Add It to the List

[Heidi & Milton]

With a house built in 1929, there is always something that desperately needs some sort of renovation.  Jeff and my catch phrase has become, "Add it to the list," because we absolutely need to keep a running tab of all the home improvements that must be done to make this house, well, liveable.

Rather than weekly dinners out at fun restaurants, our life has become weekly, bi-weekly, and even tri-weekly trips to Lowe's and Home Depot to buy all those "fun" supplies for the home.  Both of these stores, due to their hardware nature, allow dogs inside, so the Milt is a good tag-along.  If I need to make one of these trips, I always time it for a day that the Milt has stayed home, so he can come along for the ride and keep his Momma company. 

Siting pretty

Testing out rugs

 Well, what are a few of the things on our to-do list?

Flapping in the breeze

All spread out

Why ever am I drying all of my clothes outside, you might ask, especially since Pop spent 20+ hours enlarging our wash room last weekend?  Well, after all that hard work, our dryer has ceased to work.  It up and died on me Friday night just when I needed it to dry a whole heap of clothes.  How did this tragedy occur?  We believe the dryer was broken in transit during our move, and I still hold out hope that it is a voltage problem that we can look further into this upcoming weekend.  Until then, we are letting it all hang out, all over our porch.  Trashy, I know.  At least it's not our front porch.

Another big ticket fix-it item is our fence.  It has multiple gaps and holes that we think Milt is a little too big to squeeze through, but with the proper motivation, anything is possible.  Actually, in the area shown below, our doodle can navigate the tiny crawl space between our dilapidated fence and our neighbor's to run the gauntlet up and down pretty far back.  Now that's a problem right there.

Upcoming Weekend Project

Pop, our "Handy Man" will actually be back this upcoming weekend to construct a brand new fence with my Jeffery.  This fence has been a top priority for Jeff, especially for security reasons.  It is a little too short to keep out intruders, and let's face it, anyone can simply squeeze on through.  The gate into our driveway is also a chain link fence that swings back and forth, directly by our bedroom, so we are a little bit leery of it as well.  Fence building, in particular the 8-foot one Jeff and his dad plan to resurrect, will undoubtedly be a tremendous project, costly in time, labor, and money, but we got to do it.

Next this is my pet peeve that I would really, really like to see fixed.

Attic

That is our pull-down staircase entrance to the attic that is absolutely not flush with the ceiling.  I have declined to enter the attic because Jeff has sighted multiple cockroaches (two to be exact!) up there.  I have spied a rather large one (I bludgeoned it to death again and again and again) just under this pull-down apparatus, so I am quite confident that cockroaches can fly down from above.  This is a top priority for me but a low one for Jeff.  Growing up in Louisiana, Jeff is a lot less squeamish than I am at the sight of the nasty, little buggers.

One thing that we did get accomplished this weekend was an awful lot of raking.  We have a giant pecan tree in our backyard that sheds a boatload of leaves.  I suppose these leaves were shed back in November, but we have a lot of other things to do around here!  Sunday night we piled all of our 15 or so bags down by the curb for pickup.  When I arrived home from school that afternoon, they were still all piled there.  I guess our sanitation workers only take what is in our garbage bins.  It was not quite as rewarding hauling all of those full bags back to the backyard, to wait for "Bulk" Pick-Up Day, as it was hauling them down to the street...

Leaves galore

In the thick of things

While raking, our dood always joins in the fun!  After we raked the leaves out, Milt discovered a lot of cool dark dirt underneath!

Digging Away

Someday it will all be done.  I am beginning to lose my patience though, slowly but surely.  At least the Milt is always good for a little levity in whatever situation.  That is if he's not adding to the problem destroying stuff.  Oh my... 

To read more about Milton the Goldendoodle please visit www.goldilocksandherdoodle.com

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Welcome to the world of home ownership. :)  Amazing how it quickly fills up your weekends and empties out your wallet.

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

We, too, have that never-ending remodeling list.  Right now we're in the (hopefully) final stages of two bathroom re-dos.  Demo started just before Thanksgiving so, needless to say, we're getting VERY TIRED of the mess and disruption to our lives.  And what's really crazy is that once those bathrooms are done (and therefore usable), we start on two more!!!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

PS our Home Depot used to allow dogs but no longer does.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Oh but we saw your lovely, lovely, to-die-for home from the front...... so I am not totally sad for your dilemma. :-}

No matter what the age of the house, it never is done, but eventually the big projects will get done and you can take a breather.

[Julie and Charlie]

I believe that it's manager discretion at individual locations. I would advocate NOT calling the corporate office...

[Elizabeth, Bailey & Bruin]

I called my HomeDepot a while back and they said they do not allow dogs...WTD?  I think I might just have to call their corporate office to get the real scoop...

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

Our home is 1930's and we moved in 2 years ago.  We're not done yet :(  And yes...the list is never ending.  You are such a fun doodle mom to the Milt!  I freak out when my dogs are 2 feet from dirt/mud.

[Star and Goldie]

Whoa! I did not know that dogs were allowed in Home Depot and Lowes!!! That's amazing!

[Julie and Charlie]

Sometimes I'm at Home Depot multiple times a day on the weekend. They know my name, and Charlie's. Sigh!

[Charlotte and Bo]

Not to burst your bubble, but it will never be all done. I know this from experience. :-)  Good luck and have fun.