April

We got the key to the house in the late afternoon and with our cars loaded, we met each other in the driveway before unlocking the door to our first home. After showing our friend Melissa around the property and the house, we immediately went to work, and by 11pm that night we had all the cabinet doors off of the kitchen cabinets and a pile of old rusty hinges and plastic knobs. The next day, Allan went right to work doing what he does best: demolition. We tore down the drop ceiling in the kitchen and began a long process of cleaning. The hosue was very dirty, and we are going to paint, replace carpet and even may refinish the hardwood floors.

We were also excited about the yard. With just over a half acre, and plenty of mature pants and fruit trees, there is (and will be) a lot of work to do. But, we were very excited to see what will bloom this spring and summer. Some of the highlights of the yard are many apples trees, three pear trees, two plum trees, some cherry trees, blueberry bushes, raspberries, two small ponds, a beautiful Japanese maple tree, and lots of surprise flowers. Melissa and Juan spent part of the day with us our second weekend here and we did a lot of yard work. Melissa and Shana did some serious removal of dead branches with the help of the saw Cheva (Chad and Eva) gave us as a house-warming gift. Juan and I built bee houses for mason bees. Yeah, yeah. You may think bee houses are not that important, but mason bees are super pollinators and we have fruit trees about to flower! We also learned that mowing a hlaf acre with a push mower is an exhausting task.


Our living room with the view of the backyard. I believe that is a pear tree.
Removing the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers.

Removing the drop ceiling in the kitchen.

The kitchen, destructed. Views of the dining room and family room.

The kitchen, destructed, but cleaned up and ready to paint.

Juan: mason beekeeper.

Pruning branches with Melissa, the master gardener, and our first housewarming gift from Cheva.

The kitchen cabinet doors, painted in the garage.

Fruit tree starting to flower.

The monster camila in front of the house.

A different fruit tree in front of house.

Mason bee homes.

Barn, garden, and chicken coop.

The orchard.

The asian pear tree.

Us with Juan and Melissa on the back porch of the apartment.

Back door

Back of house .

Cutting wood in the barn with my new toy.

Tearing out carpet in the kids room.

Rhododenron by the upper pond with Japanese maple in back.

The upper pond. The bucket needs to be cut off of the tree. Not sure how that happened.

More destruction!

Painting the kitchen.

The living room

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