Pool Renovation-Completed!

Last week, we finally got the pool finished up. Yeah!  We originally were told this would be about a week to a week and a half project. It took a little over a month. It wasn't too bad, but I am happy that I won't have men just show up in my backyard every couple of days. 


These next two pictures are what it looked like right after the concrete was poured. These pictures really show the comparison of what we had and what we are adding. 

Sorry the pictures are kind of dark. I haven't quite mastered the proper balance between shade and sun in the same shot. 
As you can see, there just wasn't much space to put chairs around the pool before. 

And now the completed project........

We love how it turned out! We picked out the color of the overlay and I think it looks so good next to the house. 

And another angle looking towards the pool. 

And yet another shot, this one showing the new concrete we added up next to the house. This is also where we chopped that tree down. 

Now we can't wait until next summer so we can use it! We will have to do a little landscaping and replanting of grass next summer. I would love to get a palm tree or two to plant back there. Our neighbors have some around their pool and I love them. 


This was all finished up on Tuesday, and then we had to wait two days for the sealant to dry before we could put our furniture back on it. We thought everything was good and Friday I went out to admire the new patio and noticed the pool pump wasn't working correctly. Grrrr! 


So we put in a call to our warranty company and they are sending someone out tomorrow to look at it. Actually one of our neighbors came over to look at it yesterday. Chris and he worked on it for over two hours, and got it working again! Yeah! We think the problem was one of the filter baskets was cracked and allowed leaves to get into the pump causing it to clog. We are still having the warranty folks come tomorrow just to make sure that was it. It does seem to be working much better though. 


We are also getting a new front and back door tomorrow. Right after we moved in, we found the back door was rotting. So that needed to be replaced. We also decided the front door needed to go because it has two windows in it. Which you can see straight through to the back of the house from. Not great for private mornings when you want to hang out in your pajamas and not have everyone who comes to the door see you. 


So we can't wait to get our new doors tomorrow and then we are done with home improvements for awhile! Well we hope we are. As long as nothing else breaks down! Fingers crossed! 


Thanks again for visiting me! 

Pool Renovation-Phases 1 & 2

So the house we bought here in Texas has a pool. When we were looking for houses, Chris and the boys wanted a pool desperately. I believe Chris' exact words were, "I'm not living in 100 degree Texas in the summer without a pool." So every house we looked at had a pool. 

Some of the houses we looked at had really fancy pools, but the house wasn't right. And I kept saying we can't buy the house for the pool. So we decided to the buy the house that was the best for us, but the pool might need some work. 

This is our pool. 

The woman we bought the house from lined one side of the pool with very pretty flowers and plants. They looked prettier when we moved in. When I took these pictures, they were starting to die and Maggie had decided she liked to trample all over them and tear them out of the ground. 


Plus since they were pretty flowers, they attracted bees and bugs. Which isn't too much fun to have around when you are trying to relax in the pool. The boys wouldn't even go to that side of the pool because every time they did, a bee would buzz their head.  They would then come flying out of the pool. (I should clarify that by saying it is the boys who would come flying out of the pool; the bees were content to have their pretty flowers to fly around. )

We decided that our first major project would be to get the pool looking the way we want it to. And by doing it this fall, we got some discounts and it would be all ready to use next summer. 

We started calling companies to get bids on pulling out all of the plants on that side of the pool. We also decided to cut down that tree on the side of the house. It was dropping leaves in the pool all of the time, and it was really too close to the house as well. 

So we decided on a company and they started to get to work. Here is the pool with all of the plants taken down. Who knew there is a great brick retaining wall back there??? 

And another view without the plants and the tree cut down. 

When we removed the plants we decided to have concrete poured all around the pool. This will give us much more space for chairs and lounges. So this is phase two: they leveled the ground and put up forms for the concrete to be poured. We are adding concrete all the way up the retaining wall.

We also wanted to add some more concrete on the other side. 

Next up is the pouring of the concrete. And then the final phase is having an overlay put down to make everything the same color. 

I can't wait for this to be done! I never know when they are going to show up for work. I will be sitting here and all of the sudden I will have a bunch of men in my back yard working. Plus it is taking a lot longer to finish than we thought it would. But isn't that always the case with renovations!??

Thanks again for visiting me! 

