Trick or Treat

Cole and Lauren right before going out to trick or treat.


The pumpkins a few days ago after being carved.


This was the first year where I didn't have to carve both pumpkins. Lauren helped trace and cut out the pattern. Cole was busy playing with his trains.

Backyard work - Day 1

Our landscaping was due for an overhaul. After finalizing on a company and design, the work started this past week. Things seem to be moving pretty fast. Luckily I was able to drain the pool before they started.


Here's during the first day. Notice the Weeping Willow in the corner among other things is missing.


Finally those ugly water features will be removed.


The grass on the wall is actually to protect the wall from the demolition.


Hopefully our neighbors won't mind all the materials in the road.

Contractor after contractor

I had to stay at home for a Home Energy Audit (post to come later), so I decided to schedule as many contractors as possible for the same day. Here is our snail shower where we had to put up a shower curtain because the draft would make the shower so cold. We've had this up for almost 3 years now and decided it was time to upgrade.


Here you can see our 3/8" clear frameless shower door with US Horizon hardware.


Our old 75 Gallon water heater started leaking as well so I arranged to have it replaced.


Here's our new 50 Gallon Bradford and White water heater. I looked into getting a tank-less gas water heater but the federal tax credit ended last year and it's just too costly to convert over. Plus, we didn't have the luxury of waiting any more since it was leaking already. The gas line would need to be upgraded to 3/4" and the vent pipes would need to be upgraded to a stainless steel.

Peeping Tom?

If you look closely at our neighbor's tree, you'll see something peeking at us.




Our friend from before but this time hiding in the tree.

Cloudy to clear

The next project on the to do list was to fix the cloudy headlights on our car.


I bought this from Target which turned out to be cheaper than Amazon.


Since the kit is basically sandpaper, I put on painter's tape to make sure I didn't damage the surrounding paint.


Here's the finished product. Next up is to have a professional put on a clearbra over the headlights so that they don't get scratched up and cloudy again.

Lunch date

Scorpion hunting

First time scorpion hunting. Managed to find five. Four in the back and one in the front yard. Might be time to get an exterminator or go hunting on a weekly basis.

Kitchen modifications

Sabbatical is a great time to finish all the things that we were just too busy to do. First was adding some storage for all the cutting boards and bakeware. We bought these Copco storage racks from Crate and Barrel but you can find them a little bit cheaper at Amazon.


We had to go with these removable racks because our cabinet has an electrical box and conduit in it that prevents us from mounting something more permanent.


Here's the finished product. So much better.


Here's another project that we've been meaning to do since we moved into the house. Here are the existing garbage cans. Notice they are square in shape so they only hold 27 qt. Also, with this design you have to open the door all the way and then slide the cans out.


Here are the new cans. These are 35 qt each and the door mounts directly to the system so you only have to pull the door open and everything opens up. This is a Rev a Shelf storage solution. Fairly easy to install but you need to make sure you order the right version to fit your cabinet opening.