Who knew yard work was so difficult?

 Can you believe it's the end of June already?  Honestly, I can.  The heat and humidity are only getting higher down here, and it's a constant reminder that we're just on the cusp of the hottest part of the year.  Then, why, oh why, did Jared and I decide to start our yard work now?

Part of me is super excited to have a yard to work in and make, if not like my mother's, at least sort of nice.  That eager part of me spurred Jared and I on to getting a head start on our jungle of a yard-to-be.  I proposed that we start early in the day, thinking it would be cooler than the rest of the day.  It was, in comparison.  But Georgia is Georgia, and though it was "cooler," it was still hot...and humid.

Anyway, with a blatant disregard for the weather, Jared and I attempted to do some yard work.  We basically got around to taking out one giant bush...it was a little pathetic, but we tried, and made some progress.  I also took some pictures of the yard.  There's a lot to be done, but maybe with a lot of sweat and effort, we'll make this yard a tamed jungle.

I'm not really sure what this plant is, but
it's big.

Looking down the side of the house from
the driveway.  It just keeps going and going.

Just one of the many oddities stored at the house by the
owners.  The clump of trees/brush on the left is mostly
a sweet gum tree.  On the right there's a live oak and
magnolia growing next to each other.  I'd love to keep
the magnolia, but it's getting over run by the oak.
There's also a lot of bamboo (which Jared REALLY
wants to keep...we'll see).

It's going to take a lot, but I hope to at least
clean this tree up.

Lots of potential for a little patio and garden
area.  Just a bit of work to clean it up.

Poor Ullr doesn't like his pen.  We're keeping
the chain link for future use, we're just not
sure where to put it.

The major project of the day.  It turned into quite an ordeal.
With loppers, hedge trimmers, an ax, and two shovels, we
managed to uproot this beast.  It also grew next to an old
stump, which we removed.

The man hard at work.  This was about half-
way through.  All that's left is a dirt hole!  At
least we got something done.  Several bushes
growing next to each other created one nasty
root ball.  Digging that up was no small task,
but we managed.

Specialist Ullr reporting for duty!  Sure, it
has nothing to do with yard work, but it's
cute!

During our efforts to remove that one bush, Jared commented to me, "I never knew yard work was so difficult!"  I can't say that I've ever done any yard work as difficult as that, but I've done my fair share.  However, that was just the tip of the iceberg.  This yard will prove to be interesting, if not crazy difficult.

Sarah

Before

As I look at the pictures I took of our house-to-be, I can't help but think that I'm much too young to be buying a house.  Of course, when I was younger, I hadn't the faintest idea of mortgages or financing, so I couldn't comprehend how anyone managed to save up enough money to buy large purchases like a house or car.  Silly little Sarah...

This house, however, is much cheaper than I had anticipated...although there's a few good reasons why.  Firstly, house prices in Georgia, much like the rest of the United States, aren't exactly sky high right now.  Along with that, the house isn't in the greatest condition.  The current owners bought it as a storage space for the husband's cable company.  When I say storage, I mean storage.  All the closets were filled with cable and other paraphernalia pertaining to his business, and they even kept a flat bed, ditch witch, and a creeper-esque looking van in the backyard.  Why they didn't just buy a storage unit is beyond me.

Anyway, back in 1946, whoever built this house in southern Georgia obviously didn't account for global warming.  It has no air conditioner.  Zip.  Zero.  Zilch.  No duct work, no remains of the outdoor unit, nothing!  Since discovering the house, I've been fascinated by the thought of living back in the day with no means of cooling.  Having lived at a boy scout camp for six weeks in the dead of summer in southeast Kansas, I have a fairly good idea of what kind heat we're talking about here.  They did, however, put in an old fashioned furnace type thingy...I'm not really sure how to describe it.  Still, I can't wrap my head around why anyone would equip their home with a furnace and not an air conditioner in GEORGIA...in fact, I don't think Jared or I turned on our own furnace in our apartment all winter.  Of course, fifty degrees is like an ice age to the natives down here.

Alrighty now, I'm sure some before pictures are in order...

380 Camelia Drive

The original living room.  Look at the gorgeous hardwood floors!

Facing the opposite way from the previous picture.  Here's the kitchen/dining room. 

The "dining room"...it's more of an eat in kitchen.

The only existing original bedroom, currently used for storage.

