More House Updates, Winter 2017

When we bought our house so many people told us that our to-do list would be neverending.  I can agree with that, but I will say that the to-do list we made when we bought the house is so close to being finished.  The only thing left to do is for Robert to paint the ceiling in Sarah's bedroom, the guest room, and the kitchen, and we have this scheduled to happen on Saturday.  Then we'll finally just have to-do list items that pop up occasionally, but the big list will be finished.  There's still the "some day" list that would include kitchen and bathroom updates:

• Kitchen
• Stove
• Flooring
• Counters
• Backsplash
• Bathrooms
• Counters (matching with kitchen)
• Tub/tiling for shower

But for now we're so excited to really feel settled in our home.  We're very thankful for our house, and we've truly enjoyed making it our own.  It's so fun to dream about things we could do to it in the future, too!

Like I wrote about several weeks ago, Robert and Pepaw built me an upholstered headboard which we love!

We ordered a new washer and dryer, and it arrived yesterday!  Our old washer and dryer were free hand me downs which we have been very thankful to have for the first five years of our marriage, but the washer stopped spinning very well and would wring out all of the water, and it would shake forward about a foot during the spinning process and was super loud.  Because the dryer wasn't super strong and the laundry was dripping wet the drying process would take 3-4 hours, so I would just end up hanging up as much laundry as I could to let it air dry.  When we started the search for a new washer and dryer Robert asked me what I was looking for in a W/D.  Pretty simple - bigger, faster, quieter.  Bigger so I can stuff in more laundry in a load, faster to save time, and quieter because we can hear the machines quite a bit since they're in a closet in the hallway near our bedrooms.  Besides that, I knew I wanted a traditional top loading washing machine.  We went to Sears and got an incredibly pushy salesperson.  I understand that they need to make commission, but we just weren't connecting with this guy.  We told him the washer and dryer we were interested in from our online research, and he wouldn't show it to us because he didn't think it was great.  Instead he showed us a W/D that was $400 more expensive, and then he said that if we were going to spend that much that we might as well spend another $400 to get this other super duper one, so he was trying to push us to spend $800 more than we had come in to spend.  That's a huge difference!  Then he was really pushing the warranty plan which was $40/year per appliance with a 5 year minimum.  That's another $400!  It was just crazy.  Thankfully, he had to leave for a meal break shortly after we got there so we got to look around and ask questions with another sales person who was more our style, and we ended up purchasing the W/D that we had come in planning to purchase.  Robert got them installed yesterday, and I did one load yesterday. It went great! 

The previous owners had put a very large shower head on our bathroom shower.  I understand the idea was to provide a spa effect, but this was the kind of shower head you should use in a large standalone shower, not a standard shower/tub combo.  It sprayed everywhere, used the hot water too faster, and made a lot of weird noises in the pipes.  Robert was afraid that it would be a huge project, but I suggested we just buy a more standard shower head and see if it improved the situation at all.  It totally did the trick!  It took 30 seconds to replace, and now the water doesn't spray, the hot water lasts for the whole shower, and it doesn't make any unusual noises.  Why didn't we do this sooner???

We also replaced a couple of window screens that were torn up. I'm guessing the old owners' dogs did it.

Finally, we replaced our attic ladder.  When we moved in, the wooden attic ladder was broken.  It had been too long for the ceiling height, but the old owners had used it anyway.  We trimmed several inches off, but the damage was done.  I think they also exceeded the weight limit.  Every time Robert had to go up to the attic he dreaded it.  We got an aluminum attic ladder with a 385 pound limit, so it should last us a long time.  The box said "3 easy steps" for installation.  Uh...no.  Robert and I did it on a weeknight, and Robert ended the project by saying, "I'm only going to say it once, but that's why I don't like doing house projects on weeknights."  So that about sums up our experience, but the more detailed version is that I thought we could totally do it one night after we put Sarah to sleep, he seemed up for it, so he got up in the attic and dismantled the old ladder, and then he came down using a regular ladder.  We got the new attic ladder out of the box, and Robert went back up into the attic.  He attached it to a furniture strap and pulled it up while I pushed it up.  He put in the temporary supports, but the whole time I was thinking that the trim work around the opening was going to be too tight for the ladder to come down, but Robert thought it looked okay from the inside.  It came time for me to pull down the ladder, and sure enough, the trim was in the way.  Robert was stuck in the ladder.  I had to rip off the trim, but it was really secure.  I finally got it off with a crowbar and rescued Robert! :)  We needed to trim off several inches of the ladder since it's made for ceilings between 8-10', and our garage ceiling is 9.5'.  The directions said you could just use a wood saw to cut it off, but it seriously took about half an hour of screeching and sawing to cut them off.  Overall, I think it took about three hours.  Ugh.  Glad it's over and done.

Sarah Approved Food

Sarah has put my culinary skills to the test.  She loves something one week and won't even take a bite of it the next week.  I've definitely discovered a few things with her that have held true since the beginning - She hates bell peppers and onions (even when cooked down), she likes chicken and ham the best and calls all meat chicken, you can disguise a lot of healthy things when they're in a smoothie, and when she's hungry she will eat.

I have mom friends whose kids won't eat smoothies, but if your child does like smoothies this is a great way to sneak in vegetables.  A typical smoothie for Sarah has milk, plain yogurt, spinach, pumpkin, a banana and random fruit (strawberries, pineapple, blueberries, fresh squeezed orange juice).

