House work

When we purchased this house I knew going in there would be more maintenance than our previous house.  The logs and siding need to be stained, the driveway sealed, the much larger yard cut & trimmed....but it's a lot different knowing and having to find the time and money to do it!  We have little by little chipped away at some of the things on the long TO DO list but we have a long way to go.

Earlier this year Wes got one coat of sealer on the driveway &, we've finally figured out what type of sealer to use on the house and how to clean it (they told us one thing and had two others types at the house). I cleaned a few areas that had some mildew, but so far the weather has been very uncooperative to getting it re-stained.  You are supposed to clean the logs with a pressure washer (low setting) then let them dry 3 days then put the sealer on and let it cure 3 days.  So far we haven't had that long of a window dry and free from other commitments.  Our goal this year was to get the front dormers, back top wood siding, and fascia boards done since they are showing the most wear.  We'll see if we get there or not but hopefully now that we know what to do we will find a weekend to do it.  Another factor will be the height it's not easy to get to a lot of the areas so we will probably have to rent some type of lift. 

We've also had 5 trees come down this year and we've so far cut up and moved 3 of them.  Of course there is the weekly grass cutting and normal cleaning to do.  The list goes on.....

Here I was cleaning the logs on one side of the house so I could do a test area to see if we needed to use the tinted or clean log oil.  I think most of the places the clear will be ok there are a few areas that will need the tinted because they are faded or I've had to use the wood cleaner and it stripped the old stuff off.  The stuff is expensive though so we're going to have to do it in stages.

The kids each got wheel barrows for Easter and they like helping me around the yard.  Kaden actually got his full wheel barrow all the way to the ditch and dumped it himself.

There isn't much in the way of landscaping at the house I've done a little adding flowers here and there but I would like to do more some day.  Right now we're just fighting the bushes that were already there.