I'm drained....

- Yesterday I felt sooooooooooooooooooooooo BLAH all day! I'm just drained! I went home after work and crashed about 6pm and slept till 7:15am this morning! Isn't that crazy?!?!? I know most of you can't do that because of your kids and hubby!

- Thank goodness Mr. "S" is a BIG BOY!!! He cooked his own dinner!! It consisted of a hot dog, chips and cheese dip!!! =) He was sweet enough to share but I couldn't fathom the thought of eating. My stomach and side was hurting way to bad! I'm sure some of you remember a few months back when I was going to the doctor about my side? Well, the pain is back and I just wasn't feeling up to par yesterday!

- I'm a little better today! I did manage to come to work but I think I could have slept even longer!

- I don't know if I'm feeling so drained from working and going and going and working?!?!? It just seems like we never get a break! We work all week long and then it's back to work on the weekends at the lake house! I can't wait till the house is finished!

- I talked to the aerobic septic company yesterday. They said they would be finished by mid-June! Yippee! That means by the end of June we can move in! =)

The next few projects on the house are:
* Mr. "S" is building front steps and railing for the porch!
* Repair the cracked sheet rock in the house
* Take down all the AWFUL wallpaper!
* Install crown molding, trim all the windows out with wood trim and install new base boards
* Prep the walls and paint (We both LOVE to paint)
* Tear up the vinyl kitchen flooring and prep it for hardwood flooring
* Purchase a new hot water heater
* Expand the closet in our bedroom by taking away the closet in the extra bedroom! We are going to open it up into one big closet for us. The guest will have a dresser and little hangy hooks!!

We sooooooooooooooooooo need someone from HGTV to come over and SAVE us!!! I feel like we have so many projects going on at once. It's a weeeeee bit overwhelming!!! I could think of several shows we would qualify for: Design On A Dime, Decorating Cents, Carter Can...OH MY GOSH...Carter Can...just let me tell you...it's a PERFECT name for his show!!! This is ONE of my favorite Carter projects!!! Can you tell I'm addicted to these shows? With us working on OUR lake house each and every weekend I get sooooooooo many ideas from them!!!! =)

Wow, we still have a long way to go and a short time to get there...lol =)
We are ready to move in!

Playing Around

I found this on Marmite and Tea's blog and thought it was VERY interesting!!!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Comment me back and let me know if you do it too!!! I think it's neat!!!

If Mr. "S" and I get married there will be 180 people with my name...YIKES! lol

There are 26 people with Mr. "S" name!!!

I was over at General Ramblings by Leigh and seen this really cool site called warholizer!!! Here is what I came up with:

Hard Working Men....

Wow-Wee, what a weekend!
The boys got a lot of work accomplished!
I took my blog title from the song Hard Workin' Man by Brooks and Dunn!

Just so you know and it's documented...I worked too! Even though there isn't pics to prove it!

I covered up the 58' trench of water line!!! You will see pics of the trench below!

Just like last weeks post! I'm adding a lot of pics so sit back and enjoy or run while you can!!!

When we got to the house Saturday morning this is what we seen:

The county came up and set our culvert!!! Yippee!!!

"OUR DRIVEWAY"
We will install an actual driveway into the yard once the septic people are done with the aerobic sprinkler system. This system is taking up our WHOLE left lot 70x100! If you don't know what an aerobic septic system is click here! We have to have this type of system because of our soil and because we are so close to the lake.

The is the trencher making it's first cuts in the dirt!

Dad is cutting the trench for the electric to run from the meter pole to the breaker box inside the house!!

Mr. "S" is measuring to make sure we are going deep enough for the electric!

I had to post this pic...it cracks me up! Look like my brother is holding up the meter pole!!! Actually it's holding him up!!!

Getting the extra dirt out of the trench!

Dad showing my brother how this machine works! Dad and Mr. "S" left us there to get the trench dug. They went to Lowe's to buy all the water line (PVC Pipe)!

The trench to the house is ready for the electric to be dropped in!

Dad is wiring up the meter box!

We hit a tree stump trenching for the water lines in the back of the house! The progress comes to a stop!

Dad chopping at the stump that was in the way of our trench!

Mr. "S" took his turn chopping the stump that got in our way!!!

This is the trench for the water line it will pipe up under the house! We are also installed a shut-off valve and a faucet!

Look at all these trenches! Wow-Wee we did a lot of work!!! Now it's time to cover the trenches back up! That is where I came in!

Look John is working!!! HA!

No plumbers crack here!!! =) Mr. "S" and his dad are installing the water line from the meter to the house! They are also hooking up a faucet!

Mr. "S" and I are so LUCKY to have such GREAT dads to help us!!!

Alert the media we've got W-A-T-E-R!!!!

