Revisiting the list - Part I

Hey there everyone! This past weekend (including Friday) has been SO busy for us, which is why I did not participate in this week's 5QF, but I'll be back to normal this week. I have officially hit the halfway point in my pregnancy, so I am trying to take a look back at our spring/summer/getting-ready-for-Baby J to do list now to see how much more we have to get done. And also since it's the first day of summer, I decided it might be a good time to take a look at what we have gotten done already and what we still need to do. So, here goes:

As a reminder, I split up our list into several sections to better organize the list. I'm really type-A and love to organize & then organize again, lol.

• Part I: exterior of the house - front & back yard, back deck & patio.
• Part II: main level - entryway, living room, kitchen
• Part III: upper level - both bedrooms (including closets), bathroom, attic
• Part IV: lower level - basement, basement bath, under stairs storage area, utility storage area, laundry room.

After breaking up the parts of the house, I started my to do list for each area. I have already deleted the items that were done as of the original post on that area, but this post will focus on Part I only.

Front Yard To Do's:

• Possibly remove tree completely (need HOA approval to do this).
• Pull up weeds in flower beds & around tree.
• Plant annuals & re-mulch.
• Get house & stairs power washed.

I am happy to report that we have essentially finished this area! We decied not to remove the evergreen tree right next to our stairs & just got the large branch that was damaged during the crazy snow storms this past winter tied with a clear plastict tie to the main body of the tree - looks good as new. We also decided that the house did not need to be power washed this year, but we did get the stairs done, along with the front sidewalk due to that oil spill. My husband attempted to plant gass seed, but that didn't work out too well, so we hired a contartctor to lay down sod. Since it was a small area, they didn't charge us much at all. You can view additional photos of the area before on my Spring Cleaning - Part I original post, but I snapped one more before we got the sod laid:

This was taken right before the sod was laid - most of our grass was killed by the snow & then by us attempting to plant new grasss - obviously NOT our specialty. So we brought in the experts (best.money.ever.spent)...and here's what it looks like now:

A yard that we can actually be proud of! I can hardly take any sort of credit for this outcome - I really owe all the credit to the contarctor who laid the sod for us & my wonderful hubby who got up early every morning to water the grass & goes out every several weeks to weed the area. And now it looks awesome!

Back (upper level) Deck To Do's: 

Embarassingly, we have pretty much neglected this area once again this year. Now that my husband has finished most of the assembly of the nursery stuff, he may get around to working on our deck. We were actually waiting for quite some time for word from our HOA on the approved deck stain colors, which we received in early June, but by then we were already busy with other house & baby stuff. So while we may get around to this area before the end of the summer, it's doubtful. If we get to anything, I'd love to see the deck get re-stained and sealed, but unfortunately, in my current pregnant state, I am of little to no help in this area, so it may ahve to wait until next spring, when I can help out. Sadly, we have crossed nothing off this part of the to do list. :o(

• Look for & purchase an outdoor dining set (we currently have a cheapo plastic set).
• Get deck power washed.
• Re-stain & seal the deck.

Perhaps I was a little too ambitious? :oP It doesn't necessarily look bad in this area, it could just stand a little TLC, you know? Sigh.

Back Yard & (lower level) Patio To Do's:


This area has also undergone a complete transformation! We used the same contractor to lay sod in theback that did the front yard & they did an amazing job back here as well. Again, my husband deserves the credit for the up-keep of this area - without him, our little bit less than $300 sod investment (for the front and back yards), would have most likely gone to waste.

• Get sod laid surrounding the patio.
• Clean under the deck area, get rid of any debris in that area.
• Fix exterior water spout (it has never worked since we bought the house; but we need it for the sod!!
• Buy a small sitting/bistro set for the patio.

As you can see, we still need to clean out under the deck area (there are a few spots where small weeds have grown in & I'd also like put down new rocks back there to cover the old, dirty rocks, but overall, the backyard area looks 1,000 times better!! I don't have any true before photos of this area because it was pretty embarassing. The previous owners had so much shrubery and crap back there that it literally looked like a jungle. We never went out there - not even the dog, so the only "before" photos I have are truly the "in progress" photos that I took shortlay after all the debris and weeds were removed, and you can check out my original post on this area for those photos. And now for the after:

::tear drops:: I am seriously SO happy with how this turned out. It looks fab compared to what we started out with. We will likely eventually buy a small bistro-type set to sit down there, but for now, it's just nice to have a decent looking patio area.