Our Halloween Weekend

We kind of missed going to a pumpkin patch this year, mostly because we didn't know where to find one. I had seen an advertisement for a Pumpkin Village at the Dallas Arboretum, so we decided to check it out even though we would not be able to buy pumpkins there. Also Chris' parents and sister Karen were visiting us that weekend and we thought it would be something fun for us all to do.


This was the day before Halloween and we didn't realize it was trick or treat day there. It was crowded! We couldn't even park there. We had to park a couple a miles away and then take a shuttle over. 

It was really pretty here and we want to go back when it isn't so crowded. The picture below shows part of the pumpkin village. 

And this is a neat part with waterfalls. There were lots of people taking pictures here so I'm thinking it is a pretty popular area. 

On Sunday, we took everyone down to the stockyards in Fort Worth. We missed the cattle drive by about an hour.  I believe they have the drive twice a day every day, but I'm not 100% sure of that.  

Unfortunately the boys seemed to run into some trouble. 

We debated on where to bail them out, but since it was Halloween the judge decided to go easy on them and let them out on their own recognizance. ;-)

I'm so glad they got sprung from the jail, because they had some trick or treating to do! 

That is one scary (cute) Vampire. 

And we also had Scream. 

And Chris got attacked by a giant spider who wrapped him up in a web. And poor Maggie got turned into a bat. EEK!!!! (And before you ask, I do not dress up for Halloween. Not my thing, but I love looking at everyone else's costumes.)

And then after we took all the obligatory pictures, they were off to go candy collecting! We have quite the candy stash around here. 

I believe I have hit all of the major events since we have moved. I can't believe it is almost Turkey time! This year is going by fast. 

Thanks again for visiting me! 

I'M HERE! (In Texas!)

Wow, I haven't blogged in forever! To be honest, I almost thought about not starting it back up, but now that things have settled down here I feel like I will have more time to devote to it.  


Since it has been a few months, I will go back in time for the next few posts to share what we have been up to here in the Lone Star State. 

This is the sign welcoming us to Texas on our drive down. Spencer took that picture for me as we were entering our new state. It was a long drive, but not too bad. 

This is the boys at the new house right after we arrived. They wanted to see the pool right away.  We are having some work done on it right now and I will share more about that in a few days. 

Two weeks after we arrived in Texas, we got to fly to Ohio for a family wedding. Chris' brother Kevin got married to the lovely Megan. It was a gorgeous wedding and we had a great time seeing everyone. And Connor for some reason thinks that he is a hip hop dancer now and poses like this in most pictures if you don't catch him in time. He was very entertaining at the reception with his dance skills. :-0

After we got back from the wedding, the very next morning was the first day of school. School starts very early in the morning here! Even though the boys look like happy, smiley boys ready to start the new year, they actually felt more like this:

Spencer adjusted to his new school great. He goes to an intermediate school that is just 5th and 6th grade. Connor had a more difficult time getting used to everything. I think it was the combination of being the new kid and not having his brother in the same school with him. He is doing great now though! 

I had to get used to no bus service for Connor. I got spoiled back in Missouri where they picked the boys up in front of the house. Luckily, we have lots of kids in the neighborhood, so I now carpool. That means I only have to drive him (and two friends) to school a couple of days a week instead of every day. 

And we also got to celebrate a couple of birthdays since we have been here. 

First up was mine. When we first moved in, one of Chris' co-workers brought us a bundt cake from this company called Nothing Bundt Cakes. It was so good that I requested one for my birthday cake! Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!

And someone turned 7! 

Connor! 

He had a great birthday. His Grandma Linda was visiting us from Kansas City and got to go with me when I brought cupcakes to school for him to share with his class. He asked for a cookie cake for home and got to pick a restaurant for dinner. We need to work on his restaurant choices. I won't name any names, but let's just say it was not good. Blech! But Connor was happy! 

Now that things are settling down, I'm going to try and update this blog on a more regular basis. Next I will post about Halloween and then I think I will have hit the major points since we moved. 

Thanks again for visiting me!!!! 

It is moving time!

-- Post From My iPhone

Our Farewell To St. Louis Tour: The Arch

We have got a little behind on our farewell tour. I guess part of it is the lazy days of summer combined with all of the things you have to do to move a long distance away. And since moving day is fast approaching, we realized that we needed to hit the Arch pronto! I had secretly been waiting, hoping for a cooler weather day, but it just didn't seem like that was going to happen. So yesterday was the day. In the scorching, humid St. Louis heat. 

