Weekend Update #3

I don't think I'll ever get over our late afternoon western light:

On to our accomplishments.  This weekend we (plus our Dads and a brother) got a lot done:

• Put handles on bathroom linen closet drawers  
• Replaced missing handles on the kitchen cabinets and drawers
• Took down some of the vents for the alien overlord of the basement
• Cut up the tree limb
• Cleaned out downspouts
• Debirdnested the basement
• Dedeadbirded the basement
• Attempted to fix the loose front porch railing
• Took down the satellite dish
• Took out unnecessary coax cables
• Put coverplate on new outlet in the basement
• Plunged the toilet (thanks Dad!)
• Cut off the water supply to the leaky water heater
• Found a much speedier way to get to Home Depot
• Pulled out 2 big roots
• Fixed the siding to the right of the porch screen door 
• Organized the kitchen, tools, & cleaning supplies
• Trimed south tree more
• Cleaned out the basement storage room
• Changed the front door locks
• Covered the gas water heater flue hole
• Replaced the 240 volt double pole breaker 
• Put in 2 more 20 amp breakers for future outlets
• Found out that reworking your whole HVAC system, getting a new furnace, air conditioner, water heater, and replacing old plumbing with PEX tubing is freaking EXPENSIVE aka we got an official estimate from a company on Saturday afternoon
• Set up a the septic system cleanout for this week

Now for the pictures:

Siding BEFORE:

Siding AFTER:

We realize that the new siding is 4 inches instead of 8 inches and that the top cap piece is completely not level (it's because the screen frame that it is capping is totally wonky), but this will only be like this until we completely redo the porch next spring.  So this fix is just getting it weatherproofed (and less awful-looking) the quickest and cheapest way possible.  Come Spring that porch will have a railing instead of a short wall!

Look HANDLES!

These drawers are now 100% more useful and are already storing stuff!

12 of the drawers/cabinets in the kitchen were missing handles, but by some sort of magic Home Depot had the EXACT match so now you can't tell what's old and what's new.  When we redo the kitchen these cabinets will go to the garage and basement for tool storage.

Look at these crazy roots that my fiance's Dad pulled out with his truck:

You can't tell from this picture, but it is about 6 feet long and looks like a huge carrot

The brand new outlet finally has it's cover:

The Alien Overlord of the Basement is beginning to lose some of its power:

So much headroom at the bottom of the stairs now!

No more satellite dish!

Look at the comically-sized wrench!

The dead branch is gone:

And is now this:

The garage is starting to get organized!

Just don't look over here:

Random pictures:

We have a really sunny basement in the afternoon. There are no lights on in this picture! Have I mentioned how much I love our western afternoon light?

Who needs sawhorses?

Look, refrigeration!:

Here's the creek across the street.  There's fish in it.

Here's the house from a new perspective:

Here, be inside a tree:

And most importantly we are ready for guests: