Category: House and Yard

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Spring cleaning

Today is Saturday and I have a problem. I have been promising to clean up the garage and it looks like the day has finally come. I can put it off no longer. I am not looking forward to this as I know there will be some debate with my wife over what items to keep and which ones to throw away. She doesn’t seem to understand the importance of keeping items that we may need in the future.

Anyway, I guess I’ll get started and do what I can to get the garage clean while limiting the damage done to our inventory. Maybe I can distract her later with a shopping trip!!

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Summer weather

I sure am glad that the weather is getting hotter. I have been having a great time working around the house and am finally getting some of things I wanted to do done. The yard still has a way to go but its looking better all the time. It sure is great to get out of the house. The only bad thing is that I keep thinking up new projects I want to start. I guess I’ll be busy for awhile!

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Jump and Climb

The neighbor came by this morning to warn me about this weekend. They are having a kids birthday party and the place will be noisy and busy with a couple dozen kids running and screaming across the yards. I remember how it as last year, and can’t believe its already been year since that birthday party.

There is just something about 20 eight and nine year olds running around that gives me a headache just thinking about it. That is way too much energy and noise for me. But for a lot of people, throwing kids birthday parties is like a competitive sport. They hire Party and Event Rentals companies to handle all the details for their kid and the friends, and then the parents don’t have to do much but run the video recorder and chit chat with the other parents who come to the party.

The smart ones hire out the Food Catering, the entertainment and the clean up. The parties in my neighborhood have come a long way since the days when I was a kid and thought that a couple hours in the mall arcade with unlimited tokens was the ultimate party. Nowadays they have
Bounce House Rentals, clowns, face painters, carnival games and all kinds of entertainment options. Its good to be a kid.

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The Derby

This morning I kicked myself for being so stupid. I totally missed the Kentucky Derby yesterday. I got busy outside and forgot about the time. I was cutting the grass and started hacking away at the shrubbery and I pulled up some morning glory vines that were taking over the whole side of the garage. The next thing I knew, it was time for dinner, so I washed up and drove down to KFC and picked up some chicken.

Never even turned on the TV yesterday until the 11:00 news came on and I fell asleep before the sports report. It didn’t even come to mind until I picked up the Sunday paper and read about it in the paper. Duh!

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Home on the Range

Today I called my mom to wish her Happy Mother’s Day since I found out she won’t be home tomorrow. My sister was there with her kids, so she got on the phone to say hi. Since she is a mother, too, I wished her happy Mother’s Day and we chatted for a few minutes. It seems like we never talk much anymore since she moved to Florida a couple of years ago. But it sounds like Florida isn’t working out – she might be moving again.

When my sister told me she is thinking about moving to Texas, all I could think of was the song, “Home, Home on the Range.” Visions of cowboys and cowgirls and horses sprang to mind. While I was processing the visions of dusty trails, she was rattling on about Dallas Homes for Sale and how much she wants to move west.

I’m the first one to admit that I know nothing about Dallas Real Estate and I couldn’t help with much except showing up a day or tow before she gets a moving truck so I can help her pack and move her stuff.

I asked her if the Dallas Homes For Sale were anything like the one she used to have in Virginia, and she says that they have plenty of nice neighborhoods all around the Dallas and Fort Worth areas like her old neighborhood. It’s just a matter of knowing where you are going to be working, so you can focus on finding something nice near the office or job site. Sorry to say that I can’t help with that, either. But it sounds like she has got the ball rolling and everything is under control.

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Summer Means Swimming

We’ve hit 80 degrees a couple of times already, so I’m starting to think SUMMER. As much as I like the beach, sometimes you don’t want to deal with the parking issues, the long hike, and the sand in your shoes just to get some swimming. There are plenty of days when I would really like to get home from work, throw on my swim trunks and jump in a swimming pool.

