House

It is no secret that we are renting this house. It is also no secret that when we took posession of the house at the end of December it was in horrible shape. It was filthy, the walls had pencil and crayon marks all over as well as greasy finger print marks. Our land lords live in California so they were not at all aware of the disater that had been left by the previous tenants. I do not blame them. We too own a home that is a large distance from where we live now - and while we rent to Chuck's mom, we understand that houses need work and that if you own a home and don't live in the same city, it can be almost impossible to keep track of what is happening inside.

Our landlords were great about the way the house was left. They paid for the cleaning and had the majority of the house repainted. And what they didn't have repainted, they allowed us to do it ourselves. This time moving into this house took us a much longer time than it normally does because there was so much work that had to be done to the house before we could actually start settling in. There are times, now, six months later, I still don't feel like we are 100% settled. But as a military wife, I know the minute I feel like we are completly settled, Chuck will come home with orders to move us elsewhere. (Murphy's law of military moves!)

Over the weekend, we tackled the last of the "mess" the previous tenants left behind for us. The flower beds in front of the house. They were overgrown so much with weeds that it really made the house look run down and dumpy - which I don't think it is either. And while it was hotter than the shades of hell while Charlie was out there working, it was really the first opportunity we felt we had to take care of it. And I have to say Chuck did an AWESOME job - especially since he hates doing yard work. I am posting before and after pictures because it just looks so much different!