The Seminary Teacher

Jeff is currently volunteering to teach the seminary class for our church.  In a nut shell, seminary is a religion class for high school students and Jeff teaches the kids who attend high schools in the West Seattle area.  The class begins at 6:30 AM every day!  One of the requirements of being a seminary teacher is that you must be clean-shaven every day...at 6:30 AM. 

As some of you may know, Jeff grows a handsome red beard and looks especially good with a little bit of scruff, so this was a large sacrifice for me to never see him with facial hair.  In anticipation of a full school year with no facial hair, Jeff grew a full beard and we had a little fun as he shaved it off before the school year.   

The Jungle

Unlike the house, our yard wasn't so cute to begin with.  We're pretty sure no one had done anything to it for 3 or more years.  Being from Nevada where nothing (except for rocks) grows unless you spend 1/2 your life caring for it, I was terrified by our yard which was overgrown, had huge banana slugs, and seemed to grow 1/4 inch every 5 minutes right before my very eyes!



Back yard left side before



After about 6 months of staring at our yard in bewilderment, I realized what I needed to overcome my fear of my yard was a plan!  So I sketched the yard and plotted how to conquer it.  I felt pretty good about the plan until I attempted to execute it and realized I simply didn't have the time for such a huge project.  





Back yard left side during process



Luckily for us, my mom and dad love us...a lot!  They spent their annual trip to Seattle pulling out weeds, brambles, dead plants, pruning, raking, and planting.  By the end of a very long 4 days we had a yard that looked inviting and only needed regular maintenance instead of an extensive face lift.  We each had many battle wounds from the thorns, but also had the sweet rewards of a job well done!  Lots of love and thanks to my parental units for all their help and for being great examples of selflessness and hard work!  We love you guys!  





Garden area before



Garden area after clean up but before planting



Just some of the leftovers that didn't fit in the huge compost bin



Little rock terrace we found once all of the weeds were gone!





 



  







The Money Pit

Last April Jeff and I moved into our first house - hooray!  Since then, we've spent all of our money trying to make it "ours".  Actually it hasn't been that bad, but there are some months where we feel like we've spent every dime on the house or yard (yard pictures in next post).  Other than that we really like having our own place.  It's tiny but cute and a good size for us.  So far we've done the following to improve the place:

Bathroom before (it was all white)

1. Paint the outside

2. Remove the weird details above the windows on the outside

3. Hang shutters

4. Replace the front door

5. Hang window coverings since the old owners took them all with them

6. Replace the carpet

7. Repaint the bathroom

8. Remove the 70s style mirror inlet in the front entry

9. Remove 40 gallons of paint left by the old owners in the shed

Bathroom After

We think it looks even cuter than before and much less like a dollhouse.  Enjoy our before and afters!

Bathroom After Reprise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House when first purchased

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

House as of September