Day 2 - Home appraisal - what????

Ya know how on HGTV they start with a renovation project plan and unexpected things just start to "happen" that no one accounted for?  It eats into the budget, into the timing - sometimes, things just don't get to get done.

Well, here's our first thing that "happened".  I didn't take into account that we are in the process of refinancing our home to move from an FHA with PMI to a straight conventional loan, no PMI.  We need to have our home appraised as high as possible to establish 20% equity.

Appraisal.  Hmmm.  "Does someone need to actually see the house?"  "Uh, yeah, definitely.  Why."  "Oh, nothing."

Lesson for the Day:  Destroying front yard + imminent home appraisal = Timing Snafu

I’m enjoying the journey because I have zero idea what the end game is.

Pleasant day with Dave – two trips to Home Depot and came away with a $10 shovel and 2 pair of $1.97 work gloves.    Started digging up the yard.  Realized 2 things:  1. we don’t do manual labor and 2. we have muscles we never knew existed.

As deconstruction begins, ideas begin to seep in.  For instance, looking at the brickwork in front of the house from a different angle and overlaying the countless images stuck in my head over the last few days of obsessive reading, the solution to a weird corner filled with trip hazards was birthed.  The results of doing an inventory.  Love it.

No chemicals were used in the making of this mess and hopefully, many gophers were disturbed.

To Start or Not to Start?

Sometimes, I look out the window and I see the beauty of my front yard:  fragrant lavender, confetti something or others, a rose or two, and a variety of blooming hedges.  Lately, however, I look out the window and I see dying grass, a woody overgrown lavender tumbleweed, gopher mounds and thorny, sickly roses.

It's not that the beauty isn't there anymore.  And it's not that my view on life has become bleak.   It truly is that I don't know what I'm doing when it comes to gardening and caring for a yard, it shows, and I can't "positive thinking" my way into justifying inaction anymore.

So, to start or not to start, that is the question.  And the answer is emphatically yes.  The time is now.

Lord, help us all.  Terri has taken on a new project.

Photos to come.