Basement Flood

Every once in a while, I have a late meeting at work. It's outside of my usual shift, so I have to check in from home. I usually do so from my kitchen table, but for some reason I went down to the basement, so it didn't bother anyone else. As I was getting ready to patch into the meeting, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye- it was water pouring down the wall! It had been raining all night, but I didn't expect it to be a problem. Well, it was! Water was pouring in from the basement window into my movie sanctuary! I quickly ran to get towels to clean it up, but it just kept pouring down! I moved all my stuff away from the window so it wouldn't be ruined, but eventually I realized I needed to go outside and find out why this was happening. I went out there, sopping wet, and found out the window was blocked by dried leaves! I cleared them out, but the damage was already done.

I set up a fan and blower, moving everything out of the way, but by then it was already wet and ruined, all I had left was recovery. I did my best and saved what I could. hopefully it doesn't destroy too much. We'll see!

Five Year Landscaping

About a year after we bought this house, we made work of building a big deck off the back door. I enlisted a lot of help from a handyman at work to build the foundation and framework, and then Papa and I finished off the surface. It was a lot bigger than the little rotted out five-foot deck that was on it when we bought the place. The rest of that summer I kept talking over with the wife how I wanted to do some landscaping around it and make it look nice. That next spring I got some things I needed, plastic edging, stakes, steppingstones, and some mulch. Over the course of the next week or so I made work of landscaping around the deck and the back of the house. The supplies ran out so I had to wait to finish it going around the side of our house. By summer's end I had it looking really good. There was one part that I didn't get around to: behind the garage. I told the wife I would get to it soon. Then 4 years passed and it still wasn't done. Oops.

Well, true to my word, I finally landscaped around the back of the garage! I was beaming with pride as I came back into the house after I was done and announced to my wife that I had finally completed the landscaping. She glanced outside and said 'yup. Looks fine, honey'. Clearly, she doesn't appreciate a five-year project finally being completed and how good that feels to have it done. Oh well, she's right. It's not really that impressive, but at least it's done!

(the completed project)

Power Washin'

Earlier in the summer I had asked Papa if I could borrow his power washer. The deck in the back yard has been getting dirty over the past couple years, so I figured it could you a little freshening up. Ledger came out to help me wash it down. It was quite satisfying to see the deck wood change from dirty grey to beautiful deep wooded brown again! Ledge got a kick out of it for a little while, but his interest waned pretty quickly.

It took a few sessions (it goes a lot slower than I expected), but I finally got it looking really good- almost looks like a new deck!

(more pics)

Yard Work

Though being outside is far from my favorite thing, it's not too bad when it's still kind of cool out. We had a weekend of lower temperatures, so I figured I should take advantage and do a bit of yard work.

We've lived here for almost five years now and I've never cleaned out the gutters. It was certainly time! I washed the front of the gutters, cleaned them out, and got them looking tip top! Since I had the ladder out, I got on the roof to clear off any branches and stuff as well. Our little dog was pestering me the whole time I was outside working, so I thought maybe he wanted to join me. I scooped him up, went up the ladder, and put him on the roof! He was quite confused by the whole thing, sniffing around and scurrying back and forth. After I got a good laugh, I brought him back down, safe and sound. I went back up and trimmed some of the branches that were hanging over the garage.

All in all, a good day of hard work out in the yard- and the place looks much better!

(more pics)

Chad's Moving Day

For about two years now, we have had a basement full of my brother's stuff. A few years ago he was stationed in Missouri, but was being restationed in Washington state. Instead of bringing all his stuff with them, they asked if they could store it in our basement. Our basement is huge; tons of space. I told him 'no problem!' When it was time for the move, they drove all the way here with their trailer full to the brim with stuff that they weren't going to need for the next couple years. We packed in the extra rooms of the basement with all the stuff and shut the door and forgot about it. Seriously, with the big basement we haven't even noticed all his stuff!

Now that he's retired and found a new house, it's time to get all his stuff back and bring it into their new home! The whole family showed up to help! The boxes and everything were a lot easier to bring downstairs than it was to bring it back up! Still, we had so much help that it only took about an hour and a half to totally clear out his stuff. We did a good job using our Tetris skills to pack it all back into the big trailer- and now he's off to the Upper Peninsula to bring it into their new place. Poor guy, he's got to unload that all himself!

