Removing the trampoline

The trampoline has been falling apart for a while now. Springs have been coming off, and the base is rusting away. Nobody uses it much anymore, so we decided to get rid of it. Damon and Miles did most of the work.

And I took apart the final ring they couldn't get apart.

It had a good life, lasting 9 years from the day we got it, through birthday parties, ice, and even chickens.

New washer and dryer

Many months ago, our dryer stopped stopping. It dried clothes fine, but once started, it would not stop on its own. I took apart the console to see if I could fix it, but it was something more than a loose wire. I suspected replacing the timer dial mechanism would fix it, but that was a $50 gamble, so instead we used a digital timer and only dried clothes when we knew we would be there to stop it.

The situation was annoying, but doable, until more recently the washer started having issues. It was also getting stuck in certain cycles. Amber took it apart and put it back together and it worked for a while then started having issues again, so she decided it was finally time to retire them after 17 years.

I'd given my support in the past for a new washer and dryer, but she could never decide which brand and model she wanted. Now necessity made her choose and she settled on some basic LG models. We gave away our old ones (with full disclosure) to someone she found online, and soon had this new set.

The washer is larger capacity, and they both sing to us when they're done. So far they seem to do a good job washing and drying. Hopefully they last us another 17 years.

New bathroom sink

Amber wanted to get rid of the pedestal sink in the powder bathroom.

After lots of research, she found something she liked and installed it.

In the course of her research, she also found out you can buy dragon and swan faucets. So now we have a golden swan faucet, with matching swan towel ring soon to come.

New upstairs bathroom vanity

Amber has wanted to replace the upstairs bathroom vanity for a while now. There is not enough counter space, and she thought the lower space should include drawers.

So of course, she designed, built, and installed a new one herself. (Miles helped a little.)

She found a guy to cut and install a quartz countertop.

Then she installed her custom-built doors and drawers, installed the faucets, and reinstalled the mirror (with trim). Looks amazing!

Backyard landscaping

Amber got one of her Christmas presents early this year. We got the guy who did our front flower beds to redo our backyard also. Now we have boulders!

New roof and new toilet

While Grandpa Roper was here to see the Shakespeare performance, he observed the duct tape that was trying to stop the leaking from the cracked tank on the toilet upstairs. His plumber instincts kicked in and in no time we were at Lowe's getting a new toilet.

Damon and I helped him install it and in no time we had a shiny new toilet.

We've had lots of roofing companies trying to get us to replace our roof in the last couple years. Recently we had one who got inspectors to convince our insurance that we'd had hail damage. After dealing with insurance for a while, we finally got the check and they replaced the roof mostly in one day.

I'm glad we were able to get that done without having to pay a fortune, and before the leaks started showing up.

Flooring the attic

After considering it for years, we finally decided to floor the boys' room attic. The new closet in the girls' room took up some of that attic so it seemed like it was time.

This attic was technically a little more complicated because of the joists and supports and air vents. Amber and I planned it out together, bought the wood, then she took charge of cutting the plywood, while I installed them.

It took a couple weeks, but we eventually got it all done.

Now it's time to fill it up.

New kitchen table

Ever since we expanded the dining area years ago, we've been talking about getting a new kitchen table that seats more and fits the room better. We had a free Saturday this past weekend, so we went table shopping to replace the table we bought to fit the old space.

In the past we liked the tables from Gallery Furniture, but they were very expensive, so we stopped by a few other furniture stores like Ashley and The Dump (our previous table's source) first. We found a few candidates, but nothing that tempted us to pull the trigger.

Gallery had two good candidates, a very large, quite fancy table that we ultimately decided would be a little too fancy (and probably too big) for our house, and a smaller, simple one. We opted for the latter table (despite the Gallery prices) and as promised, Mattress Mack had it delivered later that night.

We originally wanted to get 8 chairs, but they only had 6. Otherwise, we've been very happy with it. It has two leaves, which allows us to expand it for guests. The leaves are stored in the table itself, and the opening mechanism has metal gears so the table opens very smoothly. Underneath, it has a little shelf, which Pepper was quick to claim as her own.

Girls room closet

The girls' room has a weird layout, which makes it hard to put two beds in the room without blocking either the closet doors or the attic door. Amber has wanted to redo the closet for years and now was the time.

We hired some contractors to remove the double doors and replace it with a single door, while also pushing the back wall into the attic more and extending the left side all the way to the side of the house. The ceiling has to slope a little at the back, but it is a much bigger, walk-in closet now.

We still need to get it painted and carpeted, and Amber has plans to add shelves and a bar for hanging clothes. But now the girls' beds don't have to be right next to each other and it opens up the room.

Garage sale

Last Saturday was the neighborhood garage sale, and I had just gone through the games cupboard and cleaned out lots of old games and puzzles, so I told Carmen and Olivia that if they wanted to sell them at the garage sale, they could keep all the profits. They agreed, so I helped them set up a table, then they waited.

It started out slow, and unusually cold. The early garage salers were mainly looking for big ticket items to resell and skipped them over. Olivia soon got too cold and gave up, so I went out with Carmen so she wouldn't be alone.

We got one sale and figured that was better than nothing, but eventually the weather started to warm up and so did the customers. We ended up with a bunch of different sales, with some people buying several things.

We packed it up at the scheduled end time, and Carmen was happy with her haul.

Good-bye swing set

We decided it was finally time for the swing set in the backyard to go. It's had a good life, and we definitely got our money's worth out of it after getting it for free from the previous owners of our house 13 years ago.

The kids didn't use it much anymore, so they weren't too upset to about tearing it down.

New flower beds

As an early Christmas present, Amber wanted to have the front flower beds redone. She had thought for years about how to do it herself, but we finally just payed some landscapers to do it for us.

It was only supposed to take a day or two but because of weather and other delays it ended up being about a week, but the final product looks great!

I didn't take a "before" picture, but you can see the improvement over the scrubland that was our previous garden beds in the picture from last year.

Amber's projects

We may have been stuck home all summer, but that just gave Amber a good excuse to knock a bunch of projects off her list. Here's what she did while I sat upstairs on my computer all day.

She supervised Carmen, who refinished and gave new life to our playroom table (and removed the last remnants of Damon's toddler scribbles).

She fixed a leaking pipe in our front yard.

She built a fence gate for the side of the house that didn't have one.

She created our "workroom" upstairs by adding a custom work bench and shelves for baskets.

She added a cat door to the laundry room door.

She trimmed all the bushes in the backyard, with some help from the kids.

She fixed the dryer vent.

She built a custom printer stand.

She reupholstered the cushions in the playroom and made pillows to go with them (with Olivia's help).

And of course, she made shelves. She reframed the girls' window and added shelves for Carmen's side, she made a small shelf that attaches between the girls' beds, she added shelves in the master closet, and a new shelf in the laundry room.