The Outsiders

These should be the last of the addition pics.  I couldn't find any good ones of the back of the house since we painted it (last summer), but you'll see it when I start taking massive amounts of pictures of the yard in a couple months.

I had mentioned that it took us forever to put siding up.  We were trying to find some that matched the existing - on the cheap.  New cedar siding is EXPENSIVE!!!  We came across quite a bit and quite often at our local rebuilding center, but it was never the right size.  I can't even remember what it is now, but I believe it's a 9 inch reveal.  I finally found some on Craigslist.  A contractor was tearing it off of his own house.  The Dad drove out to look at it and told him we'd take it all at $1 a foot.  The crazy part was, they had it rough side out, so that was the side that was painted.  Ours is smooth side out, so when we put it up, it was raw cedar.  Almost too pretty to paint.  Almost.

Here it is in progress:

Our little helpers:

You have no idea how good it felt to finally have this part done:

We also ended up having to move the man door on the back of the garage.  As it was, the new stairs leading to the french doors blocked it.  Here's a during and after of that:

We also jacked up the pergola.  What a job that was.  It used to be level with the gutter on the garage.  In the photo above, you can see how that might cause a problem with the house bumped out.  DUCK!  We were out on the patio staring at it one day, and The Dad and The Contractor neighbor wanted to jack it up from the bottom.  The posts are set in concrete.  After about 15 minutes, The Mom came up with her most genius idea ever.  It's really hard to explain, so here's a picture instead:

 

The top of the pergola used to sit on that horizontal beam.  They built the ladder lookin' thing and all we had to raise was the top and put that under it.  Genius.  If I do say so myself.  :o)  It was still a major project, but nothing like it could have been.  And, we got to keep The Dad's previous hard work intact.

The patio that the pergola covers was there when I moved in.  We tore out the concrete and put down pavers, but it's the same footprint.  We recycled the pavers from the previous patio we had put in that was where our master bedroom/bathroom is now.   So we lost quite a bit of solid surface when we tore everything out.  Hence the deck.  That was yard before we started.

Here's that being built:

I think we've finally come to the end.  Hahahahahahaha.  As if it EVER ends.  I literally have a list on the fridge that never gets smaller.  It grows and grows and grows.  We cross off one thing and add three more.  The never ending cycle of home ownership.  I'm always saying it would be so nice to have a Handy Manny who could come in and be at my beck and call.  Pay someone to do all the things on that list and have them finally be done.  But in the end, where would the satisfaction be in that?  The way it is, we get all the bragging rights.  Who could ask for anything more?