Yard Work and the Workers

This post could be boring to you, except for the part where I thought a man only spoke spanish, and I was talking to him real slow and kept giving him thumbs up, when really he was just really Tan...

OK. Here we go. 

I love love love our house. We obviously will out grow it some day, but as of right now, it is my perfect place. I also love owning the home... Or working on owning the home! I love that we get to improve it however we want, and truly make it our own. We are such adults. All we need to do is add a little boy to the mix and we will have the American life, oh wait, that will come in October! GO US GO! Crap. Dan's Canadian. 

Nevermind. 

Anyways, along with owning a home, is all the glorious, crapy, stressful and tearful,  yard work that you get to do. 

The outside of our house was pretty much a blank canvas. All the planting was up to us. So this summer we set to make the yard a little better. It's a lot of work. A LOT OF WORK. Totally worth it though, and i am so proud of all the things we have accomplished for our house. 

It's actually coming together. The next step is new sod for our front yard, but that might be a next summer project. 

Our biggest work has been in our backyard. We planted bushes, and grass, and  did a lot of building. Well, we didn't really build, other people did, but still be threw out the dollar bills. 

I am not going to lie, it's been a little bit of a stressful week getting everything done. You see, we had the brilliant idea to re-plaster our pool, and  build two fences a week before my sister's and mom come to visit. I don't know what we were thinking. 

The weather has been horrible, with so much rain, and tornado warnings, that we kept getting pushed back with all the workers. I was in panic mode worried sick that everything wouldn't be finished and that the pool would be empty when the girls were here. 

Today I finally can breath a little easier. It's finally ALL FINISHED! 

We put a fence up between our house and the pool for a safety with June. There is a picture further down that you can see what it looks like. We had Lowe's come and install it for us, and it was such a headache dealing with them, but I am super proud, I only lost my temper once, but I did tell someone they were bad at their job. I apologized for that one. (Half heartedly) 

They came while I had the stomach flu. That was fun for them to see me vomit in a bucket over and over again. I apologized for that one too. In the end We were super pleased how it turned out and the fact that we created a little play area for June, that is safe from the pool zone. 

Then the pool people came. These people were so amazing! After dealing with Lowe's I felt like royalty the way they treated us. Super awesome at communicating! Well except for the workers, They didn't speak ANY ENGLISH. 

One day, a guy asked me to move my car so they could bring the pump in, and I just gave him a thumbs up and closed the door on him, because I didn't know what he was saying. He had to knock again and pointed to the car and made a move motion with his hand. I chuckled. I don't know why I always give them the thumbs up.... maybe because I am a five year old who doesn't know how to handle awkward situations. 

The pool is very old. We knew that it had some problems, like cracks and water bubbles when you walked on the floor, but then the plaster started attracting some kind of stain, and we were told that there was nothing we could do. We decided it was time to re-plaster the pool. 

See how gross it looks. BLA! 

So a week before my sister's and mom come, we went to work. Then the rain came, which slowed the work way down. I was so so so worried it wasn't going to get done.

   DISGUSTING! We kind of let it go once we knew we were getting it redone, that's why it's all green

Then the real work came

They took out all the old plaster, all the way down to the cement bowl of the pool. It was so weird to see it like that.

At this point we were having horrible weather. I thought for sure I was going to have a houseful of Spanish speaking men, all huddled in my bathroom because of the tornado warnings....

Dan said "It's gonna get spicy" 

Ah, The day they built the fort. This was when the plaster was being put on. That was fun. 

(The picture with the fence) 

 So meanwhile, all this was going on, We also decided to go ahead and replace the fence on the side of our house. Why not add more men to the collection. If you have been to my house before, you know how horrible the old fence was. Falling down, and really rotted. 

These guys were really cool though. They spoke english which was a nice change, and they worked super fast. They built the fence in 24 hours. 

The finished product. It's a beauty! 

They finished plastering the pool, and we got to refill the water. 19,000 Gallons of water, that is filled by our little garden hose. It took a full 24 hours to refill, and we hope to not have to drain it again for a while. 

Here comes the part with the really Tan guy:

     Really it's not my fault. I have had Mexicans at my house for a week straight, so I just assumed he was too. Two guys came over on Monday to start getting the pool all set up, chemicals, chlorine, and all that jazz. I go out there, just to let them know that I am there, I wave and say Hi. They both wave and the one guy goes back to work, and what I thought was the "Tan guy" asking me a question, so i say huh?

Here's how it plays out.

TAN GUY: "a;osihga;okshjdgaoishg"

ME: "WHAT?" 

TAN GUY: He says something and I catch the word light in there. 

ME: "NO". With a head shake  "LIGHT WORKS. NO REPLACE." (I am yelling this as if he were deaf also.)  

TAN GUY: He gives me a look, that at the time seemed like was just him not understanding me... Later I realized it was him not understanding me, but not because of the language barrier, but because I'm just a total moron! 

ME: "OH GOOD. YES, LIGHT WORK" I am give him the thumbs up, along with a great side smile. I just walk back inside. 

Later the Tan guy comes and knocks on the back door. I go answer and this is him. IN PERFECT ENGLISH. 

TAN GUY: "Uh, ya, you just had a blown fuse, but we fixed that, oh and your power box for the lights is located over by the pump instead of with the other fuses. We made sure to test all power sources, along with the pump... Did you have any questions?"  

ME: "oh. Nope, It all looks  GREAT" flashed him another two thumbs up. He smiled at me, and told me to have a nice day. 

I later told the story to Dan, and he just laughed, kissed me, and told me I was pretty. 

WHO CARES!  TODAY, THE POOL  IS FINALLY  ALL FINISHED! 

We went for our first swim today, which was amazing! We are so ready for summer, and lot's and lot's of swimming! 

We will continue to keep improving, and watching all our little shrub bushes grow, meanwhile, I feel the need to start learning spanish....