Geothermal Finished!

These past two weeks, DTE has finally finished the electrical work outside. The lines are buried, and we have a brand new fancy electric meter! It's funny they didn't replace the old meter with an electric meter. So the geo is officially done and we should soon be getting charged for it.

The final, final step? Landscaping the backyard after this disaster. Stay tuned.

Fall!

Ode to my favorite season in pictures:

Dogs running around without heat exhaustion:

 

 

A day at the pumpkin patch:

Some fall decor at the Pitt:

Driveway

As you may remember from the master landscaping plan, Bob and I would really like to have our driveway paved. Not because we had a particular problem with the gravel drive, but because there was a huge dip from the driveway into the garage. The Cavalier's underside always hit the dip, and if I had more than 2 people in the Versa or a loaded car, than it would also hit the bottom. We thought that until we had the money, we were just going to have to suffer (well the cars suffer mostly). Another, less annoying problem, but still pretty annoying, was the bottom of our driveway. See our house seems to be at the bottom of a slight hill in our street. This means we get all the water, you guessed it, at the foot of the driveway. The original gravel was laid in such a way that the water just pooled up at the end. This meant a lot of muddy feet in and out of the house.

So we were talking to Tom over at Todd's Services, you may remember them from our master landscaping plan, about re-leveling the backyard, planting grass etc. for next year, when I off handedly asked if there was anything they could do about the driveway now with new gravel. Would that be a waste of money? or would it help us out in the long run (pavement)? Turned out it was a good idea and reasonably priced. We chose limestone gravel, which when it rains becomes almost cement like.

So in this first picture you can see where the dip is because it extends past the driveway and into the walkway a bit. I don't think the picture shows how bad the dip really was:

 

And the rest of the driveway:

I know the Versa is dirty. Try living on a dirt road - it's just not worth washing your car.

Introducing our new bed!

We always said that if we were to get a new bed, it would be a glorious king sized bed. It was one of those things that we talked about, but didn't really expect to get for another couple of years. We had gotten our queen size Sealy bed six years ago. At the time it was extraordinary. A plush pillow top was the selling point for us, but later on became the bane of our sleeping existence. You see we sleep in the middle of our bed and over time, that plush pillow top formed a big dip in the middle of the bed. It became so severe that every time I had to get out of bed, it felt like I was climbing out. Yet the bed was still comfy. Then, earlier this summer I began waking up with back pain. At first it was a night or two a week, but than it became every night. I couldn't sleep more than 5 hours without waking up in pain. X-rays and blood work showed nothing so I moved forward with physical therapy. I dreaded sleeping in the bed at night. So we finally bit the bullet and bought a new bed. I knew that I didn't want anything with coils, or a tempurpedic.  So we got a natural latex bed. I was also pretty set on getting a platform bed frame, which is incredibly hard to find. So after a couple of weeks of searching and not finding anything within our price range, we decided on the Ikea Malm bed frame. It's low to the ground, clean lines, and does the job. A king size bed also meant that we had to get new sheets, new comforter and new pillows.

Can you find Mr. Scamp?

Odds and Ends

Well the geothermal saga is not quite complete. We're still waiting anxiously for DTE to finish their portion of the work. We've still got a mini trench in the backyard waiting on electrical. Other than looking pretty ugly, everything is working. If you're considering geothermal, I cannot stress enough how much your backyard will suck once it's all said and done. I keep joking with Bob that the only reason they give you a 30% tax credit is so that you can do all the landscaping that's required. Haley's warned us about the yard, but you really don't believe it until you see it.

We're getting ready for a Europe trip to a cousin's wedding, so I feel like we're in a bit of a mad rush to get everything together before we leave. What is everything? You know the usual stuff like laundry, cleaning, yard work. With the size of this house, I feel like I start cleaning on Monday, finish by the following Sunday only to start all over again.

We've had a few visitors this past weekend and we headed over to the Big House for a game. Ladies and gentleman, this was my first football game since my freshman year of collage and I missed the one thing I really wanted to see; the half time show. How is it that after four solid years of playing in high school marching band I still have no idea what goes on, on the football field? And it's not for lack of trying (or rather my friends trying to teach me). I guess it just didn't stick. I've included the picture below as proof that I was at the game (and why didn't anyone tell me my underwear was out)?

We're also trying to price out a couple of outdoor projects before this year is over. Our driveway has this huge concrete ramp into it, that the Cavalier always bangs against on its way in and out. We thought our only solution was to tear everything out and re-cement it, but it looks like we may be able to throw some additional gravel down and make the ramp a little less steep.

Also, the lilies need to be replanted before real fall sets in. And the entire front walkway really needs to be weeded. These are both Orsi initiatives, because Bob has minimal interest in the garden.

More from Tantre

Our farm share's have been awesome. We're into potato season and there's nothing better than potatoes. So today I made some potato leek soup:

 

And fresh bruchetta with a summer squash cakes:

 

Next to potato's, tomatoes are the best! We're also getting more beets than we know what to do with. So if you've got beet recipes out there, send them our way.

The Stairs

Our big indoor project for this year was moving the staircase to the basement, perpendicular to where it is currently situated.  The stairs were in the kitchen and it looked more like a bar than a staircase. See picture below.

In addition to the questionable location of the stairs, the construction of the stairs also left a lot to be desired. The height of the steps where completely variable from 6 inches up to 11 inches and the head room left a lot to be desired. By moving the stairs, we've opened up the kitchen, because we clearly needed more space :-)

 

Bar like railing is gone.

 

Reminiscence of old stairs

 

The floor getting filled in.                

 

The new stairs going in.

The new stairs.