(more pics) 

Torn Up Yard

We got a heads up a couple weeks ago, but it was quite a surprise today when our lawn got torn up! Apparently our town is going through and methodically checking all the different water pipes in town to replace any of them that are too old or made of the wrong material. This means that they need to check everyone's pipes to see if they need to be replaced or not. The problem, of course, is that the pipes are underground, so they have to tear up a lot of lawns. Fortunately I don't care at all about the lawn! Tear away, boys! They came to the door to give us a warning that they would be doing it, and then dug right in- literally! They got the crane unloaded and got to it, tearing up about an 8 foot patch, going down five or six feet. After about 20 minutes, we got the 'all clear' and they started refilling the hole. Our pipes do not need to be replaced, but now our lawn does!

House Guests

After a fun weekend with Diana's family, I had to come back to go to work. We got talking with Alanna, who was still going to be in town for a few more days, and how she and Tavish had never been to our house. Well, we can easily correct that! We devised a plan: I would come back Monday night to work the next day, and Alanna, Tavish, Diana, and Ledger would all come up to our place on Tuesday and then have a day to show off our place and town. Ledger, realizing that it meant another day with his cousin, was all for it!

The four of them traveled up late in the morning and had a fun afternoon together. Ledge got to show off his room and stuff, and Diana got to show off our cute little house! I got hope and got to join in on the fun! We ordered some yummy dinner and had a lovely evening together hanging out and chatting. Finally it was time for them to go home, we said our goodbyes, and sank into the couch exhausted!

Firepit Redux

When we first bought our house there was a firepit way off in the corner of the backyard. Diana was pumped about that and very excited to use it. We have used it exactly once since we moved in two years ago... Part of the reason we haven't is because of how overgrown and full it is. I set myself to correcting this. I wanted to make it usable again, and now that we have a wheelbarrow I can clear it out a bit. I started by removing all the rocks that make up the firepit ring. As I removed them I was surprised to find that there were actually bricks underneath them making the perimeter of the circle. I grabbed the shovel and dug out all the old ash and junk that had accumulated for years. I was actually pretty impressed with how good the whole thing looked when cleared away! The next part I called in the reinforcements for: Diana came out to restack the rocks that had been removed. I knew she would be better at it than me, so I let her have at it. Now that everything has been cleaned up, it's looking good and ready to use!

(more pics)

Final Deck

 Back at it again! Papa stopped by, bright and early, to keep plugging away at that deck so we can finally get it done. We've gotten pretty far by now and were able to get it done on this, his third visit. Lots of measuring and cutting, but thankfully Papa is one of those 'measure twice, cut once' guy. I needed to go get a few more boards since his last visit, but now we were all set with enough wood to finish it off. After a lot of work and a lot of screws, we finally got all the way to the end of the frame- finally done! We've still got to build a step into the house, but the surface itself is finally completed. It was a lot of work, more than I was expecting, but it looks so good! We are going to have a wonderful summer enjoying this new outdoor space! Thanks Papa!

(more pics)

Start the Decking

Papa rolled up with a truck full of power tools- that means its time to work on the deck! We had been talking about it for a month or so, and the day finally came for us to get it started. With the deck being so huge (20'x24') we knew it wasn't going to get done in one day, but we are ready to start and see how far we get. Papa started setting up the tools while I hauled a bunch of the boards to the backyard. We quickly fell into our old roles, growing up Papa would take the lead, measuring and cutting, and I would do the menial tasks like moving, lifting, and screwing in. There was a lot of up and down, back and fourth. I was glad I had some knee pads on- it made a big difference! By mid afternoon it was getting pretty hot and we were getting pretty tired. Maybe we didn't get very far, but we put quality first so that slowed us down a bit. In the long run, I'd much rather have it built well than built quickly.

(more pics) 

Deck Wood

 Last fall we had the frame work built for the new deck in the back yard. I hired a friend from work to come over and frame it all out, doing the hard part. Papa and I decided that we would save a few bucks and do the decking ourselves. I went to Menards and ordered a whole bundle of decking boards and had the delivered. Ledge and I watched as they unloaded them, which was really cool to see. I had never seen something like this: the truck dropped it trailer and then unhooked from it. When it unhooked we saw that the cab actually had a forklift attached to the back of it! The driver backed up to the side of the trailer and pulled the pallet off and backed into the driveway and dropped it off- never once leaving the cab! Pretty neat! And now we are ready for the last step in getting a new deck!
(more pics)

