Devil Grass

 I HATE Bermuda grass.

It grows straight out of the concrete and it seems like nothing kills it.

I've been reluctant to use anything too toxic, so I'm trying something I found online:  a mix of salt and vinegar, plus a dash of oil so that it sticks to the blades.  I spray it on early in the morning so the sun has all day to fry it.

I'm starting to see the slightest hints of progress...

This House Is Brought to You by...

It really pisses me off that the vapor barrier our contractor chose is covered with the Lowe's Logo. Thanks for making our house a walking billboard, stupid corporation! Counting the days until it's covered with our beautiful, cedar siding...

I Hate The Plumber -- Part Four

I've been so bummed that everything has slowed to a crawl that I forgot to post the final (I hope) reason I hate the plumber: Part of the sewer pipe had to be redone because he laid it out straight instead of on an incline.

Just glad our contractor called him on it.

I Hate the Plumbers -- Part 3

I think this is progress...at least there are no more dirt piles in the front yard.

I think this means the city signed off, although we are still waiting for paperwork from the plumber and confirmation that the unexplained pipe in the basement is the laundry room drain.

And I want our contractor to double check the sewer pipe; part of it still seems to be perfectly level instead of slightly angled. This is an issue that's already been dealt with once. To quote the guy who is putting the steel into our retaining wall, "Doesn't this idiot know s%@t rolls downhill?"

Working All The Angles

To get a backhoe into our backyard so that it can dig out the rest of our basement, our contractor had to cut off the corner of our garage and rehang the door that Rob and I struggled with this summer.

He also had to cut off part of our back steps, so now there is only one way into the house.

I guess this is progress...

Dwarves and Giants Lived Here

Every light switch in the house is at a different height. So when the lights are actually working, you never know where you to reach to turn them on.

Just one more reason I can't wait for the house to be rewired!

Another Mystery Solved!

The overhead lights in our bathroom, bedroom, Rob's office and front porch are on the same circuit. They'll work fine for a while and then just stop, forcing us to use the Christmas lights Rob rigged up a while back.

We finally figured out the lights will work as long as we don't have more than 2 light bulbs on at a time. If we accidentally turn on more than 2, we haven't figured out how to make them start working again -- turning them all off and turning on just one doesn't motivate them to light up.

A couple of weeks ago, when the lights were on strike, we accidentally left the bedroom switch in the on position. They decided to work again at 4am. While we were thrilled they were back, we weren't so happy to be woken up in the middle of the night.

Now, whenever we want to turn on a light, we find ourselves saying things like, "I need to turn on the bathroom light, so I'm turning out the bedroom light." Ridiculous!