Fleas...

I had an amazing weekend in the City with Sean's mom and sister.  We stayed up late and drank way more than we should have but you only live once right?  I have not spent a lot of time in the city so it was a lot of fun staying at a nice hotel within walking distance to so many fun things.  We went to Beach Blanket Babylon which was hilarious!  It is a musical/ comedy show that pokes fun at recent politics and celebrities and has been playing for 40 years.  I highly recommend it!  Thank you Diane and Amy for such a fun trip!  

At first, I felt bad leaving Sean with the house duties but realized he could probably get a lot more done without me hanging around asking questions.  And it turns out he did!  The previous owner left a huge mess in the backyard (not just his "moving out mess" but like years of collecting stuff) plus the trash from our recent demo. We really needed to clear everything out and get a good look at what we were looking at.  Not to mention the fleas.  They basically had a perfect living situation with all the junk everywhere!  So while I was gone, Sean, his friend and his father cleared out the whole backyard!! They made three trips to the dump in the dump truck loaded to the top.  Sean also got started tearing out one of the bathrooms.  

The yard before... There is piles and piles of stuff all the way to the back fence!  

and after..

This is the calculated weight that Sean sent to the dump  last weekend!  11,580 pounds of trash!

We knew we needed to tackle the issue of the fleas ASAP so last night we set off some flea bombs in the basement, shed and house and spread Diatomaceous Earth all over the backyard.  Diatamaceous Earth is a non-toxic powder like material that attacks the exoskeleton of creepy crawlies and basically dehydrates them to death (this is my understanding of the stuff, obviously not dictionary worthy).  Our backyard looked like it snowed.  We spread a 2 lb bag of this stuff throughout our yard.  I wish I would have taken a picture.  Anyways, I have read about this stuff before and a lot of people recommend it as an Eco friendly way to eliminate pests in the garden as well.  We treated our pups with the best stuff we can find and have been working on our other house too (vacuuming the couch and carpet daily, washing dogs beds, sheets, towels, blankets, etc.).  Apparently, when you get you fleas they are everywhere...  It is really disgusting but something we are facing right now, so I thought I would discuss it.  Fleas and bugs in general are worse in years when there is a drought and we are definitely feeling it.  I know we are not the first ones out there having to face an infestation like this but hopefully it ends soon.    Until you get the go ahead, when you come to visit us please make sure your pups are treated or leave them at home :)

We decided last night, we really need to develop a solid plan on what we want to do with the floor plan of the house.  We received some great ideas from everyone who has walked through it.  Now, we really need to hone in on what is important to us.  Our rooms are a bit on the smaller side so we have talked about bumping out a couple walls (which would actually line up other walls with the house better and cut down some the awkwardly long living spaces).  We have talked about completely eliminating some walls since the house is so compartmentalized right now.  The final decision is going to be semi difficult for us since figuring out what we want for dinner is usually a thirty minute contemplation.  I'm confident that in the end we are going to have an awesome place with a great living area that is super comfortable.

I'm not sure if I posted a picture of the kitchen with the sink and dishwasher and bottom cabinets torn out, so here it is! 

 

Bathroom in process

 

Jessie hates fleas!