Outdoor Update

We've been making a lot of interior progress - pipes! Wires! Boxes! More insulation floating from the attic! - but lately the outside things have been a little more photogenic. 

The Mr. bought himself a new toy. Because he was going to cut down the branch using just the pole? In the dark? With me and the Kid to help? Or something more deceptively logical yet equally implausible.

So of course Casey came over and was dying to try it. His kid helped the Mr. hold the rope and they managed to get that branch down. It was completely hollow in the middle, of course. Unfortunately (?) the tree hasn't toppled over yet so we're still applying for permits and such to get it taken down. 

Casey really came over to work on the inside of the house. There goes the water heater. 

We don't have a lot of trees at our old house (85% of the reason we need to move) so the Kid has only experienced leaf piles at Grandpa's house. Which he LOOOOOOOVES. Total win that we could make one happen in the front yard. 

You would think with all the Pinterest research that I do, I would have realized that two doors = two wreaths. Oh well. It was a fun fall break craft project that the Kid and I whipped out in half an hour or so. I was sober when I took this picture. Seriously.

We had a bit of a challenge in that we have no porch lights (nor any lights except work lights on extension cords for that matter) and it was time for trick or treaters! Our original plan was to create tombstones for the front yard, but our expectations were a little high and there wasn't time to craft them appropriately. 

The Kid and I trawled the Target aisles for weeks trying to figure out what we could do. We ended up going with one large spider web light and a longer, three swag spider web light. The lanterns were end of summer clearance at Target ($4 each, maybe?) and have proven to be super useful in our pioneer lifestyle. We've given notice on the storage unit and the first load of tubs to come over were the Halloween decorations. The fake jack o lantern is from my parents house (I only know that because my mom wrote her name on the bottom... no idea why) but we use the little Target battery tea lights inside. 

We had between 150-200 trick or treaters, so it was well worth the effort! Such a great night, and the Kid had a fantastic time walking around the neighborhood and seeing his friends in their costumes. It was a timely reminder of why we want to live in this house and how these months of hard work and bleeding money are going to pay off. 

Eventually.