This is the 58' of water line that I covered up all by myself!!! My back was hurting so bad yesterday...UGH!!! That is what I get for trying to be Shera the Princess of Power...lol =)

The meter box is ready to go! Now we are waiting on the light company to hook us up!!!

So that was our weekend it was full of work!!!

Sunday Mr. "S" and I went cruising around on the golf cart for a little R&R! I took some pictures I wanted to share. Give you something to look at other than WORK WORK WORK! =)
This house reminds me of a doll house...it's so cute!
This house just got a new paint job!

We like this house!

This is a new house that just went up! It's not a very good picture but the stone on this house is so pretty! Check out the water crashing up on the bulkhead! The water was really choppy on Sunday! We had a BIG storm come in Saturday night and it stirred things up!

I don't have a clue what type of flowers this is? I just thought it was pretty! This bush is growing up around a street sign in our subdivision!

Mother's Day Weekend...

I would like to wish all of the Mom's that read my blog a

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Do you and your family have any BIG plans?

As you know we will be up at the lake working, working, working!!! We still have LOTS to do!!! This weekend we will be trenching for the underground electric and water!!! I think I'm going to work inside the house and pull down wallpaper!!! I can't stand wallpaper!!! The kitchen and bathroom is COVERED in wallpaper...UGH!!! I also need to tear up the vinyl flooring in the kitchen. We are going to install hardwood floors throughout the house. We are also going to change out the front door...I found the door I want at Home Depot!!!

Here it is:

So what do you think? Do you like the door? My camera phone doesn't take the BEST pics! I like the star, it reminds me of the Texas flag!

We also want to change out the light fixture on the front porch and the back deck! They are very out dated!!! This all cost money so we can only do it a little at a time!!!

You know I will be back on my picture frenzy this weekend capturing the progress. I will do an updated post on Monday!

I hope yall have a GREAT weekend!!!

I also wanted to ask if you have seen the movie P.S. I Love You? Mr. "S" and I watched this the other night. If you watched it...did you cry? I don't know if it was because I was PMS'ing or if this movie was really that SAD? I kept putting myself in the shoes of Holly Kennedy (led by two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank) thinking what if this happened to Mr. "S" would I react the same way she did? Each and every letter he sent to her was gut wrenching, sweet, touching, emotional, unbelievable and I cried like a little baby! I loved this movie so much! I will SO rent this again just to have a GOOD cry!!!

Something for "US" to think about....

Mr. "S" and I seriously thinking about moving up to our lake house for good?!?!?! I keep teeter tottering back and forth with the idea. There is sooooooooooooooooooo much to take into consideration!!! It has it's positives and negatives on both ends. So I figured I would share it with "YOU" and get some input on your ideas?!?!?

First off Mr. "S" and I aren't rich by any means but we both do okay as far as making a living!!! We currently have a really nice two bedroom apartment near the big city of H-Town!!! This month and the next 4 months we will be paying our high dollar rent and our lake house loan payment!!! YUCK...double payments!!! I will tell you right now this is NO FUN!!! We knew what we were getting our self into and we were fine with it!!! We just knew that we would have to cut out the "EXTRA" spending (movies, dinners, going out and shopping)!!! I own my car so I don't have a car payment. Mr. "S" does have a car payment!!! Our thoughts on moving to the lake house would be saving money. We would only be paying our lake house loan payment which is only HALF of our monthly rent payment for our two bedroom apartment...crazy huh? The down side to this (because there is ALWAYS a down side) would be the DRIVE!!! Right now I drive 5 miles one way to work...I wake up at 7am and I'm at work by 8am! I leave at 4:30 and I'm home by 4:45pm! Mr. "S" drives about 25 miles one way to work! He leaves around 7am and makes it home by 5:45pm!!! This is where the "DOWN SIDE" comes in....if we move to the lake house it would be 65 miles one way to my work and 86 miles one way to Mr. "S" work!!! I'm sure most of you are already thinking this is CRAZY...well, I must go on!!! =) What we were thinking about doing was riding to work together, buying a gas saving car (this means I get a NEW car). This also means I would have to get up at 5:30am and we would leave by 6am...Mr. "S" would drive in the mornings drop me off at my work at 7am! He would make it to his work by 8am! He would pick me up at 5:30pm I would drive on the way home and we would make it home by 6:30pm or 7pm!!! I could take a 2 hour lunch go to the grocery store, go to the mall if I needed to so I could still get my "CITY GIRL SHOPPING" fix!!! You are wondering how I would go shopping or to the grocery store? We have company cars and I could take one plus one of my best friends works with me and she would let me take her car as I've let her take my car on several occasions!!!

