Grateful For Good Neighbors, Take: 372 (okay, four!)

Okay, so I know I have said this many times before, but I really could not be more grateful for our neighbors.  We really lucked out in that department.  So what amazing thing did they do this time?!  Well, allow me to tell you the whole story.  

Chris has been in England for the past week, catching up with friends and family, and although it is strange to have the whole house to myself, I have managed to keep myself pretty busy.  Of course, his absence couldn't be punctuated more perfectly than with a sad, sob story (like that one time he was in Philadelphia...).  '

Monday morning, I dragged my sore, DIY-addicted body out of bed, got ready for the day and headed to Whole Foods in search of all things tropical for my fruit salsa I was bringing to a BBQ later that day.  When I returned home, I was getting the groceries out of the car when neighbor, Maureen, came out of her house. "Did you know that one of your sprinklers is broken in the back yard?"  she asked.  "Ummmm, no.  No, I did not."  She went on to explain that when she went to take the dog out at 5:30 that morning, she noticed a big 'fountain' coming from our back yard!  Goodness gracious.  Chris is gone, and yet again, I always pretend to fall asleep when he tries to explain how these things (ahem, sprinklers!) work.  

So, of course I picture something like this...

I am, however, very resourceful so I did what any sensible woman in my situation would do: I texted Chris in England.  Before I could even get a response from him, the doorbell rang.  Maureen!  She said that her and her husband were on their way to Lowes and would pick up whatever part I needed to fix the sprinkler and then they would fix it for me when they got back!  What?!  "Nevermind, hubby, I have help!"  After me insisting several times that I was happy to go get the parts myself, they really didn't need to do everything, I gave in. I think secretly they figured they would be better off getting the parts themselves, lest I come back with some unknown sprinkler parts that had nothing to do with the problem.

I decided to use my time wisely, I whipped up my pineapple, mango & papaya salsa at record speed, then decided I better tidy the rest of the kitchen and family room, should they accept my neighborly offer to come inside for some lemonade after they saved the day.  I didn't actually have any lemonade, but nevermind.  It sounded like a good idea in my head.  

After several rounds of trying the sprinklers (of which I had to FaceTime Chris for him to show me how to turn on that section of sprinklers!), we had successfully fixed the problem.  At least for the time being.  Chris will have a bit of work to do when he returns, but at least the fountain situation has been resolved in the meantime!  

One of many signs that I have allowed myself to be 'taken care of' since finding my hubby.  I would have taken charge and figured things out by myself in the past, but it's often easier to let someone else handle some things, or as I like to refer to it: divide and conquer!  Unfortunately the headlight and indicator bulbs on my car all burned out this week as well.  I hear you, Universe.  Figure. It. Out, Sarah.  Or just drive the other car until Chris returns. (Ha!)

I still think it's okay to loosen up the control strings a bit and not do everything yourself, but I will definitely be paying closer attention the next time Chris wants to explain some seemingly boring home-related system to me.  

Oh, and the best part?  I asked my neighbor how much I owed them for the parts.  "A glass of wine one evening!"  Done!

Summer Has Arrived

Wow, I can't believe I have been MIA for almost a month!  I have a good reason for that.  A few good reasons, actually.  First, I had knee surgery.  Which isn't an excuse at all.  What better things did I have to do while laid up recovering?!  Nothing.  I just wasn't feeling very inspired to write a post about how bored out of my mind I was.  Once I was on the mend from surgery, we began some outdoor projects (before and after photos to come over the next few weeks), which have been keeping us pretty busy.  

And all the while, Summer has arrived.  In full force, might I add.  Hello 90 degree weather, which also brings with it the Colorado thunderstorms that are so famous around these parts.  In between recovering from surgery and house projects, we managed to have a night away at a cute little town called Manitou Springs (separate post coming soon, once I sort through all my photos!), have been luck enough to spend some time with friends, and even went to see Hillary Clinton speak.  Never a dull moment around here!

In reminiscing about this time last year, we realized that this will only be our second Summer here in Colorado.  It feels like so much longer that we have lived here.

Our outdoor projects for this Summer involve quite a major transformation.  We are staining our deck (and possibly removing the hot tub!), having some trees removed, installing sod in the back yard, creating a little fire pit area, building a wood "step" pathway through our gravel, and last but certainly not least... we are having our house painted!  Phew!  By the end of the summer, it will surely look like a different house!  

I love being able to enjoy meals outdoors in the warmer months, and Chris is eager to make good use of our grill!

Here are a few in-progress photos of the back deck.  The railing has already been painted white, and we love it!  The rest of the deck is going to be a medium gray.  We are about 90% done at this point, just doing the edges and touching up some places we missed.  After photos coming hopefully by the end of the week, because we are booked to go camping this weekend!  

Lots more before and after photos to come over the next few months, so stay tuned!  I don't know about you, but I am super excited to see the back yard transformed.

The silly thing that I am the most excited about?  We got a bright, colorful outdoor rug to put under our patio set, and I can't wait to see what it looks like on the newly stained deck!  

Happy Monday!

{ Boring } Tales of our Backyard Experiment

Listen, I get it.  This is likely not interesting to anyone but us.  And even we are only mildly interested in the goings on in our back yard.  So we don't blame you if you skip right past this post entirely.  I do, however, want to document the transformation for all of the projects we do at our house.  So, here we go...

Over the past few weeks everything bloomed really quickly - including the weeds!  We need to have a few trees removed, and are then going to be tilling and reseeding our entire back yard.  

Step one was weed removal (The really annoying part?  I am pretty sure these are the same weeds we pulled last Fall!  We just can't get ahead of the curve on this project with just the two of us... but we are determined!), and since Chris had to work all last weekend on a tight deadline, I was determined to tackle it myself.  That is until our awesome neighbor, Sarah, so kindly offered to help!  Seriously who offers to help weed someone else's back yard?!  It was actually really nice to have some help, but even more than that to get to know Sarah a bit better.  We chatted nonstop as we carried on weeding for nearly 3 hours!  We basically finished the entire yard in that time!  I had a lot of other general cleanup that I managed to get done before she came over, so I spent nearly my entire Saturday on the yard.  But it was worth it!  It was really nice out, not too hot, and it looks so much better!

Now fingers crossed that we can get the trees removed in the next few weeks before the weeds return!  But, seriously, who knew that having trees taken out was so darn expensive?!  This creates a minor speed bump as we can't move forward until the trees are gone.  Here's where we get creative!  I'm sure we will come up with something...

{ before photos }

{ in-progress photos }

We have found a ton of these flagstone (?) pavers throughout the back yard and are hoping to use them for a little fire pit project sometime this century!

We are in a bit of a time crunch to get the back yard in a bit better state as I am finally having knee surgery next Friday.  So we will see what we can do about having the trees removed and get it all leveled and reseeded before I am out of commission for a bit.

Fingers crossed that after photos arrive sometime this summer! Ha...