Just Another Busy Week!

 Last weekend was gorgeous so we managed to pull the deck furniture out of the barn and get it back to the deck.  It was nice that we could eat our Sunday dinner on the deck.  This was our celebration of Adam's birthday which actually occurred during the week.  Happy birthday to you too, Tiffany.  We love you both so much.

 The challenging part of the weekend was the fact that my front tooth broke off.  I was able to keep it in place to lead the singing in Sacrament Mtg but it was impossible to eat that way so out it came.  I thought the veneer was loose so I had called Dr. Joe on Friday afternoon and scheduled an appointment for Monday.  After much consultation, he glued it back in.  I had an appointment with the oral surgeon on Wed.  It looks like implant surgery for me.  Darn!  There goes our cruise.

 Hilary also sent out a business mailer for me this week.  Meet Wendy!  Wendy Richhart will be joining the Good Neighbor team.  Since there was no Good Neighbor team, we will now create one.  I have known Wendy for a few years, but we re-connected working on the purchase of the Murray home.  Steve and I were both so impressed with her, that we decided to invite to her come aboard so we could back each other up when one of us leaves town.  She conveniently lives a few streets away. We will try it for a year.  We are both hoping it will be a match made in Heaven.

 We will be saying goodbye to the condo this next week.  We rented it out during the week.  We were also able to rent out our CV rental property last weekend.  Hooray for good renters!

 The condo looked pretty nice when I got it all cleaned and decluttered.  It has worked well for us this past year but Steve is happy to be leaving another HOA.  I intended to post these photos on KSL but was able to rent it to an acquaintance without having to post it.  That saved me tons of time.

 Here we are in the middle of our project.  Steve arrived back in town on Wednesday afternoon this week and I had a CE class cancelled on Thursday.  That gave us the opportunity to work, work, work on refurbishing the M home.  Steve K gave us a couple of days of his time too.  He is always so helpful when it comes to cleaning and putting things back together.  Every light fixture, vent cover, cabinet, etc. has been carefully cleaned by Steve.  We have painted every room in the basement, which is where we will live.  We still have doors and some trim to do but now we are painting upstairs.

 Steve removed a low slung toilet in our bathroom.  Here the two Steves take it to the garage.

 On Friday, we had a beehive a workers at the house.  We had siding guys. decks guys, window guys, and the electrician plus the two Steve's and myself.  We were cheerfully working around each other.  We can see some progress.

 Here is my new, used stove the two Steve's brought into the house.  It is a really nice Kitchenaid with a warming drawer.  It will definitely be the best thing in this little kitchen.

 The bathroom looks better with it's new paint and light fixture.  The toilet will be installed this week.

 This is the entry way for our part of the house.  It's a good thing we have these storage lockers as there are only two smaller closets in our part of the house.

 Here's the new facade for the garage.  We like the shingle type siding over the garage.  It looks nice. The exterior of the house will look really different without the old brown tudor trim.  The old exterior was rotting and had to be replaced.  We love the real stone that is used to accent the front of the home.

 Here's the new garage window.  It was boarded up before.  I also got a new window for my office.  I never thought I would love new windows so much, but I do.

 Here are the newly- poured front steps.  The tudor part will be removed also so this will look different too.

 We love the mature trees that surround this home.  Another thing Steve accomplished this week was to get a little lawn mower and mow the grass.  I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled about that.  It was getting a bit out of control.  The east neighbor mows his grass twice a week!

 Here's the back of the house with the new siding and the framed deck landing.  They had to order the materials so it won't be finished until the end of this next week.

It won't stop us from moving on Friday, May 30th, however.  That's the date and we are sticking to it.
I bet you all wish you could be here for the big day.  Oh wait.  You don't mind missing this one since you have participated in this soooo many times before. Ha!  Wish us luck!

Ah! Spring!

 I love to work in the yard and in the flower beds.  We are still a long ways from having things like we would like them.  However, we are encouraged as the grass is green and a few transplanted iris bloom.

 Steve had a very busy week working all over California.  He started in Sacramento, hit San Leandro, Fresno, Bakersfield and Long Beach.  He was tired when he arrived home Friday night.  We worked at the Murray house for awhile and drove up to CV the next morning.  We had 4 appointments to show our rental home.  It ended up with five showings and two applicants for rent.  I think that we will finally have it rented.  Yahoo!

 Steve gets pretty tired by Sunday after traveling all week and mowing three lawns on the weekend.  We did get our outdoor furniture out on the deck so he could take a minute to plan his sprinkler adjustments.

