now we know where all the bricks came from...

Brandon asked our next door neighbor if he had any old photos of our house.  Tonight we got a text message from him saying that there was an old photo on the property tax database for the county.  I swear I've looked at the database before but have never seen a photo.  We checked, and sure enough:

So, it looks like the PO did some good things, like maybe losing the chain link fence (although that could come in handy now!) but--is that a carport?!  I can live without the screened in porch (although that would also come in handy now), but I would really love the carport back.  But now we know where all the bricks (cemented into the ground under the back porch) came from.  It also looks like there was a tree in the front yard, which would explain the small sinkhole we now have.  Sigh.

Random side note for the day:  Brandon found a snake ON THE PORCH.  In a planter.  Ew!

stains be gone!

Mealtimes are pretty messy in our house these days.  Two babies x high chairs x finger foods x white grout = ick.  But I discovered that a toothbrush will scrub banana out of the grout whether you use cleaner or grout stain!  So I skipped the scrubbing with cleaner and went straight for the staining.  I was surprised by the results--it pretty much looks like it should have been this way all along.

It was pretty easy and took about two hours to do the whole room.  I just brushed it on with a toothbrush, doing the whole room, and then started back at the beginning with a scrub sponge and a bowl of water.  I scrubbed the extra stain off the tile and it came up pretty easily.  Then I went back over it with a wet rag to clean up any extra bits of stain (sort of like scraped up, rolled bits of paint).  Making sure I had gotten all the bits of stain up took a while. 

The first photo shows the whole floor covered in stain, prior to clean up.  The last photo shows the finished floor.  We do still need to cover the grout with a sealant, since the stain we used didn't have one added in.

project updates

It's spring and we've got lots of things going on, including awaiting the installation of a new roof!  Yippee!  All our neighbors were getting them, so we had to keep up ;)  Actually, one of our neighbor's roofers came by and claimed we had hail damage and needed (of course) a new roof.  State Farm begged to differ, but said we did have wind damage and they would pay to have our shingles replaced.  We ended up not going with the neighbor's roofer, but instead found Bell Roofing.  They brought us sample shingles, gave us addresses of homes to see actual roof colors, and have mainly just been awesome.  We haven't gotten the roof yet, so I can only hope that their roofing ability lives up to their customer service.  We've picked out a color that is kind of similar to what we already have, but I think it will look great.  We opted for the architectural style shingles rather than the basic three-tab, and hope it will make a huge difference in the appearance.  Here's the color we've chosen:

Barkwood by GAF-ELK

We're also having a ridgeline vent installed, and possibly having our gutters repaired or replaced.  The quote we got was for replacement with 6" gutters, stating this is standard in Atlanta, and that our 4" gutters just won't cut it.  We may get a second opinion, although new, bigger gutters would be nice to look at (if not to pay for).

We're still working on that front door...or rather, we're still thinking about it from time to time.  I did score a large piece of textured glass from a neighbor, but we've still got to get it cut.  Brandon needs to stain the door, and just hasn't returned to it since last time (when the rats in the shop ate the wood putty out of the knots).  Speaking of the shop, the power to it has been disconnected by our dear friend Paul the Electrician, who decided he couldn't live with himself if it burned to the ground.  Apparently it was that bad.  We are hopeful he will have time soon to come back and help us get it redone safely.

Other projects on the horizon include a home-made swing set given to us by a neighbor, whose kids had outgrown it.  It has a fort, slide, and a rock-climbing wall!  This weekend we hope to get it pressure washed, painted, braced, and our baby swings installed.  Brandon's mom is working on a pink pirate flag for the girls, so that they can fly it from the fort portion.  We also hope to soon move the fence from the backyard to the front, along with some to-be-purchased new portions and a gate.