Comments (4) We love that our neighbor’s ducks come over to visit. It’s like having our own ducks, part time. We’ve talked about having our own wildlife at some point, but that’s waaaaay down the road. (We’ve talked about having bee hives too! Yes – this vegan is not really a vegan – I will eat honey.)
Happy Saturday!
Who else is planning on spending time in the water on Memorial Day?
Ha ha!
I’ve mentioned our pond is a bit scummy and we need to clean it out. Our number one reason for getting it healthy is so that it’s not a mosquito (and filth) breeding ground, but it would also be great if it became something nice to look at!
Our long term plan is to clean out the brush on the left side of the photo below (and maybe the right, too!), and do some landscaping there for a seating area. For now, we’ll begin to clean that area out so we can put in power for a fountain. (Major landscaping will wait a year or two.)
click to see larger
We’re currently testing a fountain proof of concept, made of a rubbermaid box with holes drilled in it, an old sump pump, and pvc pipe. We wanted to see if the sump pump was powerful enough to move the water around. The pond water needs to be circulated via the fountain, because there is no water flow there, and sitting water is bad news.
Steven is still figuring out what the final design will be. He’s doing a lot of research and is willing to try out different things to figure out what works best for our pond. And he likes making homemade stuff, too. He was happy with proof of concept and got some good ideas from it.
And I had fun playing with it.
Ha, funny thing – I had to “create” a proof of concept type thing for training at work this week. Yeah, I found out Monday (only because a coworker text me – I was off for the day) that we all needed to be in the office for three days of training Tuesday-Thursday. After that much training last week, and a hella busy personal life schedule, I am so freakin’ spent and beat down and frustrated. Anyway. This was WAY more fun than what we did in class.
Since I was in the pond, I also got some sticks/dead trees out. Hopefully I won’t find them all floating in the middle of the pond tomorrow.
This particular tree (below) makes me laugh. It floats all over the pond depending on the water level. When I’m away, Steven will take pictures of it in different locations to let me know it’s on the move again.
It better not find its way back in! I bet Freddie and Bill will miss it, but hopefully they’ll prefer a cleaner pond over a nasty old log.
I checked the front of my outfit this morning
but forgot to check the back
Oops! My tattoo is showing!
Ha. IDGAF. Also, my boss was all “I love your dress! And insert coworker’s name had told me you have a tasteful tattoo – I can see it!” So I showed it to her. And she could read it (and liked it). Yay! (Although it elicited a response from another coworker – “You runners and your tattoos.” Huh? Ha).
Funny thing, a few months ago, I got out of the shower and was drying off in front of the mirror and turned around and gasped! A spider was on my back! But just after coming out of the shower? Huh?! That no make sense.
Oh. No. That’s my tattoo. That I forgot I have. Ha ha ha.
But the spider suspicion is not too ridiculous. We’ve had LOTS of interesting insects in our house. Hopefully, having replaced some of the rotted out doors will help with that! (Although we now have carpenter ants drilling holes in to our soffits to lay eggs… and a huge carpenter ant issue… fun times in the country!)
Several times before she got here, Mica said to me, “I hope we get to see Peoples when we visit!”
No Peoples sightings. The coyotes stopped yowling when she came in to my room to hear them. The bison weren’t out (they live on another street). The ducks didn’t visit until Monday morning (probably because our pond is so scummy right now – we’re about to start working on that), and didn’t stay long when they did.
Sigh. We just had birds, squirrels, chipmunks and frogs (and horses, but not on our property, ha).
Nature was mocking me!
Then, of course, this guy shows up Monday night, after she left:
And another one visited our bedroom balcony in the middle of the night! I’m not sure if either was Peoples, though. The one in the photo has different markings, and looks slimmer. I wish he would have visited when she was here!
Luckily, the animal portion of the trip was the only bust. Well, that and me thinking their train to the city came later, and getting them there with a minute to spare but not being able to get on the train because the train came early and blocked the track crossing. I felt like such an arsehole (and they were completely cool about it). Moving on.