The upside to this is only keeping one house clean, having groceries in one fridge/pantry, having allllllllll of our personal belongs under one roof and not two, paying one light bill, one water bill and one cable bill not two!!!! We would also be able to enjoy our nights at the lake which is sooooooooooo very relaxing!!! The people in our subdivision walk around at night, ride bikes or their gold carts. It's a very friendly community...we both love it!!!

This is our first house together and we really want to make it a home not just a weekend place!!!

We said we were going to test drive the long haul in July for a whole month and see how it works out?!?!? This would give us all of August and September to make a final decision!!!

The other option we have is to down size our apartment and live in a small one bedroom closer to work in the same town we are now. We would just go back to paying double bills, such as rent/lake house loan, lights, cable, water and buying groceries for two places, cleaning two houses, having our personal belongings split between two houses!!! We would save on gas and I wouldn't need to get a new car!!! The gas prices are what freaks me out the most!!! Oh yeah and the drive!!!

What are your thoughts? Are we crazy?
How far do you or your husband drive to work (miles and time)?

There is so much to take into consideration....
I look forward to hearing from you all!!!!

Weekend - Working at the Lake House

This is going to be a L-O-N-G post filled with pictures!!! My blog has kind of turned into a lake house work journal! Which is cool (at least to me...maybe not to all of you)! I like the fact I can look back and see all of our hard work and efforts paid off!!!

This weekend we didn't get as much done as we hoped but every little bit gets us one step closer to moving in. I was thinking we were going to trench the underground electric wires and the underground water lines. NOPE! It didn't happen! That is to be done this coming weekend! We did manage to get allllllll the shutters painted and hung up, we bought the culvert and dad put together the meter pole, we dug the hole and set it!!! My brother climbed a tree and topped it for me. You will see in the pics below he is SUCH a MONKEY!!!! He has WAY more nerve than I do!!! I'm a SISSY when it comes to heights!!!

Okay, so on to the pictures!!!

Warning, I posted a TON!!!

This is what the shutters looked like BEFORE I painted them!

Here is the finished product waiting to be hung!!

Here is another set of shutters I painted

Dad mounted the can and the 200 volt main disconnect (which was part of my b-day gift from him...that disconnect, weather head and wire cost almost $300 believe it or not...my b-day came just in time...I worked it to my advantage...I'm a daddy's girl for sure). He is now wiring it up so it's ready for the power company to place the meter inside the can!

While I was painting and dad was working on the meter pole my brother and Mr. "S" took the trailer into town to pick up our new culvert. Don't laugh but this was my b-day gift from mom!!! Hey, it's what I asked for...she gave me money for it and the boys went to pick it up!!!! Like I said, my b-day came at just the right time!!!

The culvert is 20' long! Mr. "S" is calling the county today and they will come out dig the ditch line and set it for us (FORE FREE)!!! Hopefully it will be done by next weekend!!! I don't know though? We are getting lots of rain today!!!

Here is my MONKEY brother going up the ladder to check out the tree. I wanted the top cut off this tree so it will bush out. It was growing tall and very skinny! Plus some of the longer branched were hitting the roof!!!

John the MONKEY waiting for Mr. "S" to hoist the chainsaw up to him!

To him this is not high but to me it is!!! I would be freaking out if I was up there!!! You can't tell by this picture but he isn't even standing on the ladder...he is standing on a branch that is maybe 3" in diameter! He is NUTS!!!!

Dad and Mr. "S" have a rope tied on to the top to pull the tree away from the house!!!

TIMBER!!!!

The tree top is on it's way down!

Yes, I know...it looks funny but it will look soooooooo much better in the long run!

(Next year, I hope)

It's so sad and U-G-L-Y!

Dad and his post hole diggers!

I want to know what is up with the younger guys standing around and dad doing all the work? Awwwww, dad just wants to show them up and he can!!!

Yep, it's a hole and we are slowly getting there!!! The pole has to be set at 4'6" deep!

Now it's time to let the auger do all the work!!!!

This machine is so STRONG it took 3 guys to hold it!!!

The auger drill is 4' long so we still have to dig it out with the post hole digger!!!

The auger has done all it can!!!

Here it is 4'6"!!! I'm calling the light company today!!! We are hoping to have power by this weekend!!! Key word is I'm "HOPING" =)

The guys are getting ready to set the meter pole!!!

In the hole it goes!!!

It's ready for some power!!!!

I wanted you to see the before and after pictures of the shutters!!! It's an amazing transformation!!!

The shutter makes SUCH a BIG difference!!! I love it!!!

The shutters look GREAT!!!! It gives the house such a FACE!!!

We met with the aerobic septic system installer...everything looks good with him!!! I also talked to some stump grinders. We have to have alllllllllllllllllllllll the stumps ground up before the septic guy can do his work.

We are hoping to have water, power and septic by mid-June!!! If everything goes as planned!!!