I will share a little secret on Arch visiting. The earlier in the day the better. If you wait until the afternoon, the lines get really long. Yesterday we arrived a little later than I wanted, but the wait wasn't too bad. About an hour or so. 

Here is where we wait to get into our little pods to take us to the top. It takes 4 minutes to get to the top and 3 minutes to come down. And once you are up there, you can stay as long as you like. 

The boys inside the pod on the way up. When the pod first starts to go up, it kind of clicks back and forth a little. I took this picture right as we started to go up, and Spencer grabbed onto his chair holding on for dear life! He was a little nervous. The ride smoothes out after the first 30 seconds or so. And then it just feels like an elevator.  

At the top! I know you can't tell from this picture, but it was really crowded. I didn't know that we picked a day that the Cardinals were playing a day game. We saw lots of people in their Cardinals gear hanging at the Arch before game time. 

Speaking of the Cardinals, here is a picture I took from the top of the Arch of downtown and Busch stadium.

One last picture of the boys under the Arch. I'm not sure when we will be back here. So I decided to go ahead and pay for the picture they take of you before you go up. 

It is kind of pricey and I normally don't buy these things, but since this is our last time for a very long time, I decided why not.

Plus it actually shows that I was there! 

Since moving day is coming pretty fast now, I am not sure if we will get to much more in our St. Louis Farewell tour. I am hoping to squeeze in the City Museum next week if possible. 

Thanks for visiting me! 

Our trip to Fort Worth

Last weekend, the boys and me made our first trip down to the Dallas/Forth Worth area. This was our official house-hunting trip. Chris has been looking at houses for us since he went there in April and we set appointments to look at the top 8 that he liked. 

Here are the boys on the plane shopping the Skymall catalog. They found lots of cool stuff! 

We arrived in the afternoon and Chris first took us to his office, which is really nice. Right now he is in an apartment in downtown Fort Worth, so we decided to walk downtown and find a restaurant for dinner. 

Here are the guys downtown. I thought this was a neat building. I only had my little point & shoot camera with me this trip, but I'm really looking forward to taking my Dslr there to take some pics. 

Another shot of that same building. This was a very neat little area of the downtown. I think it is called Sundance Square. 

I thought this building was so cool! It is a performance hall, but I can't remember it's name now. 

We went to dinner at a Mexican restaurant downtown and unfortunately it wasn't very good. The margarita was good, but the food was just so-so. 

On Friday, Chris and I saw 8 houses. It was a very full day! One of the great things about moving to Fort Worth is that I have an aunt who lives here.  She took the boys for us for the day, so we could house hunt! We narrowed our choices down to the top two and made plans to revisit them on Saturday for a 2nd time. 

Sunday was July 4th and Chris made plans for us and my Aunt and cousin from TX, and my other Aunt who was visiting from Colorado to walk to a July 4th festival being held in downtown Fort Worth. Remember his apartment is downtown. 

He said we just had to walk over this bridge and then it was at some ball field there. Here we are in the middle of the bridge. If you can see the building way in the back that kind of looks like an "M", that is Chris office.

So back to our walk to this festival. It was a lot further than we thought it was going to be and when we finally got there, it really wasn't a place we wanted to stay. So we got something to drink and thought let's just head back over the bridge back into downtown and we can watch the fireworks from there. 

We had major problem with that though. When we got back to the bridge, they had shut it down until after the fireworks. Which meant we were stuck. Without any good place to get a drink or use a restroom. 

This is Connor sitting at the end of the bridge. We pretty much all felt this way. lol! It would not have been bad if the fireworks had started on time. We would have only had to sit there 15-20 minutes, but they were late. An hour late. We sat at the end of that bridge for an hour. 

And then finally we saw fireworks. 

There was a large cheer when that first firework went off, because now we had a little crowd of us stuck at the end of the bridge. 

We all decided that this was a learning lesson for us. Next year we will just stay home for the 4th and have a BBQ and lounge in the pool. Did I say pool?

Oh yeah! The house we put a contract on has this! 


Next year we are staying home and watching fireworks on television. Who is with me???!! 


Thanks for visiting me!