House projects

My big landscaping plans of redoing everything, front and back, are now on hold because all of the landscapers I’ve contacted are overwhelmed with work. So many houses lost massive amounts of shrubs, bushes, trees, and plants due to our February freeze, and the earliest I could get work done would be June, which is wicked hot here in Texas. Plus I only have the landscape plan for the front of the house, not the back yet, and I need it all to get accurate bids for time, plants, and total costs.

The Plant Lady designing my plans is up to her eyeballs in her landscape business. What she sent thus far has beautiful plants that I never heard of but will be soft, low, and colorful. So it’s worth waiting for what she sees for the back. Right now I’m thinking about doing the landscaping in late September instead of trying to squish it into Now, which is just not looking very feasible anyway. This would let me get bids and then get on my contractor’s schedule for ripping out old plants and fixing things up with the new with time for them get rooted before the cold weather sets in. I’d rather wait and do it right.

Today the electrician was here to fix two problems. The outlet at the end of the penninsula in the kitchen hasn’t worked and now we know why: it is wired so that the light over the kitchen sink has to be on for the outlet to work. Quirky but given how little I actually use that outlet, it’s a lot easier to just go with it than to have to undo and run new wires. The other project was outside on the porch where the ceiling fan didn’t work. A handyman took down the old one but there’s no power to the drop for the fan, which is why the old one didn’t work. The attic space above it is only inches high, which is going to make this tricky. He’s coming back on Saturday with a buddy and has a plan for trying to find and poke through wires to a place where they will work. I’d really like to put the fan up so it’s worth it.

Friday another company is coming to clean out the air ducts in the house. Who even know that was a thing that could or needed to be done? They charge based on the number of air openings for vents, registers, and intake. I’ve been trying to wrap my head around how this will work and how to keep the cats out of the way, but I think getting rid of extra dust and crud will help my allergies as well as keeping the house cleaner, which is always a good thing.

Next week the sprinkler people are coming to adjust two sprinkler heads that are going off like fountains. Everyone who sees them calls me to let me know about it – duh, thank you. I reset the sprinkler control box using Youtube instructions and am feeling pretty accomplished. Hopefully this will keep the yard from being over watered and bog-like.

I bought a new TV for the living room after having someone ask how long the colors had been muddy. Uh, they look fine, don’t they? No, they didn’t. It was more like tinted black and white images. The Geek Squad delivered and set up the new TV and hauled away the old one AND my old printer, since I just replaced that, too. Who knew that the TV shows were in actual color? The eyes got used to what was there but now I’m seeing things in living color. Big improvement even if it wasn’t something I expected to be buying.

This is all expensive and it makes me tired just thinking about everything.