 In between, we are both busily working on the Murray place.  Steve decided he needed a fireplace so he arranged for the work to be done on that.  He is excited about it.  I know that we will enjoy it next winter.

 New front steps and a patio were poured this week.  At least we can see progress.

Mother's Day Is Happy!

 Mother's Day is a day of thanksgiving and rejoicing for me.  It gives me the opportunity to reflect on the many blessings my Heavenly Father has given me.  I am thankful that he trusted me enough to allow me to be a mother.  What an honor to help provide six amazing children with earthly bodies and a home where they could grow and develop in the gospel.  It wasn't always easy but it was worth it.
Our family is the light of my life and the treasure of my heart.  I'm so grateful to Steve for his love, loyalty and righteous leadership and for hanging in there with me throughout thick and thin.  He's the best husband and father we could have.

I am thankful to the Savior for His example and especially His atonement.  The prospect of a glorious resurrection after this life and having you as an eternal family is what keeps me going from day to day.  What would I do without the opportunity He has given me to repent?  I've made so many mistakes yet He willingly forgives if I come to Him with humility.  I hope that all of you will forgive me too.  I'm sure some of your challenges are related to my mistakes and inadequacy as a mother.  That's another reason I'm grateful to the Savior as His atonement will make all things right and fair.

I love the Savior.  I love Steve.  I love all of you as my children, spouses and grandchildren.  I AM A HAPPY MOTHER because you are all trying to follow the Savior's path for happiness.  I love the temple which provides us with the opportunity to be an eternal family.

On another note.  Steve took vacation this week and worked himself to the bone on the Murray house.  First he demolished and then he and Mike C will repair things.  In between we paint like crazy.  This week the contractors will come in full force and Steve will be back to work in Sacramento. I run in and out and help in between appointments.  I have some work clothes that I just put on over my nicer clothes.  It is pretty hysterical but it is efficient.

I LOVE YOU!

Projects Galore!

 As we plan and prepare for Dad's upcoming retirement in 2015, we have taken on several projects.  We purchased a little home in CV with plans to rent it out.  It is the house you see below.  A few weeks later, we purchased one in the SL valley that we plan to fix up and live part time in the basement and rent out the upstairs.  The CV home was in pretty good shape but the more we work on it, the more things we find aren't quite to Dad's standards.  We finally have it posted for rent, but yesterday was the first opportunity we had to work on the overgrown yard.  It is looking much better now. This first photo was taken pre-yard work.
We had a couple of rental prospects this past week but both fell through.  We are praying for just the right family to discover our little gem.

 The second home needs quite a bit of work.  Here you see the less than stable front porch that has now been removed.  Below are photos of the paint that we will be changing.

 Here is the deck that was so wobbly, the inspector wouldn't even walk on it.  It actually looked quite nice.

 Last week, Steve single handedly tore it apart, piece by piece.  Here is the wood from the deck.  It is amazing that he could accomplish that all on his own while I was attending real estate classes.

 Voila!  Here is the place where the deck was.  We are replacing it with stairs and a patio which will give it much more privacy and is a lot less expensive. The exterior wood is rotting, so we will be meeting with a siding guy this week.  When we finish, most of the exterior will have been re-done.

 Last weekend, in addition to working on our rental, we hosted a group as part of the ward's "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"? event.  Steve and I spent several hours really cleaning our house.  It is the cleanest it has been since my brother came for a long weekend.
Some people didn't make it to the dinner, so we served the leftovers for Sunday dinner.  Jameson was entertaining as usual.  He decided to eat with the salad tongs.  It was hysterical.  I should have taken a photo of the mess under the table so you could get the full effect.

It rained and snowed most of the weekend which is why we couldn't work on the yard at the rental.  Here is the spring blizzard we encountered over the mountain pass on our way back to SL Sunday night.

 It was chilly most of the week but the flowers at the temple were gorgeous.  I love these fuchsia blossomed trees that dot our valley.

 Here are some interior photos of the CV rental.  It really is a cute house.  We replaced some carpet and we are still working to get blinds hung up.

 You can see how much better the yard looks.  We want to be good neighbors as well as good landlords.

 Last night we were planting a few perennials in our own back yard and I had to stop and take a picture of this beautiful tree that grows on the edge of our yard.  I wish I could describe the beauty of this valley.  We love to look out the windows and see the snow capped mountains across the valley with the gorgeous green fields below.  We love it here.  God is great and generous.  Our blessings are abundant.