House of Bennetts

Things around the Bennett house have been pretty quiet on the whole "DIY our house and make huge changes" front. There are a lot of reasons for that (shoulder surgery, budget, weather), but mostly we are going through our first fall season in this house and have noticed a few of the more boring things that need to be done.

Cleaning Out the Gutters... Multiple Times

The front of our house has two beautiful trees. And they are HUGE.

Said big beautiful trees now look like this:

Hence... gutter overflowing crazy time.

Tree Demolition

We are getting this pine tree taken out in a week! We've been saving up for it and are finally ready to yank it on out! I can't tell you have valuable having this post was. I would call different places to get quotes and email them the blog post while we were on the phone. They then knew exactly which tree(s) I was talking about and could come out on their own and give us a quote. Amazing. The guy we went with is a friend of a friend and the cost? $675. We got bids from $600 all the way to $1200 for this tree, so we feel pretty good about the final cost. We also feel good that this dead, I shed pine straws like crazy little beast is going to be gonezo.

Front Yard- Left of House

Clothes Organization

I make use of those space saver bags for summer- winter clothes and so it was time to clean out my closet (thanks Eminem).

Before:

I also went to Nordstrom Rack with my Sammie and did some birthday damage in the clothes department. LB helped me reorganize my closet situation and it's looking a lot more accessible, spacious, and I-can't-reach-above-my-head-yet friendly.

Bids

We have gotten two bids to take out the wall that divides the living room and the kitchen (the one with the mirror): one was $1800-2500 and the other was $750-$1000. We're going to contact a few more contractors that we found through the NextDoor App and hopefully pull the trigger on this shortly into the new year.

Dryer Vent

Hey you! Yes, you! Get your Shop-Vac out and vacuum out that dryer vent. It takes maybe 15 minutes and might save you from a house fire. Uhhhh DO IT!

Wedding Photos

I am finally putting together my Blurb wedding book and getting all of those beauties organized is making me feel so much less stressed!

Photo Cred: Preston Utley

What do y'all do to prepare for the onslaught of winter?

*Congratulations to @whammy_pammy for winning the scarf by Anna Moor Designs. You can still get the 10% discount code through July 28 at 8 pm Eastern. To join in on the Anna Moor fun, go to her instagram! You guys. This is a judgment free zone right? Right!?!? Good.

Cause our covered porch in the backyard had gotten out. of. control. I really don't know how that happened. But it just sort of happened. LB brought all of his car cleaning stuff out and it stayed out. We gave the dogs baths and brought their crap out, we have no garage, and we have two bikes. I just don't know what else to say, but... look.

Yikes.

So we scurried our booties over to HD and picked up a vertical shed. I can't seem to find this exact one on their website, but it was on display in the store. The box, laughably, said that the construction time for this bad boy would be 15 minutes... two hours later, it was put together. While LB got this thing put together, I vacuumed the entire driveway and back porch. The leaf situation mandated it. I also vacuumed out the window wells to the basement that are by the driveway. You ever vacuumed leaves with a shopvac? It is actually sort of therapeutic. You suck them up and they are GONE-- no wind worries, no disposal worries. #thelittlethings

Anyway, back to the shed... The size is great for our back porch because it is tall and sits pretty close to the wall.

Speaking of the wall, I caulked all around the base of the back porch with my cement caulk to seal everything up. You can kind of see it in that picture above, but here is a super riveting, close-up look at my caulking action.

sealing back porch

I also sealed up the wood posts where I could along the front of the deck. LB and I both agree that we want to pressure wash the snot out of this backyard and pretty much the rest of the house. That will probably be a next year project, but we're pumped to see the space looking fresher... even with a bug zapper. (Denver peeps: can we just be done with these CRAZY rain storms!? They are bringing bugs and I don't like it!).