“Sleeping in a tinfoil suit keeps me warmer and helps prepare me for my voyage to the moon. Would you care for some licorice?” ― Jarod Kintz,

We came close a few times to needing a tin foil suit and we weren't going to the moon but just trying to stay warm.  There is no amount of licorice that makes that OK.  Our furnace had been repaired twice already and a couple weeks back on a non windy/cold day it died...again!  This time the warranty company finally decided to replace it.  In the process discovered that the water heater was leaking and we decided to repair it as well.

Here is what we use to have....yes....it was nnniiiiiccccceeee

And here are the awesome pictures of the water heater

I would persoanlly like to thank Lou at Air Serv, he has made cookie list for life!!  He was wonderful to deal with and got everything replaced and done in less than a week and on a day it started to snow.  When they got here to when they left was right at 4/5 hours.

Here is how it all looks now

Pretty sure our home warranty isn't going to renew us when the time comes :)

“Live out of your imagination instead of out of your memory.” ~ Fortune Cookie

Damn that cookie was good and boy oh boy did we buy into that optimism when we created out house priority list.  Reality hit in 30 days later but from time to time I like to look it over and think "SILLY FOOL".  My priorities have greatly changed and I'm at the point of picking and choosing battles in rooms.  Can't redo entire kitchen??? Awesome...lets do the sink instead, small victory.

Here we go, slashed out means we have done it:

Priority Blocks

Summer

Paint - 2500

Front Door - 1400

Gutters - 850

Repair eaves - 350

TOTAL =  5100

Fall

Driveway (main) - 5000

Garage Doors - 3000

TOTAL = 8000

Winter

Master Bath - 6000

Back Porch - 6000

TOTAL = 12,000

Spring 2015

Windows - 7000

Stone Exterior - 3000

TOTAL = 10,000

Summer 2015

Play set - 1000

Retaining Wall - 5000

TOTAL = 6000

Fall 2015

Carpet (Basement) - 1000

Basement bath - 2500

Laundry - 1500

TOTAL = 5000

Winter 2015

Countertops - 3000

Kitchen Cabinets - 6000

Kitchen Floor - 3000
TOTAL = 12000

Spring 2016

AC - 5000

Way later!

Detached Garage - 5000

This list isn't the actual working list anymore but again, I like to look at it from time to time and remind myself where we were and where we are going.

So much to do that you forget all that you've done...

Yes that indeed has happened.  I was cleaning the house today and just thinking about all the things that have been done to the house and there are a few things that I forgot to post about cause something else took over.

Case in point, the basement.  That hideous nasty basement that was freezing cold and don't get me started about that bathroom.  I originally wasn't going to do anything with it until we could do it all at once...then reality kicked in and that would be 5 years!  So we put up some paint, few rugs and brought in the furniture from the detached garage and WALA looking fancy!

Before

Seriously...that red was H-O-R-R-I-B-L-E.  

We took out the door right next to the stairs to allow easy access into the closet from the garage.  A must when you have 2 kids in the winter!

Here is how it looked after

This is the only place where our master bed fits as well as mirror.  The sofa set is the one from AL and on the opposite wall is where we put the TV and there is surround sound.  If there was enough room to build in a closet this would most likely end up being our master suit....but oh well.  One step at a time :)

We bought a playset...really who needs the gym

I forgot to post this cause really with this house I honestly forget weeks.  Found this great playset for the kids on CraigsList.  Was located in Denver, had to bring a trailer and take it apart myself.  No issues, we've got tools!  Get there and the owner didn't realize that every bolt was essentially glued on due to the previous owners painting over them.  They had just bought the house and didn't need the set.  So what ended up being "easy breakdown" took 4.5hrs.  with him staying to help!!!


My Mom went with to take pictures and bag bolts which thanks be to God on that one cause if not it would have been an expensive pile of wood to burn.  There was no way I would have been able to get it back together.

And it was nearly 100' in Denver that day too

Will say that truck is a beast...100% utter beast!

My life is my gym

It took about a week to get it together and I had to go and get new metal (15' stakes) to hold it down.  There is no doubt that it is a huge hit in our house.  Probably should have dug out the grass to prep for mulch...but eeeehhhhh that's a next spring project!

