And than there were the trees...otherwise known as "fire mitigation"

When we bought the house we knew that we were going to have cut down some trees.  I mean come on there is a tree DIRECTLY under my house in front of my master bedroom....trees were coming down.  So being a smart person I went and got estimates and let me tell you cutting down trees is the business to be in.  I was quoted anywhere from $2000 - $6000 to cut and haul the trees.  My Mom, bless her awesome self, gifted Jordan and I a husqvarna chainsaw for father/mother day and let me tell you...I LOVE THAT THING!

There were a total of 36 trees that had to come down and 10 that had to be trimmed and let me tell you after the whole electrical/landscape debacle my hate fire was raggin' and I had trees to take it out on.  Pretty sure I scared the bejesus out of my Mom a few times but man oh man was it fun.  Now not all the trees are down, there are 8 that have to be professional removed.  They are taller than the house and there is no way I am risking doing damage by taking it down myself.  Plus Jordan wants to take down some trees too :)

I have to have the fire department come out and make sure that I'm good to go and thank you El Paso Country for the Slash/Mulch program.  No kidding $2 a load and they take all the branches and my neighbors who have wood burn have taken the actual trees.  Awesomeness!

Here is some of the pictures for you.

Can of Worms I say

Really starting to feel like the house is that way.  I start one project get about 30% into and than 5 more things pop up.  I get to 80% and I feel like "eh" and force myself to finish the last 20%.

Lets talk electrical shall we???  We knew when buying the house that we were going to have to update the electrical due to the panel being only 100amp and a Federal Pacific (50-50 chance of just burning the house down).  When we brought out the electrician to give us a estimate this is where things turned south.  Like everything else in the house the builders cut corners and the didn't lay a conduit for the electrical line to the pole.  YUP live wire barely 6 inches in the dirt roughly 95 feet in length.   A-W-E-S-O-M-E
So a $1600 project turned into $5500 in a blink and now we had to dig a trench.  This was my past week.  electrical and a trench...joy.  Now par for course we get the trench going and my retaining walls, made up of lord knows how old railroad ties, started to crumble.  Just crumble and now that is another $2000 in just trying to get the retaining wall by the house replaced.  The retaining wall by the lower driveway I am going to do at a later date cause when our fantastic landscaper said nearly 6k for it all I just felt like I got gut punched.  That will be a later post on how that went.

oh oh oh oh oh and tttthhhhhaaaannnnn my furnace died after we turned the power on. You know on the day it snowed, in MAY, it just died.  Thanks be to God for that warranty and it only cost us $75.  Two out of the three major components went to furnace heaven.  But at least its working and keeping us toasty warm.

Huge shout out to Swartz Electrical and their entire staff for not robbing us blind and genuinely caring about the work they do.
Aire Serv for getting the heat back up in half a day (Friday afternoon no less)
Mountain Splendor Services,PH - 719-683-9214

Old Panel

New Panel

Need a bigger painting now

Our fantastic Electricians

Guys getting to work

Digging the trench

Rotted retaining wall full of Cintrella Ants