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.