I know it's really great to try new foods when your kids are little, but I also think it's okay to stick to things they like when they are healthy foods.  Sarah loves broccoli and carrots, and it's okay to have those a couple of times a week.  I don't naturally gravitate toward fish, but since Robert loves it, and I know it's really healthy I've been trying to serve it a few times a month.  I recently discovered a real winner that uses broccoli, carrots, and salmon, and then I served it with wild rice.  Sarah approved of all of it and asked for more.  Honey Teriyaki Salmon and Veggies in Foil was a hit with all of us.  We subbed a few things:

• White vinegar instead of rice vinegar
• Ground ginger instead of minced ginger (and used less of it)
• Vegetable oil instead of sesame oil

I've also discovered that Sarah loves soup!  She likes eating from spoons and slurping up the broth at the end.  This is a good way to incorporate meat, beans, and veggies.

All three of us are big fans of Aldi's Never Any line.  They make really delicious breakfast sausage and chicken sausages. These are precooked so they're fast to grill up in a skillet, and there aren't any nasty hormones, fillers, or by-products.

My last random thought - Sarah has been having days where it feels like she's not eating much at all. Her pediatrician told me to look at a week at a time, not just every separate meal. When I do that, I realize she is eating a variety of things. She's also growing and adding inches and ounces, so she must be getting enough food. I think it's hard to transition from the newborn phase where your baby gains 15 pounds in a year to the toddler phase where your child only gains a few pounds a year. It's hard for me to change my mindset at least. 

What are some of your favorite tried and true toddler foods?

Yard Updates, Winter 2017

In the fall we just didn't have the time or money to do much to our yard, so we got around to it in late February/early March.  We had an unusually warm winter here in Missouri, and I think a lot of the country experienced it.  Because of that, our yard never really went dormant all winter.  It was actually kind of a bummer for us because we wanted some weeds to die.  You guys know our yard was in rough shape last winter when we moved in.  In the last year we've learned that rehabbing your lawn is a multi-year process.  There aren't instant results, and you just have to stick with it.  Last winter/spring we took care of raking years' worth of lives, de-thatching, removing a stump, removing gravel and replacing it with mulch, and getting rid of the gravel around our river birch tree in the back yard.  We were pleased with all of the results except for the gravel removal around the tree.

So here's what our yard looked like a year ago:

And here's what our yard looked like at the same time this year.  It's nowhere near perfect, but it really does look better than last year.

So in late February we rented an aerator and a tiller.  This was our first aerator experience, and it was kind of comical.  I had anticipated helping Robert, but after that machine nearly took him down it became obvious that I wouldn't be helping.  It was very powerful!  Robert when through the yard horizontally and vertically.  We hope to aerate again in the fall.

Since grass still wasn't growing around the river birch tree where we dug out gravel we decided that there must still be more gravel there.  Last year Robert dug out as much as he could, but this year he rented a tiller that went down 10", and it got out so much more gravel.  It was still reaching gravel down at 10" so who knows how deep it actually goes.  We're just hoping that going down 10" is enough to grow some grass.  The tiller loosened up the soil and gravel, and then it was time to sift out the gravel from the good soil.  This was another difficult task.  Robert and I agree that we won't be volunteering to sift dirt for anyone any time soon.  Robert built his own soil sifter based on Home Depot's tutorial, and it held up for our project and could be used again.  Basically, we put the sifter over the wheel barrow, shoveled dirt into it, shook it back and forth to sift out the dirt from the gravel, dumped the gravel in a pile, and dumped the wheel barrow when it got full.  When we were finally finished we raked out the soil to level it some.  Robert planted shade-friendly grass and has been watering it every day.  We know the grass won't be perfect since it's under a tree, but if we don't get at least some grass Robert says he will cry, and I say we should just plant ivy or turn it into a concrete slab with a patio or a shed.

After tilling and aerating we wanted to put down a fertilizer and a pre-emergent.  It's kind of frustrating because since we didn't have a cold winter we already had weeds, so I don't know how much the pre-emergent will do.  We've gained most of our knowledge through The Lawn Care Nut and his YouTube videos.  He's entertaining, and he's full of good information, but I also just wanted a spreadsheet that told me what to do and when to do it, so I just made my own.

Like I said, this winter was super warm so we bumped up the tasks that would usually be done in early April to early March, and then we mowed for the first time two weeks later in mid March.  As The Lawn Care Nut suggests, we used Lesco Starter Fertilizer.  We really couldn't find it anywhere locally so we ordered it on Amazon with free shipping.  This fert is kind of expensive, but thankfully our 8,000 square foot yard only needed half a bag, and we will be able to use the other half of the bag in late August.  The LCN wants you to put down the fert with sharp angular sand.  We found a big bag at Home Depot for about $4 which is great, but it was sold outside at Home Depot, and it had rained recently so it was wet and couldn't flick out of the spreader, so I ended up putting it out by hand which was miserable, and I'm not sure how effective it was.  Oh well.  Then we put down a liquid pre-emergent called Prodiamine which is the generic form of Barricade.  Again, we bought this on Amazon because it wasn't sold locally.

Within two weeks our yard was much greener and thicker.  Now, it's still about 50% weeds, but I'm trusting the process and believe that this fall when we spot spray the weeds, aerate, and seed it'll give us great results next spring.  Robert mowed at 2.75" in mid March, and now the rest of the season we will mow at 3.75".  I think this is going to be really hard for me because our yard is going to look really weedy.  To the eye, the yard would look less full of weeds if we cut it shorter, but by cutting it longer the root system will get longer, deeper, and stronger.  The root length is directly proportionate to the grass length, so by cutting the grass longer our roots will get stronger and give us better grass next year.

We got one random day of some flurries over spring break.  Go figure.

Around Easter we will do our next treatment.  That time we will use Prodiamine again, but our fertilizer will be Ringer Lawn Restore.  We aren't going to spot spray for weeds because that would kill half of our yard.  We will spot spray in the fall when things are about to go dormant.