Our neighborhood does not have a community pool – one of the drawbacks of living in a house instead of an apartment. So, we’ve been looking at above ground swimming pools to fit in a corner of our backyard. Both of our neighbors have installed high privacy fences, so all we would have to do is put up a fence cross the back – for safety.

I know the neighbors would want to get to be better friends if they thought we would invite them over for a swim in our backyard pool. And we could have some righteous pool parties on Friday nights, with the barbecue grill smoking and some ice cold beverages. Maybe even some string lights around the edges and a couple of outdoor speakers for good music. It’s starting to sound like a really good plan to me.

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Old Fashioned Remedies Still Work

When you have a large family like I do, it seems here are a lot of memories of kids getting sick or being hurt. I know my folks had more than their share of doctor visits for us kids. We all got the measles at the same time, and we all got the chicken pox, although that was spread out over many years. My sister got pneumonia once, and we had to use a Vaporizer in her bedroom to help her breathe.

I guess we always thought that Vaporizers were just for babies, but it tuns out that all ages can benefit from them. I know my sister had to use one for almost to months – she was so sick that she didn’t come out of her room for a long time, and she almost failed school because she missed so much class time.

Now, that same sister has kids and she swears by the Volcano Vaporizer that she got when her son was sick with bronchitis. She also uses it to help when she has spring time allergy attacks. It seems that after all these years and all the news things the doctors can do today, that sometimes the old fashioned remedies still work the best.

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Kitchen Space

The main area in our house that is used the most is our kitchen. It seems that everybody always ends up there at some time or another. It’s the central place where everyone meets. The problem is that it tends to get cluttered as everyone leaves their stuff there. The kids leave their books on the table and the mail always ends up there too. That’s why we needed to clear up some space in order to accommodate everything.

One thing I noticed was the large amount of spices on the counter. I thought that by getting a spice rack we could save some space. There are a lot of different kitchen spice racks that you can purchase to help in this effort. I only needed to find the right one. I went online and looked up spice racks. I found a site that had just what I was looking for.

The funny thing is that I found some thing that I hadn’t thought of before. Instead of putting something else on the counter, we could hang them on the wall. I found a wall spice rack that would be just perfect for our home. We now have a little bit of extra space. It has worked out well and I’m glad I thought of it.

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Gas Logs in our fireplace

The winter can be long and dark. That’s why we like to find ways to brighten it up. Around our house, we have found one great way to do just that. We use Peterson gas logs in our living room and it is working out great. There are a lot of benefits when using Gas Logs in your home. I’ll explain a few of them so that you’ll know that I’m serious.

The first benefit is that there is no mess. I don’t have a lot of extra time and I don’t want to spend the time I have cleaning ashes out of the fireplace. There is no need for that when using gas. The second good reason for using R. H. Peterson Real Fyre Gas Logs is that there is a warming effect that goes right into your living room. That makes it a cozy place to curl up and read a book or whatever.

Another thing we have done is to take advantage of Outdoor Gas Logs. We have a nice little spot in our backyard where we can gather around the fire and relax. It’s good for the family and we all enjoy that. You can find out a lot more about the subject by checking out Gas Logs FAQs. I am sure you’ll agree when you have all the information about the advantages of this technology.

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Sit down

One area of the house that everyone loves is our garden. We like to spend a lot of time out back just hanging around. We have put a lot of effort into making our backyard a suitable place to hang out in and are constantly finding new ways to make it better. One idea that we all liked was when we installed stone garden benches near the garden fence.

We first got the idea for garden benches when we were driving by a house down the street. They had a bench out front and it really looked good. The benches looked so natural that they seemed to be part of the landscape. We discussed the issue and decided that we wanted stone benches at our house as well. We knew they would last for a long time and they made our garden area look so much better.

Since one of my grandparents recently passed away. We thought that we might remember him by installing one of the memorial benches that were available on a site called stonebenches.com. The whole thing has come together and now we are very happy with our purchases. I know my neighbors will be jealous when they see the benches in our yard and I know my granddad would like the idea as well.