Sunday, May 25th, 2008
There are actually two different bird nests under the back porch. I look at them almost every time I walk by. The parent birds like to whiz by my head to scare the heck out of me. Actually, I am just writing that for entertainment, I really don’t get scared by birds, even if they are whizzing by my head. Now, Crows on the other hand are scary. When there are hundreds of them all screaming at the same time, it’s a little freaky.
I took a nice picture of the birds living under the porch this morning. Tell me if you like it.
That’s an up-close nature shot. I kept thinking the momma bird was going to dive bomb me from behind, but it never happened. I wouldn’t have been scared if it had.
Just a few weeks ago, these little birds were much smaller. I could hardly even see their heads. One time I saw all of the beaks wide open, sticking straight up in the air. I said to them, “No little birdies, I don’t have any worms for you” and I walked away.
That’s a “Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey” line if I ever saw one.
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Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
I took a few photos of the back yard this morning. Every year, I like to take pictures of the trees in the area. I do this, because every year, I forget when the heck the leaves come out. It’s kind of like a journal…or a log…or a web log…oh wait, a BLOG. That was funny.
Anyway, since it was so wonderfully beautiful this morning, I decided to drink my coffee on the back porch. One really big reason it was wonderful is because there were no bugs flying around my head yet. You should’ve seen me trying to rake up some leaves yesterday evening. Whoa…it was like I was in a boxing match. I am sure the neighbor was laughing. I put on some “Off” and it did nothing. What is it with the bugs this year? I think I may be stirring them up by raking.
It seems like the leaves are taking a reaaaaaly long time to bloom here. It may because there are virtually no Maple trees. They are all oaks and they take longer. I bet Westchester County looks totally like Summer right now. Maybe with some more warm sunny days, things will start looking greener around here.
As I was sitting on the back porch, I noticed a little bird land on our bird feeder. I thought it was odd, because there was actually bird food in the feeder. Do you know what that means? It means that the squirrels haven’t figured out where it is yet. If they had, it would be empty. I think I am going to just keep walking around quietly to keep the thing under their radar. Everyone knows what happens when a squirrel finds a bird feeder. That’s the end of that. Squirrels are on Laura’s “nemesis” list. For an animal lover, I have never seen such darkness in her eyes…
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Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Well, we went back to our house in New York today to do a final cleaning and get some stuff we left behind in the kitchen. On moving day, I thought it was just a few things. Today, I realized it was a full car load. When I say car load, I mean, trying to find a place to squeeze a wine bottle in full. Again, it was a full car load. I even had to leave my two red gas tanks behind. These were five gallon plastic tanks that I used to fill up the lawnmower. One of them was full, so I poured the gas into my car and then gave them to my neighbor, Tim (who by the way missed us very much already. We miss him too.). I didn’t think Laura would appreciate me making her carry them on her lap. I am such a gentleman.
We cleaned up all the rooms and mopped the floors. I did a little touch up painting throughout the house and cleaned all the windows. When I took all the curtain rods down, there were small screw holes left in the walls. I filled the holes and painted over them. I thought that would be a good idea since the house is empty. We cleaned the kitchen and bathroom very, very thoroughly. It never looked so good. When it was all done, I took a step back and realized the amount of work I actually put into the place. Someone is going to get a very good deal…the house looks brand new.
I really think the big sellers are the huge screened in back porch and the brand spankin’ new kitchen. The wood mixes just perfectly with the floor and the walls. I am going to miss that kitchen. If you remember back, that was about a month and a half of eating on the couch and washing dishes in the bathroom. I never even peeled the protective plastic off the face of the dishwasher. Brand new dryer and semi-brand new washer. It’s the whole package. The new floors and vaulted ceiling in the living room help, but it’s all about the porch and kitchen.
Ok, enough selling. I just thought I would tell you that the house officially goes on the market tomorrow. We were going to wait until Tuesday, because we were going to do the cleaning on Monday, but Laura reminded me that there really was nothing to wait for. The sooner we list, the sooner someone can purchase.
I will tell you this…it is a little weird seeing a real estate sign hanging in front of the house you were just sleeping in a few nights ago.
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Monday, March 17th, 2008
Well, we visited the house again this afternoon with the realtor. We liked what we saw and headed back to the office to sign all the paperwork and give a deposit. Before we did, both Laura and I took lots of pictures and even a video of the road the house is on.
Just a few minutes ago, as I was resizing the pictures, I thought to myself, “How would I like it if someone posted pictures of the inside of my house on the internet?” I mean, I know the realtor posted them in the online ad, but still, we took pictures of all the bedrooms and stuff. I don’t think it would be too cool if I posted them. After thinking about it, I decided that I will just post the outside shots and then the video of the road. That way, no one will get mad at me if they ever come across them. Hey, you never know.
So, without any more fluff, here you go.
This is obviously the front of the house. The master bedroom is over the garage and is pretty big. It also has that nice dormer to let in the sun.
This is the back of the house, looking up from the woods.
This is looking into the woods from the back porch. There are 4.25 acres of land.
This is looking into the woods from the backyard.
This is me asking, “Where’s my room?”
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Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Well, well, well. I think we’re going to do it. All that’s left with the house is to re-do the bathroom, kitchen and the back porch. Yeah, just the bathroom, kitchen and back porch….ya know, those cheap and easy projects.
We are going tackle the back porch first. The one we have is in pretty bad shape. It’s made with that Trex stuff…only, I don’t think it is Trex. It may be some knockoff, who knows. All I know is it’s gray and very washed out looking. Also, the porch may be a little crooked, which drives me absolutely mad. The railings are hanging on by a thread due to poor workmanship and the top of the porch collects water. The whole thing just looks really bad. Are those enough reason to get this thing done? (Oh yeah, the bugs out here are TERRIBLE! The current porch is pretty useless as is.)
As you may already know, I made our front porch. I am a pretty handy fella, but I just don’t want to do this one. The first reason is that this one will be screened in…meaning there will be a roof. I am really not in the mood to attempt to build that by myself. Also, I want it done quickly, so no messing around. It would take me about two years to get home all the lumber strapped to the top of my car again. I like to do projects little by little.
I am going to use a contractor that is a friend of my neighbor. He seems like he would do a good job of coming in a putting this thing up quickly. The porch will be 16′ out the back of the house and 20′ wide. There will be 6 sonotube footings, 12″ wide. There will be 2 main girders holding up 2×10″ joists. Everything will be pressure treated. For the floor, he will put down 6×1 5/8″ boards with a 4×4″ every 4′ to hold up the roof. The main beam holding up the roof will be a 4×6″. The roof will have to be built into the current roof, which is the tricky part…to me. I am sure it will take no time for these guys. Also, they are going to put in a set of 4′wide stairs about 4′ out from the house. Currently, the stairs are slapped right up against the house and very loose.
I asked that they don’t complete the railings and the screening. I want to do them. Those are things that I can take my time on. Also, I am going to tear down the current deck. My neighbor, Tim wants to burn it. I have to keep him away because it is pressure treated and I can use the wood for another project. Tim is disappointed, but still willing to help me.
I picked up the building permit from the buidling inspector yesterday morning and have to fill it in and drop it off so the contractor can draw his diagram.
Now, of course, you are going to see lots of pictures of this. I hope you are as excited as we are!
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