My Movie Collection

I've been collecting movies for most of my life. Movies are my obsession, so the natural extension of that passion is collecting them! I remember when it was almost impossible to buy a movie. You could rent them, sure, but to actually buy them? Only the really big hits actually came out on video (VHS) back then, if you actually wanted to own one of the lesser hits or even obscure films, it would cost a fortune!
I distinctly remember going into Suncoast (the entertainment store at the mall) and wanting to buy Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. They didn't have it for sale. I asked and they handed me a catalogue that I could order from. It was listed for $95 dollars. That's right, a VHS cassette costed ninety five dollars- in 1992 dollars (that's $205 in 2022 dollars)! As the years went on it was actually possible to buy movies on VHS for reasonable prices ($20), but it took a while. I would always ask for movies for birthdays and Christmas and eventually had almost 100 cassettes.
Then DVDs came out and the whole world of movie collecting changed! Now almost everything was available and a lot cheaper. I jumped in head first and bought movies as often as my finances allowed. By the time I was living in Indiana and teaching, I had several hundred DVDs. I was very proud of my collection and displayed them on my shelves in my living room. Eventually Diana showed up and the collection had to move into the spare room. By the time Ledger came around the whole collection had to go into storage- it was a small place after all, and they were taking up valuable space!
Reluctantly I packed them up into storage boxes. I was brave and held back my tears, but I insisted Diana make me a promise: some day, when we have a big house of our own, I get to take them out of storage and display them proudly! She agreed and off they went into the shed. We have since moved several times and each time I dutifully lug along all my storage boxes, hopeful that our next move will allow me to open the boxes again. Finally we bought a house here in Allegan and wouldn't you know it, there's a huge unfinished basement, ready to be filled. We got a new TV for the living room, so that meant I could put the old 55 inch TV in the basement- and my movie dreams started to come true! Once I set up the TV I also set up a DVD player. That means I'm going to need DVDs... What luck, I have hundreds! I tore those old storage boxes open and was in heaven as I emptied each case onto the shelves and slowly recreated my collection to its former glory. Since then I've been able to pick up some old used DVD shelves and surrounded myself with my whole collection! Once or twice a week I head down there to watch a movie or two. My own little movie heaven! At this point its a pretty sloppy shaggy mess, but I'll keep working on it, and loving every minute of it!
(more pics)

Old Deck Destruction

We took down the old decrepit shed, now we've got our sights set on the little deck off the slider. Diana has been dreaming of a large sprawling deck since before we even bought a house. She had visions of laying out in a backyard soaking up the rays on a beautiful large deck. The one this house has is woefully inadequate for her needs! With a little financial help from Diana's mom and David, we hired someone to come over to frame out a gigantic 20 feet by 24 feet deck- now that sounds more like what Diana had been dreaming about! With the deck framer coming, we needed to remove the deck that's there. It's really small, only about five feet by seven. And rotten. It's hardly big enough for one chair, so we aren't going to miss it at all! I set to work tearing it all down, including the posts. It was an even easier job than expected. It was rotten so bad that it kind of fell apart as soon as I hit it with a hammer. The posts were only about one foot deep as well, so I had the whole thing taken apart in no time.

We are having a guy come and build out the frame for us and then Papa is coming over to help with the actual decking.

(more pics)

Chad's Big Move

Chad's back in town and this time he's got furniture! My brother and his wife have to relocate from Missouri to Washington state. They are planning to rent out a little apartment while they are stationed there so they need somewhere to put all the stuff that filled the house they had to move out of. Well, it just so happens that we have a ton of unused space in our basement! They packed up all their stuff, sorting out anything they would need for the new place, and caravanned on over to our place. With a full truck and trailer, we got right to work unloading everything and carrying it right downstairs. Our basement is unfinished with an extra storage room that we were hardly using, so we have no problem storing his stuff for a couple years until he's done there. His time in the military is drawing to a close, so this is going to be his last assignment. The plan is for the two of them to come back when he's done and get their stuff and start their non-military life from there. It was really cool to be able to show off our house (it was his first visit since we moved) and offer our help in storing his stuff for him!
(more pics)

Clean House

My brother Chad is in the military, which means they move around a lot. He let us know that he and his wife Myuki have been restationed again, so they were planning on stopping by for a short visit before he has to check in at his new place. Diana and I took that as an opportunity to give our place a good deep cleaning! We spent a couple days before their arrival organizing, wiping, vacuuming, and just generally tidying the whole place. Since the place was looking so good, I decided it was a good excuse to take pictures of all the rooms- we don't get it looking this shiny all the time. We can use these photos as our goal from here on out!
(more pics)

