Rick's faculty advisor in Residency in Mississippi, Dr. Galli, always told his students to have a "5 year plan."
He encouraged them to set goals, and every 5 years evaluate, plan, make changes, etc.
Otherwise, if nothing changes, nothings changes.
So, we have often referred to the "5 year plan" in our lives.
Well, interestingly enough, exactly 5 years, and I mean EXACTLY 5 years after we moved into our home, our next door neighbor died.
For 5 years, we had bean mumbling under our breath phrases that begin "when Larry dies..."
And wouldn't you know it, right on schedule, Larry died. 5 years to the day.
And a couple of weeks after he died, his sister came over and asked Rick if we were interested in the house.
Larry didn't have any children and none of the nieces and nephews could afford the home.
We were interested because really, who would be interested otherwise?
and that is who would end up being our neighbors.
Forever. Because we will be living in this home forever.
Rick always envisioned someone like cousin Eddy from Christmas Vacation moving in next door.
And honestly, who wants to live next door to cousin Eddy?
 |
| July 18, 2012 So, we became the proud owners of this house built in 1940.  Summer mowed down the weeds before they all went to seed and spread next door. (Like it helped) |
a view of the red shed (aka the hornet's nest) from our backyard.
a view of the newish shed under the maple tree.
from the corner of 1800 N. & 1600 W.
the garden area, pine tree, and lilacs (all of which are gone)
view towards our front yard from the corner.
side yard
some dead grass
July 2013, the demo begins...
tearing out some trees...
 |
| July 30, 2012 |
leveling out the top section.
 |
| July 30, 2012 |
Most of the work was done by EdgePoint Landscape, aka Danny.
Danny was recommended by one of our neighbors.
He's in the landscape management program at BYU.
He's super nice and very meticulous. and sweet to Cole.
Danny would always grab a corn dog for Cole when they would stop for lunch.
Cole would stand by the window each morning and wait for Danny to show up.
 |
| September 11, 2012 |
Adding in the landscaping rocks. notice Coles' truck on the left. Danny was always so patient to let Cole help and to allow him to haul things in his dump trucks.
 |
| August 18, 2012 Sprinkling System going in.  Another load of top soil. |
Trampoline set up and landscaping rocks for paths.
From the front of the house, trampoline set up.
It was full of overgrown bushes and trash where the landscape rocks are now.
Good place to park the supplies/wheel barrow.
 |
| August 21, 2012 |
When they delivered this huge load of top soil, Danny let Cole use a shovel to fill his dump truck.
You can kinda see the Tonka trail that Cole used to help move the soil.
It was so cute to watch him help the big boys out in the yard each day.
Always asking, "When is Danny coming to work?"
Time for sod, September 21, 2013
 |
| October 19, 2012 |
Checking out the sprinkling system on the new sod.
Looks like the sprinklers work!
Time for the fire pit.
 |
| November 1, 2012 |
Fire pit partially complete.
One last shot of the yard on November 1, 2012.
Cole was entertained by the entire process all summer and fall.
He did manage to find some spray paint. He wrote his name and painted a bush. oh well.
It's still a work in progress. I won't even begin to describe the inside of the house.
At this point, the house has been partially rewired (it will be completely rewired soon) and the plumbing redo has begun.
We are hoping for the fire pit to be completed soon. The stone was out of stock last fall and winter hit before the fire pit was complete.
More spring photos to come.
We still call it "Larry's". But I like the name Radley, as well. (thanks, Amara)
1 comment:
It's Amazing!!! So, what are you going to do with it? Rent it out?
Post a Comment