Mom visited and helped make the house feel more homey and gave it her own special touch, which is always nice!

To brighten this always very dark room she talked me into adding the rug, new lamp shades, pillows and we rotated the room around to make it more functional as it relates to the entire living room and house. 

Ma also helped to brighten the room!

I've been in this house two years. In that time the kitchen has gone from this...

...to buying this sink cabinet...

 

...and adding functional drawers...

 

...to topping it with a butcher block surface, staining it, plus adding corbels...

 ...to at last, this!

I added a matching cabinet to go under the television set. 

This isn't quite yet done (both above and below the TV). I'm thinking shelves for

wine glasses, cookbooks, and chachkis. 

 

After sealing the north side of the garage, an engineer came over and kindly wrote up the specs for an excavator to remove the dirt around my and my neighbor's garages.

 

Now, the water rushes between our two garages and around the back and into Sugar Creek. 

NO MORE FLOODED GARAGE!

 Some of the dirt was used to fill an empty cistern which was dangerous. The smashed the cistern

and then filled it in. The house is a wee bit more safe for doing this.

After removing three dump trucks of dirt it became clear I now had to build a retaining wall.

A so-called quick DIY job took three weeks!

 

 

 

The old, rotted, infested fence is removed!

 

A raccoon made a home here in the hole underneath the pool deck.

 And the fence posts go up!!!

 At the same time I started work on the garage. It floods every time it rains! 

So...

 I pulled out rotted railroad ties, and then dug out below the garage cement pad.

Installed an impermeable seal.

 Reinforced the side of the garage.

Then I tar sealed the wall.

 Laid a drainage pipe for good measure.

The retaining wall on the other side of the pool.

To protect the pressure treated wood I sealed the wood on the inside of the wall ...

 

...then I covered the supporting beams. Then I backfilled with gravel.

       

The cedar fence continued to go up!

 I also had the back wall finished and partial deck and steps installed.

Dirt was brought in to fill in along the garage wall and the retaining wall.

I took the old street brick pavers and created a brick path.

Finally, the sod goes in. Long, hot, messy job!