Mica and Harrison are in Chicago for a long visit and spent Saturday night through Monday afternoon with us. I know Mica through blogging, and Steven and I spent time with her and Harrison in 2013 and hit it off. And we hadn’t seen them since then (but Mica and I text most days)! I was greatly looking forward to chilling and catching up, but also, showing them some of the stuff around our house.
Like… the Pyramid House!
I totally forgot about this place until I drove by it on moving day with my Mom in February. And I showed it to my snister when she visited in April. When I emailed Mica and asked if we should check it out she responded enthusiastically “OMG YESSSSSSSSS.”
(I love Mica’s enthusiasm for things. She’s a lot of fun to be around.)
So basically, this family was interested in pyramids, and the dad was always building small ones around the house (to test their powers…). When it became time to build a new house in the late 70s, they decided to build it on the land he had for his construction business, in the shape of a pyramid. They didn’t intend for it to be more than their home, but people were so interested in it, they opened it to the public in the 80s and have been giving tours to some extent since then.
The house itself is very dated (and a bit tacky with the combined Egyptian/country/floral themes).
The most interesting part is the exterior – they’ve gone through many different surface materials and different methods to try to make the house appear to be gold. And they’ve had many issues – with the quality of the materials, the materials’ reaction to snow and ice, and with people complaining about them (being too shiny).
They also had an interesting response from the county after building this fifty five foot Ramses II statue… they were a bit over the county height limitation. It’s actually been raised to sixty feet since it was built so they’re okay now. (I only know the county height limit because we had to research it when we thought we needed to built a wireless tower on our property – at ninety feet.)
The father who started the pyramid interest is no longer alive, but the mom still lives there, and the youngest son gives tours. The tour is a bit of a sales pitch – for their mineral water they have on site, their beer made with the mineral water, trips to Egypt, and their conference/reception area. Ha ha. And don’t forget their HUGE gift shop.
But the tour was interesting. In a nosy, peering in to other people’s lives sort of way. I like that it’s unique, and that it makes them happy. And it sounds like a very interesting childhood, to be constantly working on these Egyptian themed house projects with your parents!
After our tour, we hit up a local ice cream shop we’ve been wanting to try. Then drove by the decommissioned Zion Nuclear Power Plant,
and went to Illinois Beach State Park.
These are all parts of our new town that I’ve been wanting to explore and it was fun to do it with Mica and Harrison!
We also went where we do with every guest – El Famous Burrito!!! And caught up on Game of Thrones so we could watch the newest episode with them Sunday night. It was fun to talk about the show with other people who watch it! (And so weird to watch it the same day it aired!)
And it was really fun to catch up, in general. There are so many stories that are hard to share over electronic communication, and it was a treat to do that face to face.
And we asked them a zillion questions about San Francisco (where they live). I’d love if that was a trip we could make happen next year! We shouldn’t go three years without seeing each other again, and it’s our (overdue) turn to visit!
Well, someone’s becoming a bit vain:
Ha! I don’t blame him for staring at the glass. It wasn’t very clear before:
And now it is:
That balcony is just asking for me to sit out there and read a book!
These new doors were installed as part of our FHA 203(k) work yesterday. They really change the feel of the room. The old doors were bulkier. These doors make me feel like our bedroom is part of nature! I like!
I was curious what the house would look like without any doors/windows in the bedroom, so I asked Steven to take a picture of it for me!
Do not like: that this is not how we asked for the door to be set up. We had told the contractor one door all the way to the left (from the inside) would be fine. We got two centered sliding doors. Which, in all truth, is better! Just NOT what we asked for. When Steven brought it up to the guy installing it, he said he thought it seemed different than what I told him to order.