In other news, I have been accumulating (read: shopping like crazy) sooooo much cute baby stuff that I need to devote a separate post just to that! This week is sure to be hectic as well since my little sister is graduating from high school & my nephew's 2nd birthday is this week, but I have several posts lined up including the rest of the house spring cleaning updates, a new project nursery post & of course, my weekly pregnancy post. Lots going on over in the World of Dennifer. So, what about you? Have you completely finished your spring cleaning, or do you still have lots to do?! Please tell me I'm not alone in being a spring cleaning slacker!

Spring Cleaning - Part Deux

Finally right?! OMG, life has been so busy the last few weeks & I have been procrastinating on actually putting this list in writing. Don't ask me why, but I feel like if I blog it, I must DO IT, lol. But, I got a lot done at work today, so I'm taking my last 30'sih minutes at the office to put up this list...finally. This list will be for the main & upper levels of our townhouse (Parts II & III if you are following along form my first Spring Cleaning post). I'll do the basement list separately, but I need input from the hubbs on that b/c that's his "man cave" & I'm not to make plans for down there unless he approves them first, hahaha. That's so changing when Baby J gets here! After I get all the lists up, then I'll post updates on how we are doing on everything.

As I mentioned before, these have turned more into spring/summer/getting-ready-for-Baby-J lists, so everything won't be done before the spring is over (in just a bout a month...eeek!).  Anywho, here goes....

Main Level To Do's:

Living Room

Powder Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

We actually don't have too much to do on this level for the time being, or at least anything we anticipate having done before Baby J gets here. We are absolutely going to be either painting or replacing our cabinets (you can see how sun damaged some of the sides are in the above photos - boo to the sun for that one) & getting new counter tops in the kitchen at some point & we'd also like to add a back splash. I'm looking at a few options, but our main D&R priority right now is the baby's room. Eventually we will also replace our old @ss fridge & oven with new appliances that are a bit more energy efficient (read: not original to the house - like our fridge is & the oven is just crappy). I'm also trying to beg persuade my husband into some DIY crown molding, which I think will make our little joint kitchen/dining room look 10 million times better. Oh & I'd also like to replace ALL of the white, aluminum horizontal blind in the house with the shades we got for our bedroom, which are these fabricky {I realize that's not a word, lol}, light-blocking, honeycomb shades - I LOVE them!  So the list for this level will be short, but here goes:

• Replace all remaining brass/old light fixtures in all three areas - there are a total of 4 left, including the powder room light fixture.
• Get ceiling painted in all 3 rooms, but especially the living room.
• Buy new rug for living room.
• Mop hardwoods in all areas; I usually do only a few good moppings a year - I spot clean with our steam mop in between time.
• Replace powder room brass fixtures - everything in this house was brass when we bought it, so we are slowly, but surely switching out everything for brushed nickle fixtures.
• Find & install valance over sliding glass door.

Upper Level To Do's:

Master Bedroom

Master/Upstairs Bath

Guest Room...being turned into Nursery!!

This level has already gone thru many many changes this year between our Master Bedroom re-do & the Master Bathroom re-do & now the currently in progress Guest Room/Nursery re-do! Because of our newest edition, we have lots of things to do on this level:

• Remove all the furniture & other misc. stuff from the guest room, go thru it, get rid of what we don't need, recycle anything that can be recycled, sell/give away furniture, pack up our personal items that we are keeping for storage in the attic.
• Clean out guest room closet; buy additional storage drawers for extra storage (something like this).
• Paint, buy furniture for, replace all outlet covers, replace blinds & decorate nursery.
• Find fillers for master bedroom apothecary jars/vase.
• Purchase lightweight bedding for the master bed for use during the hotter months.
• Go thru clothes & pull out items to donate.
• Buy same type of storage drawers for extra clothing space in my closet.
• Decorate master bath over toilet storage nook.
• Go thru boxes in attic & get rid of anything we don't need any more.
• Get carpets steam cleaned.
• Replace any remaining brass light fixtures in hallway.

