New Patio = a lot more work than we thought...

We have our new patio, and it looks great!! We can't wait to have good weather outside so we can really enjoy it. Here are the before and after pictures:

We basically replaced the whole patch of dead grass with an extended patio.

The mess the workers left behind, however, is unbelievable. Apparently, they decided to drive the cement truck into our back yard, and they left us some horrible ruts in the ground to fix. They left tools, string, wooden stakes, and chunks of cement all over the place, so Travis and I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning things up. Travis bought over forty bags of soil to fill in the ruts and spent at least five hours out there filling in the holes and pounding the dirt back into the ground. The major ruts are fixed, but there is still more work to do and soil to put back in place. I picked up all the trash they left around the yard (with Rio's help) and filled in a couple of holes (yes, Travis did most of the work...I was grading papers!!).

The grass will hopefully grow back in the spring, and Travis has done a lot of work to level the ground, so hopefully it won't be too noticeable. For the rest of the winter, though, the ground is muddy and dead. We decided to put up a temporary chicken-wire fence for the dogs so they wouldn't need a bath everyday and to keep them from digging more holes in our freshly laid dirt. The dogs only have about 1/5 of the yard now, but at least they are clean and our dirt is staying where we put it. We haven't tested the sprinkler system again yet...

Ahh, the joys of home ownership. :-)

Internet, Cable, and Heat - Restored!!

You never know how wonderful something is until you lose it....

We haven't had internet, cable, A/C or heat since Thanksgiving, when we discovered that the dogs had chewed through every wire in the backyard that they could find. So, of course, the weather became really cold, and we were finally desperate to fix the heat when the house was 58 degrees! Travis had been trying for a few days to fix it - he had spliced wires, hooked everything back up, and checked the system several times, but couldn't get it to work. The day after it was 58 degrees inside our house, I finally convinced him that I was COLD, and he called a repair guy. Turns out, it was only a blown fuse in the heater/AC unit that Travis didn't know about. Our house is gloriously warm and cozy now!

The cable and internet, though, was another story. Travis couldn't fix the wires the dogs had chewed through, so we had to call the cable company. After two missed appointments last week, they finally came out today and fixed the whole thing for free. Wires had to be completely replaced! Both the units are now bundled in chicken wire, PVC pipe, and zip ties, and we are hoping the dogs can't get to them now. :-)

While the cable and internet were down, Travis and I found ourselves doing all sorts of crazy things, like going outside! We spent the afternoon on Saturday driving around Del Rio and taking pictures (I was really excited about doing that...Travis pretended he was excited too). We also cooked a lot more, spent a longer time eating dinner, and found time to spend with the puppies and each other more often. I am very grateful, though, to have everything up and running again!

"Oh no, mommy, I would NEVER chew on your wires!!"

"What, who, ME??!?!?"

(Not the greatest pictures ever...it was hard to get them to stop for two seconds!)

Our newly reinforced AC unit which (we hope) is now puppy proof!

The white pipe on the right now houses our cable cords

And, from our tour around the glorious town of Del Rio:

Yes, we live three miles from the border, and yes, this is me standing in front of the border fence between Mexico and Texas. Not many people can say that they have done this! :-)