Landscape progress

I recently posted about my landscape plans and how horrible things were looking. Things are coming along now though. I no longer feel like the king of white trashville when I pull into my driveway. In fact I've become something of a celebrity in my neighborhood. People have been coming by to tell me how good it looks. Of course, they were comparing it to this! It wasn't hard to look good..

This walkway gives room for visitors to get to the porch when cars are parked in the driveway. There was no space for that before.

I've had a lot fun doing all of this. The work was enjoyable, believe it or not. Cost a lot more than I anticipated, and included a contractor nightmare that I wasn't expecting. Maybe hiring the cheapest joe on craigslist.com to remove the ivy wasn't the best idea...


I installed my very first sprinkler system, complete with manifold and timer system. Then, instead of planting seed, which was the original plan, I caved and laid sod. It was soooo worth the extra expense (which was only around $150).





This area next to the porch is going to be a garden area with tall plants and flowers. The plants that you see there now are survivors from the original yard. I thought I would see if I could keep them alive.









Click here to see all the pics!



The cool part for me is that it came out looking pretty much like I designed it. This is the design plan I submitted to our homeowner's association. Yes, they actually required me to submit a property improvement proposal. Dorks.

Grandpa's casket

Okay, so this is an... "odd"?... story. I built my Grandpa's casket. And, fyi, he's still living. Sounds odd I know. But here's the story.

Grandpa was diagnosed with cancer in his skull several years ago. While it was his skull and not his brain, his doctor didn't give him more than about 6 months to live. They started Grandpa on special treatments and removed the affected part of his skull. Grandpa has since battled several rounds of cancer, and has kicked cancer's butt every time!

About a year later, I was talking with him, and he told me that he wanted to build his own casket and use it for shelving in his workshop, until he needed it for its intended purpose. Removing the skull fragment obviously left his sense of humor in tact. A year or so later, I asked him how his casket was coming. He told me the chemo was too tiring for him to build it. So, I offered to build it for him. He said, "Really?". I said "Really."

I love my grandpa, he's an amazing man. An educated and published chemist, he is also a true cowboy rancher who even in his golden years could out-work me (no heckling...). So to me, building his casket was an opportunity to honor him in a way that I otherwise would never be able to. So I put my heart and soul into the task, and did what I think is a great job.

That was almost 4 years ago. Yesterday, my buddy/wood-working-mentor Corey asked me if I had pics of it available online. I realized that I've never posted them or even shown them before. So partly in honor of Grandpa (who, yes, is still alive and well), and partly to show off my mad skillz, here are the pics. FYI, the casket sits in storage at my brother-in-law's funeral home until it's needed. Hopefully later than sooner...


Click here to see all the pics...