Easter Weekend
We had an odd Easter weekend. We spent it away from our kids, in the desert. We have a rental home in Arizona so we went over to fix it up and find new renters. I can't say it was fun weekend but we got to hang out with cousins and eat a medly of yummy foods. So there were a few bright spots. And a five hour drive without kids is a treat in itself.
We found our house looking like this:
But after four days of hard work, we turned it back to this:
and this:
And these....
Almost makes me want to move there!
We had 2 yard guys working for six hours straight to clean up the backyard jungle while Casey and I painted, cleaned bathrooms, cleaned carpets, fixed sprinklers, doors, garage doors, cleaned out junk, and even found a huge pot roast sitting in the fridge....while the electricity was off, for two weeks. GROSS.
The previous tenants had a dog that chewed up the sprinkler system and the backdoor frame. So handy Casey figured out how to rebuild this. Though he calls it a duct-tape job, I think it looks fabulous:
While there, we signed a new lease with a nice family and hope they take good care of our house. We also scored this from the previous tenant who just left it behind. And it's in excellent condition (a few months old, it seems) so we brought it home with us. I guess that sort of recoups our costs!
My cousin Rachael and her cute family live on the same street as our AZ house. So they let us crash with them and even treated us to yummy Easter dinner, Reese's treats, and Costco Lemon Cake (yum). Thanks for hosting us!
Easter Sunday we actually took off our work clothes and took some pride in our appearance:
It was a bummer not to be with the kids and have an Easter egg hunt. But they had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa (thank you Parry and Linda!)
As always, being away from the kiddos makes the return so much fun. Tuesday morning, we woke up to these cute munchkins:
Owen taught himself to eat with a fork while we were gone. Awesome:
Lucy decided she no longer needs a kiddie fork and would only use an adult one:
and as always, she has the best morning-time wake-up bob. I wish my hair would do that.
Happy Easter to all!
16 comments:
the house looks great! it probably is a little hard to leave that behind and come home to your apartment! i'm glad you found some tenants and got a lot done. lucy and owen look really cute eating. lucy's hair is adorable. haha. not like ava's crazy bedhead.
shoot, i'd live in that house. not bad! you guys did a great job -- i'm calling you the day we redecorate something ;) glad you're back to the world of blogging!
OK, aside from the fact that your kids are GORGEOUS all the time, the work you did on your rental is unreal! That before and after is so HGTV, dude. We have a rental place, too, and it can be such a downer--like when we showed up wondering why our tenant hadn't returned calls for a week to learn he'd bolted and left town after a year of living there. No power, full fridge, Atlanta summer heat. It was miserable--I can imagine that pot roast. You're brave! Hope there were no flies and maggots--that was the worst...
Of course, the flip side is how much fun it is to say, "Hey! I just hung a door all by myself!" Makes me understand when the kids get all excited, y'know?
:)
it was fun to have you guys in town for a few days too bad we couldn't of had more fun :)! next time. your always welcome to stay at our house! and fun to be reunited w/ the kids! and how great that owen can use a fork! hope the fridge is working out ok!
hi dana! your place looks great... would you come over and fix up our house now? i'll treat you to yogurtland...haha. btw, i hear there's now one in arcadia, south of the mall on baldwin (maybe near duarte). check it out!
Good job! It all looks really great. How did you get the grass so green in the "after" picture? It looks waaaay better. And score on the fridge! So cool. Fun to see the kids again, fun reunion I'm sure. Cute that Parry and Linda had them all Easter weekend, I'm sure they LOVED having them there.
Great job with the house!! It's fabulous!! I want to live there too. :-) And way to score a free fridge! Woohoo! It's an Easter miracle!!
I'm so impressed that Owen is using utensils! Wow. Weston grabs onto a spoon, but totally does not get the idea of scooping from the bowl. Haha....
Can I move into that house? It's darling! Who knew you were such investors? You always have something u[ your sleeve, I love it!
I would be sad leaving that behind too, but think how fabulous Pasadena is compared to AZ, right?? :)
Great job. Love your dress in that pic and Hannah is so jealous of Lucy's cute morning hairdo. You should see the huge fro that she has when she wakes up...poor thing. She hates when it's time to do her hair in the morning. Our new motto is "pretty hurts". Ah, so true.
And yay for utensils!
a house....oh man...how nice...I'm glad you decided to come back!! and great work! glad you took before and afters!
a long weekend without kids...sounds kinda fun :-)
holy crap...that was a ton of hard work, i feel for you guys. that grass is soooo green, didn't know they had that in AZ. Ours still looks like your before picture. im looking forward to linda's easter pictures, she was so stoked to have them.
the house looks amazingly different. You guys need your own show on HGTV. Fun that you got to spend time with the Bates, and your kids look adorable as always!
Good job on the home improvements! Lots of hard work, but well worth it.
Question about the grass...did you guys use some of that special grass spray paint to get it looking so green?
That place looks amazing. I didn't know you all were so handy. Well, I did know actually. I love the lawn. You are going to have to tell me your secret. Brock and I can't grow ours to save our souls. AZ has won all major battles and it seems the war will go to them as well.
It was fun meeting you, im glad you could come to our home for Easter dinner since you were away from your family! ps. The house looks great
A pot roast?! Really?! That is out of control...
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