1 Step forward...85 back

I can't even express how much I lost my every loving mind the other day.  We ordered patio doors from a company, that I'm not even going to list cause that letter to the corporate office is still pending, and were told 11-14 weeks for door to be put in.  Well....that would have put us into October...sucks but okaaayyyyy...its "how things are".  Our neighbor also ordered windows from the same company and told me that they were extremely back logged and to call them.  Needless to say when the lady told me 16-20 weeks I was not a happy camper.  Especially with the excuse "its cause of all the hail damage..." my response was "we ordered our door afterwards so that's bad planning on your part!"  Jordan even called from Afghanistan is how bent I was about things.

So fast forward, door is here, someone cancels their install we get in a stand by list.  Now when I ordered the door I SPECIFICALLY asked the sales guy if the rot that I noticed on the frame was going to be issue (outside) and how bad the patio was too.  The door was sagging/bowing and aluminum with no handle on it so I was clear that there was going to be issues.  Cause lets be real everything that "should" be easy with this house hasn't been.  I even gave the electrical incident as the example and was told that it wouldn't be a issue...blah blah blah.

Installer shows up...first thing out of his mouth "ummmm Ma'am we have a problem"  no kidding no power tools plugged in and that's what he says.  He suspects there is rot but this is going to take more than the hour they had him slotted for.  I said I know that, I told the sale guy to plan for F-O-U-R.
Installer cracks it open and we find THIS

no wait...gets better (or worse) 

yes that is his hand in my door frame...his 6'7 hand in my f-ing frame!!!

So the E-N-T-I-R-E 2x8 was rotted where the old door use to be.  Oh oh oh and he said that there was not way there wasn't water damage on that basement wall.  We walk down and what do you know...its been patched and skimmed.  Was hard to tell with the color the wall was but explains why there was always a musty smell downstairs. 

Thank you sweet baby Jesus laying in the manger that the installer was a contractor and was able to frame the door in cause you know it only SNOWED that night!!!!  I think the hysterics is what caused him to work till nearly 11pm...yup 11pm...I was a hot ball of pissed off I was.  Think I might have terrified him into staying for fear of what would happen if he left me with a gaping hole in my kitchen...while it was snowing.

The door is really nice and even Jordan noticed the difference on skype.  He said he could actually SEE the trees instead of just the green blob from the previous doors.  

1 step forward...sigh...really terrified what is behind that wall in the basement now!

Watch out....we've got garage doors YO!!

If you could have heard the squeal I let out when I saw those bad boys put in....it wasn't a elegant moment for me nor was the dance I did but hot damn we've got garage doors!!!!  Not just any kind of door, no no no!  We've got Mahogany prairie windowed doors with silent open!  Oh oh oh ohhhhhh and remote open from my phone...hello technology.

I will say that the guys over at Mountain Fox Garage are just consummate professionals and if you ever need a garage door you NEED to have them do it.  They could have robbed us blind....blind I say cause other contractors tried.  These guys came in gave us the honest bid and we had doors in less than TWO WEEKS!!!!  (this is me doing the chair dance).  Don't feel me in it...well you will...check out the pics!

So here they were, the hot holy mess of doors.  What you don't see is that the bottom of the right door didn't seal...like AT ALL!!  you would close it and then have to step on it for it to come all the way down.  Not annoying at all.  Nor were the bugs and dust that managed to make it in all the bloody time and how freezing cold the basement was.  OOOOORRRR how loud it was to open...ok you get it...it was rough. 

Drum roll please......

And it gets better

Look look it seals

And where the old opener use to be is now a fancy motion detected light

With the openers on the side

hello fancy....how you doin?!?!?

I can't possibly say enough about how much I'm diggin these doors.  Do y'all feel me...I'm loving these doors!  There is zero dust now and the basement is soooo much warmer.  I'm pretty excited so here it comes. 

Gardner in Her Element

That would be a great National Graphic or Discovery Channel show...them following my Mami while she wanders in the gardens she has planted mumbling and more often than not letting out a squeal and "oohhh my goodness look at this BEAUTIFUL flower!!!" ooorrrr "look at the size of that friggin rhubarb...it is HUMONGUOUS!!!"

But I will give credit where credit is due she made an amazing garden.  Cause in her words "its a great mix of spring, summer, late summer and fall mix..."  I picked out roses and a few bulbs and banned her from going to Lowe's discount area and threatened to burn flowers if she bought more over.

The Columbines are "fresh and just needed water" and the dahlias  "were the first ones that landed at Home Depot and aren't they puuurrrttttyyy!"

So yea...I will own up to my 10 and the lawn cause that was 70 bags of dirt, 2 bags of water and a shiz ton of water.

