The Dream House

So I have been MIA for an embarrassingly long amount of time and I apologize.  In the meantime since my last post, Ike and I looked at a bunch of houses. Decided none of them were right and figured we would wait to buy. Then found a house. Not just a house, but THE house. Like....the house of my day dreams and beyond. So we bought it.

Ok it really wasn't like we just went up and bought it. It was weeks of working with our bank and getting grants and having inspections. It was weeks of me freaking out because we were about to take out a loan that we would be paying off for the next 30 years. It was stress with a capital S.

But now we have been in the house two weeks and I cannot believe I ever had second thoughts or dread when it came to buying this house. I love it so much I almost can't even put it into words (referring to the house as "my third child" comes close though).

So here she is.


So what I actually wanted to write about in this post but couldn't get to until I explained how we came to be at this house was the yard work I did today. In the Fullerton house, I never really did anything but occasionally mow the lawn. I just didn't feel like spending time and money on a house that wasn't mine. I know not every renter takes that attitude, and if you are one of those people who landscapes and buys mulch for a house you rent, more power to you. I, on the other hand and what you would call a cheapskate and couldn't bring myself to do it. This house on the other hand, we actually DO own so I don't mind getting a little sweaty to make it look nice.



So this chunk of the side yard had a nasty dead and leafy area between the walkway and the house and today I decided to clean it out! There were three dead bushes and a TON of leaves. These pictures were after about two hours of work.

So then...thanks to a monstrous pile of free mulch at the Green Dump ( a place where people dump leaves, grass clippings, etc.) I was able to put mulch down the entire side! I have always liked the look of mulch but I figured it would be too expensive to put it all the way around the house. I was so happy to see a giant pile of it at the dump!!!

SOOOOOO much nicer right??? And the best part? FREE!!! All it took was four and a half hours of mildly neglecting my kids while they ran around outside and I worked.