As it is with most problems in life, the main issue with this contracted work has been poor communication (and cutting corners and quality control). I won’t get in to it, but that it’s still happening, even though it’s a “good” mistake, makes me irate. (And it doesn’t help that I’ve been gone all week and am exhausted. Blah. I hope I can recharge today because I have a packed weekend ahead of me!)
Anyway. I expect to catch Data admiring himself more and more here. What he was previously using as a magic mirror (the kitchen hood enclosure) was cut and prepped last night by Steven, and will be installed soon! Although it would NOT surprise me to see him jump on to the kitchen counter so he could catch a glimpse of himself in the nice shiny hood. Ha.
We haven’t seen Denali in quite awhile, then he/she shows up, looking all sassy in new boots!
Ha ha.
I was worried about what would happen when Data saw Denali (he hasn’t see him/her since February!) but it was no big deal – Data went up to the window and hissed at Denali, and Denali kept walking. Guess our house isn’t as interesting as it used to be – which I think is a good thing! I hope Denali got a bath last night… and had a warm place to sleep.
Every spring, as soon as I see the geese come back, I’m all “WHEN WILL THE GOSLINGS SHOW UP?!?!?!” to Steven. He loves hearing it. Over, and over, and over.
Then once I see them, I move on to “The trees are NEVER going to grow leaves. NEVER!!!”
(pano of our backyard)
Ha ha.
At least I am consistent in my spring related whining?
(I think we are both hoping, that one year, I will finally remember when these things happen and quit mentioning it all the damn time.)
Steven spends countless hours researching actual important things for the house – how to ventilate our attic and install insulation, how to clean up our pond, how to jack up the house and fix structural issues, etc., and I’m over here like:
“I’m going to research duck mating rituals”
Bob, Bertha and Bill having some, er, fun…
“I’m going to figure out why ducks become so territorial.”
So here’s Walt, just trying to get some food from the feeder, but Freddie is coming up from behind to chase him off. Freddie is so mean to the three mallards (Frank, Walt and Gus – Christina named them!).
“I need to research what all the trees are! Maybe the ones with thorns will turn out to be some sort of berry?!”
The perimeter of our yard is lined with thorny bushes. I spent some time Sunday cleaning up trash in that area (not sure if it was from the people who lived here before or bored teenagers when the place was vacant) and my back is all scratched up from thorns (note: I was wearing a tank top, ha ha).
“I wonder what all these native flowers are!”
One of many to identify… and this is actually a bloom on a tree.
“I need to find out why this salamander is so slimy looking!”
Not really, just wanted to gross you guys out. Ha ha.
Obviously, my interests lie in nature and animals! Now, should I search the internets, or use this as a reason to FINALLY get a library card?!
Time for a hodgepodge of house updates!
We purchased a used mower! This was exciting for Steven to research. He had a lawn mowing business in high school, and wanted to get something similar to what he had then. And he found it on Craigslist from a nice farmer south of the city (of Chicago). Next up… building a shed to put it in.
Hola, toro.
Part of the FHA 203k Streamlined work on our house was replacing the sliding glass doors in our dining room and living room, because they were rotted. The new doors were installed when we were in Dallas (thank you, Bobbi, for taking care of Data!!!) and it was nice to come home and see them – they’re gorgeous! And it’s been so nice to use them! Next up… we’ll get a new door like this in our bedroom, too! W’e’re just waiting for it to come in in the next couple of weeks. This wasn’t part of the original scope of work, but they did so much less work on the roof, we asked for more work to be done on other things.
No photos, but also, as part of the FHA 203k Streamlined contract, we’ve had parts of our roof and attic worked on. And redone, over and over again, because the contractors aren’t very good at communication. Fun times. Next up… fixing up the attic and putting insulation in it ourselves, since the contractor wouldn’t clean it out as well as we wanted before putting insulation in. Sure, put insulation right on top of spots soaked with animal urine (?!?!).