I think that's it. The list for the upper level doesn't look that big, but it's a lot of work. The first item, which is done (yaaay!), took us like two weeks to complete. But all the stuff (minus the stuff in the closet) is gone or put in a new location. :)

Stay tuned for the lower level of the house portion of this list & updates on how far we've come since starting spring/summer/getting ready for Baby J cleaning! Tomorrow is my 27th Birthday, woot! And we are having a big summer BBQ @ my casa {complete with my fav mocktails}, so I'm not sure I'll be participating in 5QF this week, but I'll post some pics from the BBQ on Saturday or Sunday. 'Till next time!

WTF (almost) Wednesday...

OMG, the saga of our front/backyard clean up & landscaping. I didn't elude to this much in my previous post about our outdoor spring cleaning, but have had a MAJOR problem with the landscaper we hired to do some of the heavy lifting-type work. They were supposed to be trimming the branches on the tree away from the house, trimming the branches on the evergreen tree that was ruined during the three snow storms we had in our area this past winter, clearing out the scary weedage (yes, just made that word up :oP) in our backyard, and lay sod in the back surrounding the patio. All of the work minus the sod-laying was done this past Friday & they were supposed to come back on Monday to finish up the job. Simple enough right? Wrong.

Problem #1: They were using a chainsaw to trim the branches on the large tree in front of our house & they used some sort of lubricant or oil for the chainsaw & well, look wtf was left on my sidewalk & stairs:

Yes, as you can see from picture #3 - one of the guy's workers even walked thru the huge spill at the bottom of our steps & tracked it across the sidewalk! Are you EFFING serious?! And they just left. No clean up, nothing. So, we called the "owner" (quotes b/c I'm not sure it is even a legit business at this point; unfortunately we got this referral from my mother & didn't really check it out b/c we trusted her word) on Saturday morning, he didn't calll back. But several hours later he did TEXT my husband saying something about he observes the Sabbath on Saturdays & doesn't talk business or return business calls on Saturdays or something. We respected that - it's his religion, so we didn't trip. He said he'd absolutely clean up any mess they left on Monday when they came to lay the sod. Great. Wonderful.

Problem #2: So yesterday, I get home from work...big oil/greasy spot still there. Little smaller spots, foot prints still there? YEP. So I calm down. ::deep breaths:: Walk into the house & go out on the deck to check the back yard to see if maybe they laid the sod? Nope, nada, nilch, nothing. No messages on my home phone, he didn't call my cell all day, called my husband - didn't call him either. So, I say to myself, "Jen - you got home early today, chill. He's probably coming by a bit later to finish up the job & clean up the mess they made." I waited until 4pm, then called him; no answer; left him a message to call me back ASAP so that we know what's going on. He still hadn't showed up by the time my hubby got home, so he called him. No answer again, so he left him a more firm message around 5pm'ish. Well the guy still doesn't call back. Then, my husband's phone rings at 9pm - it's the guy. He apologizes profusely, gives my hubby some BS excuse about his guys not showing up for work, PROMISES - I mean is completely adamant that the work will be done tomorrow (which is today now) & then when we get home, the mess will be cleaned up.

So I get home today - oil stain still on the sidewalk. My husband never called me & he got home first, so I figure maybe the guy called him & worked out other arrangements or tried to get the spill/mess up & couldn't so he was going to try something different maybe later on? I'm trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. I am literally praying when I get to the back of my house that at least he came by & laid the sod. Nope. My husband is pissed, like livid. And usually I'm the sorta crazy, aggressive one, so him being upset is not normal - at all. Once I saw him, he said that he had tried calling the guy & he didn't answer as usual, but that he didn't leave a message because he was scared of what he'd say to him. So I called him & basically threatened him with contacting the Better Business Bureau & told him that our HOA (who technically owns the sidewalk) will be pursuing charges against him for destruction of property. I told him that we didn't want him to do the work on our property, but that if he wanted to avoid future legal problems, that he'd need to contact us immediately to make arrangements to come by & clean up this mess. That was hours ago. He still hasn't called me back.

So, just an angry, b!tchy little, friendly Public Service Announcement (PSA) to anyone in the Northern Virgina area that is getting any landscaping or yard work done - DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT use Daniel Saavedra of Freedom Services (not sure this is an actual business name). He does not follow thru on his word, does not complete the work he promises in the time frame he promises, ruins your property and makes no attempt to remedy the situation, does not return phone calls & all around is a horrible business man.

