Cleanup on aisle nine!

If you have a big yard, you have the opportunity to crud it up with a lot of items a crapload of crap.  That's what I did.  So yesterday, #1 son and I put on some gloves and pulled it all into a pile in the driveway for easy disposal later this week, perhaps by some sweaty men with a big truck.

I took a tape measure to it and it's seven cubic yards.  There's even some broken glass due to the fact that in the middle of that big stack in the middle of the picture, there are two derelict original windows from the house.  Late in the stacking, there was a loud "click" and the load all shifted down a bit.  Hmmm.

So on today's home improvement list, there is the wiring up of the power connection to the fountain on the porch.  Hopefully it'll go quickly.

House call

I have been a lot busier these last few months than I think I ever was anywhere at any time.  I have a lot going on:
1. Big project at work to completely revamp the department I took over at the beginning of the year.  I'm leaning more about sales, accounting, transactions, and customer relationships than I ever thought possible.  Also, my advice to you is don't try to get anything substantive done through email.  It just turns into a crapstorm most of the time and you spend the first five hours of your day undoing and correcting everyone's misunderstandings from the previous day.  The upside is that the department will be much more under control when the project is complete, and then we can begin to address the myriad other issues.
2. Meetings.  Wow.  These need to get faster and more effective.  Does that sound familiar.
3. Our kitchen... we're remodeling in case you haven't seen it.  It looks kinda like this:

Sorry that's the wrong picture.  I'll tell you about that later.
Here's what the picture of the kitchen:

So it's a LOT more open now.  There is still a buttload of work to be done, some of it starting tomorrow.  I'll try to take a few pictures.
Now, that other picture.  Here's another...

Now what the hell could that be?  Hmm.  Santa's workshop?  Old King Cole's place?  Juke joint on the highway to hell?
Nope.  It's a four bedroom house with two bathrooms about 1/4 mile from Sunnyside resort on the west shore of Lake Tahoe.  The most primo spot on the lake.  Where we've been looking for a vacation home for approximately forever.  Round about a week ago this place came on the market - saying it needed lots of TLC.  They weren't kidding.  That first picture is of the back, note the stellar condition of the deck.  And the owner is underwater on the loan so it's a short sale.  That's why it's affordable, at least in Tahoe terms.  So we made an offer.  The seller has accepted, now it's up to the bank.  That's a pretty big if, but so far we're very hopeful.
I'm changing my two middle names to Home Improvement.