Recently, it dawned on me that, despite promises to do so, Justin and I never actually got around to posting pictures of our house. I could make excuses about corn pollen and hating the outdoors between June and October, but the truth is, we just dropped the ball. We didn't even take a picture of our home's exterior until late October, when we were lucky enough to develop a swamp thanks to a rusty water service line (cause, who knew that steel would rust...)
For your enjoyment, the evolution of Justin and Jenny's house...
This is the house the day before having the service line repaired. Though you can't see the moat in this picture, I promise you, it's directly in front of the holly bush. If this picture were extended to show about 15 feet to the right, you'd also see a (pear?) tree that never lost its leaves this year. The next door neighbors say this was the first time that's happened. I blame the evil birds that live in it.
This is the front yard after having the service line replaced. The repairman swore the dirt would settle over time, and even said he'd return to rake it out a bit after it had a chance to dry out. About 15 minutes after this picture was taken, it started raining, and kept raining for 5 days. Then it got really cold, and stayed really cold. Realizing the repair guy was never coming back to "fix" the dirt mound, Justin and I made peace with the fact our front yard would look like Bugs Bunny tunnelled in to visit. We have great plans of fixing it in the spring.
Then came the ice storm.
Thursday night we had freezing rain. (And a thunderstorm around 3 AM!!!) By Friday morning, there was half an inch of ice coating the street, our mailbox, everything. In case you were wondering, when that much ice builds up on a deciduous tree that inexplicably hasn't lost its leaves by mid-December, the tree breaks. Now, our front yard looks like this:
Actually, that's not quite accurate. That's what our yard looked like on Friday morning. Although they were down on the ground, the branches were only mostly snapped from the trunk. Lucky for me, they were still attached enough that the branches couldn't be moved. And even luckier for me, Justin was 700+ miles away. I was content to let it sit until a tree service could come out to deal with it today. Wanting to help (and without even being asked), our next door neighbor cut the branches off the trunk, and moved them to clear the sidewalk. When I went over to ask him if he was the guy who helped me out, he even asked me when Justin would be home to "help cut them up." Nicest. Man. Ever.
At some point, our front yard will look nice again. And I promise, as soon as that happens, we'll let you know. In the meantime, our neighbors are great and we don't live near a methlab, sewage treatment facility or trailer park - so homeownership is still a good thing.
