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Obnoxious Neighbors

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

This project is a little different and you may find it interesting.

I am sad to say that we moved in next to some really obnoxious and inconsiderate neighbors. I won’t go into the details of what they are doing, but I will share with you my new addition to the home improvement project list: coping with obnoxious and inconsiderate neighbors. Here are my tasks associated with the project:

  • Don’t let the bad neighbor’s behaviors control your attitude, or steal your joy.
  • Try communication first. Maybe they don’t know that they are being inconsiderate.
  • Document HOA violations. Photos, dates, and details will most likely help your case.
  • Don’t let them steal your joy! Stay positive, and focus on life’s pleasures, not life’s nuisances.

I don’t know if my project is going to work, but I have already begun documenting and communicating with the HOA in order to get our situation with our obnoxious neighbors straightened out.

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Simple Keyring Holder Solution

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Here is a neat and easy solution for hanging your keys by the door so that you don’t have to constantly look for them (like my wife does..).

Buy a keyring holder rack from your favorite home goods store. Get some double sided tape, or those new sticky strips that stick on both sides but release easily when you pull on them.

key holder hooks

key holder hooks

Take the sticky strip and stick it to the back of the keyring holder rack. You can toss the screws because we won’t use them… we don’t want holes in the wall or cabinets!

key holder with adhesive strips attached

key holder with adhesive strips attached

Clean the surface before you apply the sticky tape. Stick the keyring holder in place.

key holder stuck under cabinets

key holder stuck under cabinets

And that’s it! Now your keys will always be near the door, and easy to find. I stuck mine under the cabinets in the utility room. Pretty cool, huh?

keys on key holder under cabinets

keys on key holder under cabinets

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Front of our house

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Here is the front of our new Pulte home.

front of house from across street

front of house from across street

I probably should have put Nora’s car in the garage and closed it first. I didn’t think about it though…

front entrance to house

front entrance to house

The landscaping is very basic, and will need to be upgraded later. But we have lots of furniture and other projects to tackle first, so what you see here is what will probably be there for at least a year.

covered front porch

covered front porch

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Dream Home, Furniture

Saturday, April 3, 2010

My wife and I were really interested in another house. Actually, we loved it… but someone beat us to it and so we continued shopping, albeit a little brokenhearted. We love the house we are in now, but I must admit that we had a couple that were higher on the dream home list. But apparently there were other buyers who shared our tastes and they moved quicker than us.

The following photos are from the yard of the house we loved the most. We took some landscaping photos just for future ideas. There are also some photos of furniture from a place called The Dump. They had some really nice book cases and armoires.

beautiful 10 foot tall armoire

beautiful 10 foot tall armoire

chair

A simple white chair for our front room

striped ottoman

A neat ottoman with playful stripes.

fancy foot armoire

Remember that 10 foot armoire? Look at the detail.

fancy wooden chair

Fancy wooden chair

courtyard fence

The house we lost. Great courtyard fence! Maybe as an add on to our new home?

We loved this fence that created the courtyard area on the house we wanted. We would like to add something similar to our new home, but something that is in keeping with our neighborhood style.

landscaping

A simple combination of tree, rocks, and plants

landscaping

Pavers seperate the yard from rock beds with shrubs and plants.

courtyard

Ignore my clumsy finger. A nice little private courtyard leading to the front of the house.

rock bed

Rock beds used for flowing water away from the house.

View of courtyard entrance and landscaping

View of courtyard entrance and landscaping

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Adding a dog door

Monday, March 29, 2010

Since we have a dog who is as dumb as a box of rocks, he will poop on the floor in the house and then hide. If he is outside, he will scratch and bark to come in, but won’t make a sound in order to go out and relieve himself. So we decided to put doggy doors into both of our garage doors so he can let himself in and out of our new house, hopefully negating the need to feed him to coyotes out of frustration. The doors were easy to install with a 3/8″ drill bit, jigsaw and phillips screwdriver. The dog doors are adjustable so that you can flip a switch and they will open both ways, in-only, or out-only. The install took about 30 minutes for both doors and the cleanup afterwards. Now let’s hope the dog can figure them out…

dog door

dog door

Tip: put masking tape on the wall before you cut, so that the saw doesn’t scratch the paint. I have to go back and touch up my paint because I didn’t think to tape the door before I started cutting. I guess the dog gets his brains from me.

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