! 

Happy Anniversary to our House

In honor of the one year anniversary of owning a house (which is now officially 1 year and 3 months of ownership because I am a horrible slacker at posting), I thought I would FINALLY post some pictures of our little abode.  I took these in FEBRUARY with every intention of putting them up.....and then I decided they sucked cause they were taken by my phone.....and then I couldn't find the digital camera sooooo anyway, you get them now, with Valentine's day stickers on the bathroom mirror and all......eesh.  I'm going to post all of them, even tho I have redone the master bedroom photo wall and Josh's drum room is now a certified man cave... And i still have yet to paint, BUT i have bought two cans, and as soon as I can afford the rest of the paint, the kitchen is getting a makeover baby!! I also just bought tile for the back splash like 3 days ago because it was on clearance at the home depot.  it now changes my original idea for my kitchen colors, but one compromises when tile backsplash is 3 dollars.  So here's some pics of the house nearly 1 year after I took them....maybe I will do a follow up post of some of the things we have changed.  Shall we go for a little tour?

 

 

Guest Bathroom

Hallway

Drum Room/Mancave

Guest Room

Master entry

Master Facing Hallway

Master Bath





Dining from Hallway


 

Living Room from Hallway

Kitchen Entry

 



Kitchen

Kitchen/Pantry

Pantry with a dog in it

Living room from Kitchen

Living Room

Dining

View from Front Door

Garage (those cabinets were being trashed by my parents neighbors so we salvaged them for storage!)

the beautiful wall of china in the dirt backyard.  it kept the dogs out of the ac where they were chewing the wires.

and here's the view from the front. you can't see our extra long driveway that holds like 7 cars, but it's pretty sweet.  we love living here.

The house actually doesn't really look anything like this anymore since we've been trying to make some changes to make it our own.  I will do a follow up post on the redesigned backyard (complete with tips and tricks for totally faking a patio).  We are planning to make a LOT of changes in this 2013. i've already started replacing light fixtures and picking new doors and paint colors.  be prepared.