There's a whole lot of "mira mira...ttttaaaaaaddaaaa" and braggin rights going on at the Barr Casa.   Time to go pick some flowers.  Thank you American Meadows, Spring Hill, Lowe's, Home Depot and Zulily for feeding this addiction of amazing!

Gardnerer extremous in her natural element

Gabe's Columbine

Vivi's Columbine

Jordan's Rhuba

My Roses

The "fillers"

Grass...work in progress for sure

Vegetable Garden

Ohhhh how I love me some gutters

Yes I did say gutters, next to a good scotch, cigar, yellow diamonds and my Jimmy's right now gutters are my version of a yellow diamond.  Its ok...I have issues...give it two weeks it will be garage doors.

We GOT GUTTERS!!!
I know right...how can a house NOT have gutters?!?!!  That sounds really insane, like isn't gutters house 101?!?!?!  Well guess what..it's not and we had to pay to put them in.  Now that seems like a fairly simply deal right.  Roll of seamless gutters, some screws, maybe some paint...pppsssaaaahhh what would be complicated.

oh wait...its OUR HOUSE...everything is complicated out here.

Our fascia was rotted cause the house never had gutters (shocking I know) so that had to be replaced.  But a carpenter only replaces the wood, not paint it.  A gutter guy only does gutters not the wood and the painter well...you get my point.  After weeks of looking I found a company that does it all and it was great.  They gave us great discounts that it was no problem going with them.  Booked the appointment and a couple weeks later...I have GGGGGUUUUUUUTTTTTTTEEEERRRSSSS!!!

Thank you JB Masters for a great crew and an amazing job!

To Plant a Garden is to Believe in the future

Apparently my mom feels our future is going to be vast!!!  I bought a few plants, less than 10, knowing that things were going to be a bit crazy when we first bought the house.  When everything that happened with the retaining wall went down I essentially gave up all hope of a nice tiered flower bed and that raised galvanized vegetable garden was no longer in the plans for the next...ohhhhh three years.

Enter my Mom...my green thumb, bulb salivating, can make any plant come back to life Mom.  She went bonkers in the "clearance" aisle at Wal-mart, Lowe's, Home depot...anywhere selling plants.  Lets not add what my neighbors, (million and 5 year old Mrs. Faye who still mows her own lawn and Garden enthusiast Mrs. Trudy who knows every tree/plant I have on my property) giving her different types to plant.  She got tools, a back brace and put her music on and went to town.   Ohhhh....she had me get a TRUCK BED full of mulch (yes only $5 but still...truck bed) to cover said plants or use to kill other areas "for future planting"

All that being said...holy hell it looks amazing.  I'm pretty sure she is going to take up target practice to get the deer and/or raccoon in the neighborhood but she did any amazing job. I may not have the best looking exterior house but my Mom sure does have impressive gardens.

Even Vivi is involved in it!

Please PAHLEASE don't electrocute yourself!!!

When we were discussing things that we could do ourselves Jordan said he could do the outlets and the switches himself (no need to pay someone).  I am pretty sure he heard the teeth suck clearly half way across the world.  But The Man said he had itI had to trust he had it.  And let me tell you....he TOTALLY did...until the front entrance.  Where for three solid hours he cussed at the switches climbed up and down the stairs at least a hundred times and couldn't get them to work.  All I heard was "this doesn't make sense, why would you wire this backwards?!?!?!"  I tried so so sooo very hard not to be snarky with my comments but I finally had to pull him aside and say "its because it's our house that everything is backwards...can we please call the electrician now so we can enjoy our day?"  He gave in and a couple bennies later the lights work...ish...the flood light is a super emotional whence that goes on in a breeze but not when someone walks buy.  Again...our house...why wouldn't it be moody :)

What's in a door...EVERYTHING!!

Jordan and I went to look at front and garage doors knowing that they are going to have to be replaced before the cold sets in.  The color we had picked for the front door was just perfect for me but I was super super concerned that it wasn't going to be something that he liked.  So off to Lowe's I went to do a color match.  And this is a testament to just how much time I have spent there in the past 90 days when I walk up to the paint area, my expert Donna looks at her trainee Sam and says " I don't care what you are working on when you see this lady you stop and help her.  She spends A LOT of money in this store!" 

Yes....yes I do...(le sigh)

So here is where we are going for the door concepts

This is what was in the house

This is the color we picked out I'm thinking its gonna look fancy!!

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.