We had a different water treatment system installed (by a separate contractor, outside of the FHA 203k Streamlined work). The aerated water treatment system didn’t work, so we had that one taken out, and the hydrogen peroxide one installed. So far, so good! We’re drinking the water again, my baths don’t stink like sulfur, and my clothes are… less smelly. That clear tank in front of the two black tanks in the system below is the hydrogen peroxide, which we have to fill when it gets to a certain low point (not yet). Next up… keep track of how much of it we use/how much we spend on it (beyond this initial install).
New smaller system on the left, next to our water heater, on the right.
We had been waiting on the downstairs bathroom to be mostly done to get matching hardware for it and the upstairs bathroom. We ordered that and started installing it yesterday. It’s so nice to have the toilet paper on a bar! Like, really nice! Ha ha. Next up… get more drywall anchors to finish the upstairs install!
Best photo on my blog, ever
And! We hung up our first picture! Just three months after moving in. Ha. Next up… hang up more around the house!!!
… if you visit, we may put you to work!
We were stoked for Christina and Will to visit because we wanted to spend time with them, and show them the new house, but also… because we had a HUGE project list we thought they could help us with! Muah ha ha. Ha. (Actually, this is Steven and Will’s thing – they love working on projects when they’re together – and they update each other on projects when they’re apart, too!)
Steven had been enthusiastically working on his project list with Will for about a month, making sure he had all the parts and pieces, and brainstorming the best way to do things. Unfortunately, they hit a huge hiccup when they went to install the hood for the kitchen – the hood is designed for 8′-0″ ceilings and the space where we’re putting the hood is 7′-0″ tall due to a soffit. So they had to figure out how to fit all the required stuff in 1′-0″ less of space, and spent most of the time on that, which was not one of the “fun” projects on the list!
But working on that meant they painted the wall behind the hood/fridge area (yay!), which was half painted when we bought the house. And now the hood’s up (and sounds like a jet engine when you turn it on):
I’ll have to post a picture when it’s all finished and the house is not a construction zone! I still need to post pictures of what the rooms in the house look like!
They did have time to install our wireless antenna outside (and run cables from it through the attic), cover openings in the attic (to keep animals out), shorten an old shower curtain rod (from our townhome) and install it, and add accent lights on the stairs.
It was raining hard when they installed the antenna. Eek!
How many men does it take to install a shower curtain rod? Three.
Data spent a lot of time supervising*!
My to do list with Christina focused on sprucing up the first floor bathroom and the guest bedroom, and finding a rug for the foyer. I needed her design input as well as support while shopping (because I hate to shop and search for things and be around crowds and get REALLY frustrated). And we were successful! I love the new bed set we got for our guest bedroom. We’d been using a red one forever that was in good condition, but made the room feel so heavy. This feels fresher:
We also found time to goof off, too:
We live super close to the Jelly Belly Wisconsin Warehouse, which you can tour. We weren’t planning on stopping, but we drove by and Christina wanted to check out the shop so we did, then decided to do the tour. It’s as lame as people have told me, but we had fun! And we enjoyed trying lots of different flavors of Jelly Bellies!
Their trip here was a crazy whirlwind! They got in late Thursday and left early Sunday. We were successful in cramming A LOT in though. I hope they get to come out again soon… and that we get a chance to go to their place in Kansas this year!!!
*Data does not seem to be freaked out by construction noise at all. Steven and Will were cutting something in the kitchen and I was thinking “Oh man, I hope Data’s not freaked!” Then I walk in to the kitchen and Data is sitting on the floor, watching them. Ha ha.
Hi! I'm Kim, a 34-year-old living in Chicagoland with my husband, Steven, and our cats, Khali, Apollo, and Starbuck. I work in the design industry (architecture), follow a vegan lifestyle, am addicted to running, and am an ACE certified personal trainer (working at Essential Fitness, LLC ("Efit"))! I write about a variety of topics, and consider this a "life" blog - a place I can share anything that's on my mind. Please visit the "About" page to get a better idea of who I am! :-)
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