demo & destruction

Time for an update! A lot has been happening at our little old house and I don't have pictures of everything right now, but I will take some more this weekend. Two weeks ago we made BIG improvements by getting some of our major "to do" items checked off.

Number one: the ugly shed.

Remember this ugly, scary, falling down, probably animal infested guy?

Jeff used his new crow bar and took down that guy with ease (although he may not agree that it was that easy). So now we have a nice semi clean concrete pad ready for a new plastic shed to be delivered from Sears. Any day now.... They have pushed back the delivery date at least three times already.

concrete pad ready for a new shed

The other big item on the list for the back was to take down the old maroon metal awning over the basement door. This destruction required a little more time and tools, having to take out all the bolts that were screwed into the brick. After a couple scary moments and me fearing that it was going to come crashing down on Jeff or me, or go through the windows, it actually came down pretty easily and we were able to carry it away.

basement door with awning...

...basement door with no awning!

Doesn't it already look so much brighter and happier back there with those two old things gone? The picture below shows what the brick looks like now where the awning was. Dad, if you are reading this, this is what we need help with this weekend! We need to fill in the big holes with mortar and patch up the wood panel/trim at the window that has severely rotted from water damage.

Oh and this awning removal story would not be complete without mentioning the dead baby bird we found on top of it when it came down. ew. And then the next day when we came back to the house there were TWO more dead baby birds on the concrete in the exact same spot. ew ew. There is a nest in the soffit vent directly above and we think they must have fallen out of there. Jeff called the pest control people to get this taken care assoonaspossible.

they're living in that dirty hole, right next to our bedroom

Next time I have to write about all the hard work Jeff's parents did when they were down here this past weekend. It's like a whole new backyard now!

Also, Jeff told me this is not house related and therefore, not blog appropriate, but it's too exciting not to share...we got engaged last week!! I might need to start a wedding planning blog now too :)