Mowing Fun

On Monday (3/30), Bob and James went to pick up Bob's new mower. I was watching the Fowler kids so I missed the little adventure of picking it up. But I did get to the house in enough time to see Bob trying to get the mower off the trailer. It was half on/ half off of the trailer and Bob could not get it to start. He kept turning the key and nothing. So I sat on the mower and Bob and James tried to push it back onto the trailer. No luck with that and then James asked Bob if the gas was on. Nope. Bob turned on the gas and was able to move it back onto the trailer. Once it was back on the trailer Bob had James move it off. James managed to do a 180 with the mower on the trailer pretty cool. We all took turns riding it around the backyard.

On Tuesday the real fun began. MOWING. Who would have thought mowing could be so much fun! We all took turns mowing and this time I had my camera to capture some of the fun.


Bob


Me


James


Mia going for a ride on Friday afternoon.

Pool

While hanging out at the new house with the pups I met the next door neighbor. He is a really nice guy and was very informative. His family has lived in their house since it was built. He told me about all of the previous owners and numerous other things. What really caught my attention was when he said "You know there is a pool in your backyard". WHAT!!

Then a couple of days later a lady was walking her dog Rosie. And she also told us about the pool. She came into the backyard and showed us where it was at. Do you want to see the pool?

Here it is:



Can you see it? It's under the big mound of dirt. The previous owners filled in the pool. I was ready to start digging. Bob called Tommy, CW's dad who owns a pool company, to find out if it could be salvaged. He said if it was made of gunite (sp?) then it could probably be salvaged BUT he also said it might cost the same as building a new pool.

Then yesterday I was at the house when Brad, a neighbor who also owns his own building company, came by. He saw the doors open and wanted to make sure everything was ok. Anyways, he told me that when pools are filled in they will jackhammer holes at the bottom of the pool. This helps prevent the pool from floating up. He pretty much said it was better to build a new pool instead of tyring to salvage the old one.

So one day this backyard will have two pools. One that you can use and the other that will remain unseen.

Water

Be the grace of God I was at the house when the water was turned on. I saw the guys turning on the water and then I heard water running in the family room. Sure enough water was flowing freely from the wet bar area. Somebody had turned the faucet handle into the on position. This sink is also clogged so I am very greatful I was there otherwise I could only imagine the mess it would have made.

After that I walked around the house making sure everything was ok. I thought everything was ok but soon found out I was wrong. The next day I went over to open up the windows and heard a dripping noise in the bedroom with its own private bath. Not good. The shut off valve to the toliet was leaking. I emptied the container that is was dripping into and then ran downstairs to the garage and sure enough there was a huge puddle of water.

I called Bob and he asked if it could wait awhile. Umm, no. I found the place to turn off water to the entire house but needed a wrench of some kind to turn it off. When Bob arrived I told him where he could turn off the water but he told me he didn't think that was where you would turn off the water. Nevermind that I saw the guys turning it on there the day before. So he called the water company and told him where to shut the water off. Same place I had told him.

Bob found out how to fix the valve and will hopefully fix it soon so I can start cleaning the house... It's kinda hard to clean with no water.

Power

On the Friday, March 13, 2009, Bob had reached his limit in trying to deal with the electric company. They could not find the house. He called me and asked if I could call the main power provider and get a number that is recognized by the electric company. I called and they could not find the house and they asked if I had the meter number. Since I didn't I decided to drive out to the house to get the number. Well it was a very rainy day so I quickly located the meter and called them back. That meter was not in their system. At this point I was becoming frustrated. How can there be no house "found" when I'm looking at it?

I hung up with the power company and called Bob to let him know my findings. He decided he would just ask one of the neighbors. On Monday he met Justin and found out the correct power company. He called and they were going to turn on the electricity the next day.

I had been spending a lot of time at the house with the pups and noticed that one of the switches above the sink was on the "on" mode. Well the day the power was to be turned on I kept thinking about that switch. What if it belongs to the garbage disposal and when the power is turned on it starts running, creates a spark, and starts the house on fire. I decided to swing by the house to turn it off. As I pulled up I noticed the electric company was already there.

The guy was just about to leave because the breaker was on and he can't turn the power on until it was turned off. Talk about God's perfect timing. So he helped me locate the breaker box and turned on the power. YEAH!! The switch that was "on" was for the light not the garbage disposal. I also asked him why the main power company did not have the meter number and I showed him the number I read to them. Genius child at work gave them the gas meter number. No wonder they could not find it.