Ahhh, to be a Home Owner!
It's pretty great to be able to actually knock a wall down when you really hate it, but it comes with some extra work too. This past few weeks, we really got to it!
 It's finally Spring again! And we've been in fine form doing our regular maintenance and fixing, changing and adding things. We'll probably never stop - if we did we'd go crazy - but I like to keep a record of it, so we can see what we've done too :)



 What's work without relaxation? We also found time to enjoy our deck and the weather in between mad work sessions



 The leaves aren't all back quite yet, but getting there. One more big rain storm and it'll be a jungle!



 This is the view from inside our future chicken coop, Zelda came in just to photo-bomb this one




 Coop! And enclosure! Coming along nicely I think - a roof, frame, and some wire (and doors, of course) and we'll be ready to get our chickens :)



 Second snake found during yard work. This one is brown, and although I know very little about Arkansas animals yet (especially compared to my vast knowledge of California wildlife) I don't know if this is a good one or not - and Cottonmouths (etc.) are definitely in the brown color scheme...
 I should mention, it's hard to tell because this sucker is also tiny. That green thing is about the size of a stick of gum.

 At some point during the day, Jen said she wanted some trees down. There were four less than two feet from each other, and they're getting big, so it certainly made sense to take down the middle two. However, we don't have a chainsaw or a very large hand saw. 
 So, true to form, I figured "How hard can it be?" and did this:



 With this:



 Which, as it turns out, was hard. Really, really hard. But MAN I feel good having done it!
 Next time, I'll borrow someone's chainsaw :P



 This is one of the trees Jen is SO SO excited to have gotten from the Arbor Day Foundation. She'd said for more than a month that we were getting "a dozen trees in the mail." Which sounded crazy, but she was pretty sure, so I just waited.
 Then, we got a roll of match sticks with wet ends. "Trees."
 I was ready to chuck 'em, but again trusted the wife, and only rolled my eyes a little when she stuck dry twigs in the ground.
 But I'll be darned if all of them aren't blooming into something!

 ...That doesn't mean she's always right!



 Another shot of the chicken coop, some of my finer work so far :) I just have to polish it off now!



 This is our peach tree, which hasn't bloomed anywhere near as much as those twigs. Fingers-crossed that it's still all right!



 A few tomatoes and a struggling Fig tree, the tomatoes will be just fine in a month or two!



 Our Muscadine vine, badly in need of a re-stringing, but starting to bloom again after a long winter!



 Some new additions, another tree and some strawberries :)



 This one isn't going to make any sense - but there was an old hose spigot attached here that I've been attacking with wrenches for months, since we first moved in, because it was ancient and terrible and leaked. We finally gave up, shut the water off, and yanked the whole pipe off, then replaced it all so we could finally set up our drip-irrigation system.
 It doesn't look like much, but I can't even begin to say how happy I am to have that new spigot on there!

 Next, the grand project - the biggest thing we've set out to do since moving in: getting rid of our *awful* carpet.



 Not only was it ancient, but that carpet had stains from decades of young children and pets - not all of them ours - and what had once been a nasty matte gray had become a sea of all shades of brown, yellow and orange stains that weren't coming up no matter what. We endured since we moved in, wanting to replace it right and with something we liked, and this past weekend was finally the time!

 Have I mentioned I love my family? I really do, they're amazing - my California family, my Michigan family, my Montana family, Oregon family - but this Arkansas family. Oh my, time and time again they've shown themselves to be the most incredible, fun, generous, kind and kooky batch of folks a far-from-home Son/Brother-in-law could ever wish for!

 Did I say they're great? They're great :D
 I had to work this particular Saturday, but the whole clan came up to Little Rock to help Jen get cracking, and they did everything they could to finish the job before I could get there to help! 




 But I made it :)
 I was there in time to do about half of the above, and continued to help as we polished off the project. It was a full day of work, but it turned out simple amazing:





 It's beyond anything I ever dreamed, how much changing that floor has changed the house - it changes everything, and I freaking love it. My eternal gratitude to the Hyman's for kicking butt and getting this beauty wrapped up in a day :D

 After that, it was R & R time! The next day we tried as hard as possible not to do anything (after moving all of our furniture back into the room, cleaning the house end to end and prepping for and hosting the Ladies Brunch that Jen had first thing the next morning)









 They tell me it was snowing in Michigan when all this happened! We have two guest rooms open, if any of you wonderful frozen northerners would like a change of climate ;) Ian already tested it out and everything!

 That's my last update for tonight. Stay tuned for many more to come!