my family visits

We haven't had the opportunity to show off the new place to my family yet.  My parents have stopped by one or twice to see the house, but we haven't had them over since we got everything all set up and turned it into our home.  They came by- with pizza!  Tim, Jill, and the kids came over too and we got to show off the place a bit.  We showed them our rooms, the office, living room, kitchen, and the basement; we even got to show off our big beautiful backyard!  It felt really good to have a place of our own that we could show off to the family.  We chowed down on some tasty pizza and had a nice time just hanging out and laughing together.  Ledger had even hand-selected a few toys to keep the little one occupied, so the kids were all set too.
(more pics)

visitors

Now that we've got the place looking really great we want to show it off!  Well, it just so happens that Diana's dad wants to come up and see the place, so that works perfectly!  He's a little nervous to come up by himself, worried that he would get lost, so we scheduled a time with Barbara and James to come up as well.
The three of them came up and we got to have a really great time showing them the house and all the stuff we've been busy getting organized.  Diana's dad even brought up a beautiful new painting for us to hang in the living room, which really classes up the joint!  Ledger is always delighted to have someone to show off his latest artwork to, and Grandpa Allen was just as excited to see it as Ledge was to show it.
(more pics)

a new living room

With such a big living room, it was becoming more and more obvious that the furniture we brought from the apartment wasn't going to cut it.  Well, I guess it's time to go look for something that would fit a bit more appropriately to that large space.  Diana and I dropped Ledger off at Mema and Papa's for the afternoon and went couch shopping!  We hit up a few places but were frustrated at either the poor selection or the ridiculous prices.  Art Van always seems to have a sale, but they still don't have reasonable prices...  We eventually found a place with a good looking couch.  We were in the market for a new bed too, so we had planned to buy both.  Just as we were about to go up to the desk to pay, we spotted a completely different couch that we loved even more!  Good thing we had our eyes peeled or we would have missed out on the gem we eventually brought home.  We set up a delivery with them and waited for them to bring everything over.  We spent the day clearing out the space, bringing the apartment furniture down to the basement, and moving our bed to the extra room as well.  The couch was too big to actually fit through the front door so they had to go all the way around the house and come in through the slider!  Eventually they got it in and we got it set up and it looks amazing!  the house is really starting to look better and better- it's become a real home!
(more pics)

ledger's new room

For a few months now Diana's mom and David were planning on going to visit some of his family on the east coast.  They were going to spend some time with Alanna and her son Tavish- Ledger's favorite cousin!  They invited Ledger along for the trip and he was super excited about it!  It just so happens that it's the week end after we move to the new house!  Since we were so busy that week with the move, Diana's mom offered to come and pick him up a day early.
Ledger has been a little apprehensive about the whole move thing and has been very nervous about getting a new room.  He said that he's going to miss his old room so much.  Diana and I really want him to love the new house and his new room, so while he was away we decided to go all out and do something special for his room.  He's always wanted a desk in his room and also loves the bunkbeds at Grandma's house.  We figured we'd put those two things together and miraculously found him a really cool bed/desk combo!  I went and picked it up and we set it up for him, got an area rug that fit the desk perfectly too.  One of Ledger's favorite things to do is play a drawing game on the white board Mema got him for his birthday last year.  I figured it would be pretty cool if we took that idea up a notch and got him some big white boards and put them up on the wall in his room!  The company store where I work sells them for ridiculously cheap, so I picked up a few (for a dollar each!) and we hung them on the wall under the window.  We stopped and picked him up a couple other little things for his room and got it all set up.  I think he will be pretty pleased when he sees the cool new room that's just for him!
(more pics, and his response)

the big move

The time has come: it's time to leave this beautiful apartment we've called home for the past three years.  We've been packing the place up for the past couple weeks in anticipation, but now we've finished all the paperwork for he house and the previous owners are moved out so it's ready for us to move in!  Ledger is a little big uncertain about the whole thing, this is the only home he can really remember, so it's a bit challenging for him to understand how this is going to change everything.
In order to do this move as quick as possible we rented a u-haul truck for the day and enlisted the help of Savannah's two big brothers.  They stopped by with Savannah and their mom, who figured they'd just stick around and help too!  Miranda came by for the day to help out too- we are all set with getting this thing done!
It took two u-haul trucks full to get everything over to the new house.  We stored most things in the garage for now so we could make it all happen as fast as possible.  Diana was concerned about the hardwood floor and scaping it up, so she didn't want us to bring anything in until she cleaned it and put protector pads on everything we brought in.
It was really strange to see the apartment empty.  We were really glad to get our new place, but we did take a minute or two to appreciate the place we had made a home for the past three years.  We said our goodbyes to the apartment and are looking forward to the new adventure of living in our own place as a family!
(more pics: 1, 2)