The full bath.  Not a whole lot is getting done to this room.  It's in decent order.

The second living area.  Used to be the second bedroom, but they
 expanded it and through the door on the left of the frame is the "master" suite.
This could be called the den or family room.  Everything beyond the windows
and the exterior door on the right was added later on.  You can
kind of see the change in floor color.

The cute half bath that is getting an upgrade to full.
It's just off the family room, directly adjacent to a closet
(of which there is no picture, sorry, closets are
boring), and in the hallway that leads to...

...the master!  The owners offered the bedroom set (with an armoire, not seen here)
with the house, but we didn't care for it too much...and I've got
my own plans for this room!

So there it is, in all it's cottage-y glory.  The exterior needs some work too, but I haven't taken any pictures of it...yet.  However, Jared and I are planning on getting a head start in the yard during a weekend...it desperately needs it!  In the meantime, I'm dreaming up furniture layouts, paint colors, and all sorts of creative ideas for this place.  Also, I do apologize for the shoddy quality of the photos.  I'll get my slr out there and get better ones soon!

Sarah

The seedling

Gar-den /ˈgärdn/ Noun:A piece of ground, often near a house, used for growing flowers, fruit, or vegetables.

I have expanded my definition to include houses.  Do they not also grow out of a piece of ground?

This story begins a few months ago with my husband Jared's undercover search for a fixer upper near his work place.  Unknown to me, Jared hatched the plan to buy a house, found a prospective property, and began trying to convince me that this was a good idea.  Even though I wasn't a fan of the house he'd found, it fit the bill of our three requirements:

1.) It needed to be close to his work place
2.) It needed to be in our price range, and
3.) It needed to be in need of some work.

So we made a low-ball offer on a house that was foreclosed on and in need of a lot of TLC.  The two bed, two bath bungalow was in a state of disrepair that I wasn't crazy about, but Jared and I could see the potential despite the obnoxiously high price for the condition.  After a week of bidding with the bank, it was made clear to us that the bank was trying too hard to break even on the house, and we decided it would be in our best interest to not pursue that avenue anymore.

But then what?  That was the big question going around our heads after that experience.  We both agreed to keep looking in Pembroke, as it was just minutes away from Jared's work, and that anywhere else just didn't really make sense in regards to location.  We worked with a realtor who found some "comparable" properties that we looked at.  I say "comparable" because they just needed to be put out of their misery.  Though we checked them out, Jared and I agreed to steer clear of the other houses that were suggested to us (a six bedroom, four bathroom ranch that someone decided to just keep adding on to in the back clearly wasn't for us).  After deciding to call the house hunt quits for the day, we headed back through the tiny town of Pembroke to our apartment in Pooler.  That's when I saw this cute cottage...

We checked it out, and I was thrilled to discover it fit all three requirements.  Jared contacted the contractor we planned on using, and we started discussing possible renovations.  I must say, that Jared was still quite stuck on the first house, and it took a bit of convincing to get him to come around to this one.  I was feeling kind of smug when he agreed that this house was infinitely better than our first option...

Anyway, the two bedroom, bath and a half was built in 1946.  It boasts original hardwood floors, a large attic space, asbestos siding (actually not a problem unless disturbed), and an add on that added a whole extra living space, all on just under an acre of land.  I'm slightly in love with it, can you tell?

The listed price was $41,900 by owner, and we talked them down to $35,000.  Currently, we are just waiting for the bank to close, and then it's on to the renovations.  We've got a whole list of things that are going to get done to make this house livable.  Well, I'm convinced that, per one exception, it is livable right now (I'm seriously not that picky, but Jared is...a bit, hah!).

Our list of to do's for this house kind of overwhelms me, but most of it is being contracted out, so we get to sit back and watch.  For me, that's not really a problem.  For Jared, he'd much rather be in on the action, knocking down walls and sawing things in half or whatever carpenters do.

So for now, we're just waiting and dreaming of walls that we can paint and put holes in, or maybe that's just me!  Still, this is exciting, and I'm ready for a new chapter in my life with Jared, and I know he's very much excited too.  There's going to be plenty to blog about, so I'll rarely have nothing to post, I'm sure.  Stay tuned for the progress.  I'm excited to watch this house grow from seedling to mature plant in my Georgia Jardin.

"Till" next time,
Sarah