If you have a fireplace...

and you burn fires...

then when you do that seller's disclosure paperwork, and it asks you when you last had the chimney cleaned, it is good if you can answer that you have had the chimney cleaned, at some point.

So, one more thing done:

chimney cleaned.

This guy, Jeff, came within two hours of my calling him and he was really cool.

Thanks, Jeff!

A little facelift action

For the mere sum of $300, we paid a few guys to re-stain the deck railings and lattice, and to paint the play structure.

They did a great job and the deck and play structure look way better than before.

Ray has always been inordinately invested in the play structure (notice the permanent roof he built on it, to replace the typical tent like roof these things normally come with). Maybe he figured the place really needed to be turned into high quality alternative housing, in case things ever really went south with the marriage...

There really is new carpet...

but the lighting is such here, I think, that you cannot really see the new carpet/color all that well...

Dining Room

This room cleans up pretty well.

Milo's Room - ready...

A few "new" things for the walls. Lovely new paint (we were a bit worried about the color, but, it really seems to have come out well) - thank you, Ray. Some general tidying and tossing of a certain amount of toy crap, and....

lo and behold, the place is looking pretty much ready.

Fat Wood

Here's what it looked like by the end of the day:

All "the branches and shit" are in the truck. The rest of that tree is comeing down, it is just a liability. Alden and I will have the whole thing on the ground inside of an entertaining hour, I am thinking. That is when the work starts.

RJ helped me engineer getting that big broken piece safely in the ground - we did it entirely with a ladder, a bow saw, and a razor sharp Hudson Bay pattern axe. Thanks RJ! Once on the ground, though it was time to fire up the gas saw.

This is bad, very bad...

Huge windstorm last night. The wreckage is significant, all over, not just at our house.

Ray actually spent some time putting in supports on our fence. Probably a very good thing. Someone a few houses down from us lost whole sections of fence.

Nevertheless, this tree damage is sad, not just because of what it means in terms of clean up, as we try to get the place looking tip-top, but also because of all that shade and protection we are losing.