A few slow days

 The front of the house with a ton of old boards, tarps, and shingles that needed removed.  Here's the process.

and in the middle of my debris removal, this is what I killed... (I think it is a king snake, non-poisonous...but still dead in my yard!)

Then I went to the dump.  This time they let me empty for free.  It was a nice, easy place to pull up and empty the truck... unlike the second time (those pics are below).

Then I had my Mexican friends come back and help me finish the outside clean up.  They weedeated and helped me remove a bunch of debris.

Here's what it looks like all mowed.  Not bad!  You can actually see the front porch and sides of the house.

The guys helped me clean up around the front of the property as well.  Look what we found...

And then I went to the dump with my second load of debris and this time was a little different... first, I had to pay and second I was sent to the middle of the actual dump where I went bah-ha-ing with my truck on accident... its a long story that I'll tell ya sometime if you remind me.  :)

Oh yeah, I had the house sprayed for termites and all other bugs too.

All Clean

So Friday night and Saturday were big cleaning days.  Friday night the cleaning began with the exterminator meeting me out at the house at 8:30 pm to get the wasp nest.  You have to wait until night time so that all of the wasps/hornets come back to the nest and you get them all in one shot.  We tried to save the nest so we could have it as a souvenir but it was too stuck to the honeysuckle and it ripped when we tried to get it out.  This nest definitely could have killed someone.  

Here is Neal getting his gear on.  He has one of the bee keepers head nets in his hand and 4 cans of wasp spray in his back pockets.


He started spraying around 8:45.  He is only about 3 ft from the nest.

The spraying continued until dark.  I can't believe my iphone was still taking pics with no flash.








Here is the nest after he tried to pull it out of the brush.  It ripped, but you can see the eggs (white part) and the holes where eggs have already hatched.  In the bottom are all of the dead wasps.  I have a better picture below that I took Saturday morning in better light.

Saturday morning started bright and early with my crew of international workers :) LOL.  They were a good group of guys and worked very hard.  Their job was to clean out all of the grass that was left under the house when the foundation was poured, remove all debris, and level out the entire area.  Here are some before, during and after pictures and a few shots of the guys.

if you want to see more photos check out the Snapfish link on the sidebar.  I also installed the mailbox so I can now officially receive mail and I have uprooted some blackberries to replant so that the neighborhood doesn't lose the blackberries.  (All of my wonderful neighbors have been coming on my property for the past several years to pick my blackberries, but they will all be gone after I have the property graded.)

Oh yeah, while the guys were cleaning under the house, I was cleaning inside.  Before...

After...

And I removed a tree that was growing out of the foundation... NICE...

 

 

things are going well, now for some bigger stuff to come...

Bushhogged!

Well, today was a big day.  I moved my stuff from storage to the apartment and the house with the help of a gracious Gardner Webb basketball player, Matthew Maden.  I'll get his picture on here for you to see soon.  He was a tremendous blessing and a HUGE help... and no, that is not referring to his 7' stature :) LOL. 

I also got the house bushhogged!  YAY!  Now you can walk around the property somewhat without worrying about getting snake bit... well almost... there are still some piles of debris laying around that I will need to get cleaned up soon and so there is still a chance that they could be in the piles.  So I will be working very, very carefully when it is time to do that.  They are copperheads mostly.  The bigger threat right now however is the HUGE hornets nest that is in the blackberry/dirt pile.  Chris, the guy in the orange shirt, almost got swarmed by them today.  Needless to say, the exterminator has a voicemail waiting for him for the morning. 
later,
Shonna

Project Update

Hello to all of you who are following this project!  Here's a quick update:  I have moved into an apartment in Shelby.  I still don't have all of my stuff from storage, just an air mattress, my bags of clothes that I packed for the move, my hanging clothes which road around in my truck for a week :), my TVs (which originally went to my office which is why I had access to them) and the few boxes of food that I could get to in the storage unit.  Tomorrow I have a basketball player from GWU helping move the rest of the stuff that I still need from storage (e.g., washer and dryer and a bed, at least...oh yeah, and pots and pans)... He's a 7'er from Australia... should be able to throw the w/d in the truck!! LOL

I closed on the house Monday... it's all mine!!  The attorney could not believe what I was purchasing the house for and thought there was some sort of Catch 22 to it.  But assured him all was above board and that I was just getting a good deal (God does things like that!).  I pulled my permit on Tuesday and was all cleared to begin construction.  I have met with a plumber who will help me do the job for half of what I had in my bid to the bank... again, God is good! 

Today I went through the whole house with the pest control guys and we will get everything treated next week.  There were some small indications of termites, so the WHAMMY will be put on when I see the bug guys next.  Oh yeah, and we went on a wasp war today, killing probably over 20 active nests in the house... the main guy got stung 3 times when he accidentally touched a nest.  OUCH!  After that I went and bought my first round of materials to begin the first project... extra support for the back of the house.  I'll keep you posted on that project in my next post.

Coming soon:  international workers to remove grass, piers go in under the house, bush-hogging and grading (unfortunately there go the blackberries, fortunately so do the snakes), and much, much more.

till next time,
Shonna 

"By perseverance..."

"By perseverance the snail reached the ark."- Charles Spurgeon

Boy, do I feel like a snail these days... but I finally reached Shelby, NC with my shell intact.  It has been a long, hard week, but I am officially moved to Shelby.  This week I am staying in a hotel with my dog and I will hopefully move in to my apartment late next week.  I sure could not have done it without my great friends in Greenville... Faith, Nancy, Rich, and Stacy, thanks guys for helping me pack a Budget truck, drive for a million hours and unload that same truck, clean my house, and all of the food along the way.  I couldn't have done it without you. 

And I will continue to persevere in my house project as well.  I will be venturing on in this project without a licensed contractor.  God has closed all of those doors and so I have clear direction on where I am heading without them.  It may go at a snails pace... but hey, those snails eventually boarded the ark for one wild ride.  I'm ready!! and I'll continue to keep you posted as I go.