At this point, I have no clue what else to do. I Googled his so called "business name" & I can't find it. I'm so annoyed I can hardly contain myself. I feel like calling him every hour until he answers the phone. I may try calling him from another phone number tomorrow. This is freaking ridiculous. What would you do? We just want the oil spill cleaned up at this point - nothing more, nothing less. Any suggestions/advice are VERY welcome. Le sigh.

Spring Cleaning - Part I

The spring has sprung in the NOVA/DC Metro Area & in the World of Dennifer that means time to actually do some spring cleaning! I have decided to break up our spring cleaning this year into a few different areas:

• Part I: exterior of the house - front & back yard, back deck & patio.
• Part II: main level - entryway, living room, kitchen
• Part III: upper level - both bedrooms (including closets), bathroom, attic
• Part IV: lower level - basement, basement bath, under stairs storage area, utility storage area, laundry room.

I am going to be posting before/progress pics as we get thru each of the areas. We'll likely be doing each of the areas concurrently, but I'm going to post the "to do" lists & before pics in parts (so as to avoid a ridiculously LONG post). So, I'll start with Part I - the exterior since we actually got started with the work we want done on this area this past Friday.

Front Yard To Do's:

Last summer, we did a MAJOR clean up of what I lovingly called our "forest" - AKA our former front yard. It was a hot mess to say the least. We were sooo happy to see it cleaned up. I'm happy to report that even after the snowmageddon + the two other huge snow storms that hit our area this winter, our front yard/landscaping held up pretty well. We lost two of our little solar lights & the rest are all crooked, but still work! And as you can see from the photos above, parts of our grass were ruined. Also, as you can see in photo #1 - the Evergreen tree to the right of the house was damaged. So, on the spring cleaning to do list for this area of the house (crossed out are the items that have already been completed):

• Trim branches on large tree away from house & from hanging low over stairs.
• Trim off damaged parts of the evergreen & possibly remove tree completely (need HOA approval to do this).
•  Plant grass seed, keep watered, cross fingers that it grows!
• Pull up weeds in flower beds & around tree.
• Plant annuals & re-mulch.
• Get house & stairs power washed.

Back (upper level) Deck To Do's: 

We have never really done anything with our deck since buying the house three years ago. We have been waiting & waiting & WAITING for our HOA to approve some deck stain colors so that we can stain & seal the deck. It's badly in need of some TLC, but unfortunately we are under the rules of the HOA as to what we can do to the outside of our house. We plan on attending the next HOA meeting on May 11th to find out about their decision on the deck stain colors - urrg, it gets really frustrating with them sometimes.

We also purchased a really cheap patio table & chairs from K-Mart the first year we bought the house just to tide us over until we could afford to buy what we really wanted the following summer (2008). Well, three years later, we never bought a new set. It just was not high on our priority list, so it fell to the side. This year we may or may not get around to it, but the set we have will continue to do for now. I added it to the spring cleaning to do list for this area just in case we decide to purchase one this year:

• Look for & purchase an outdoor dining set (we currently have a cheapo plastic set).
• Get deck power washed.
• Re-stain & seal the deck.

Back Yard & (lower level) Patio To Do's:

I was a little embarrassed to take before pictures of this area, but I also kinda forgot to take a picture before the work got started in the back. You can see a little of the forest pat deux in the deck photo above. It was pretty bad - I mean weeds, small bushes, small trees, etc. and none of it ever kept up. But to make up for that, I took some in progress pics:

Ahhhh, so clean, such a blank slate!

We hired an independent contractor (referred to us by my mom) to do some of the work around the outside of the house that we couldn't or didn't want to do ourselves. They cleaned out the back yard area, trimmed the trees up front & cleaned up all that stuff for $225. We thought that was an awesome price b/c we had gotten a quote last summer for $500 just to clear out the back yard! Here is the spring cleaning list for this area:

• Get weeds, bushes, etc. removed from the area.
• Get sod laid surrounding the patio.
• Clean under the deck area, get rid of any debris in that area.
• Fix exterior water spout (it has never worked since we bought the house; but we need it for the sod!!
• Buy a small sitting/bistro set for the patio.

Now you see why I needed to break this up into several posts! And I still have three more areas left to make spring cleaning lists for! We are doing pretty good so far on our Part I & plan on getting even more done next weekend! Have you started on your spring cleaning yet?! I'd love to see what you've done so far!