These pictures should've been posted in opposite order, but I think you can get the idea here...the bottom photo was the "Before" shot of the West side of our little cabin. And yes, it was in some really bad condition, thus why it sat on the market for just over a year. There was a lot of work put into it by noah, and he did wonder at times if he'd ever get thru with the cleaning of this wall. There was tons of mold, mud, and glop everywhere, but he got a bucket with a combination of exterior bleach and water, grabbed my very finest $1.00 scrub brush, and got this wall cleaned, sanded and primed.

The top photo shows the nice paint job he did, not just on this wall, but the entire exterior of the cabin. He took his time and made sure all the paint was applied evenly and made doubly sure that the primer was good and set before he put on the final coat of paint. There are still drops of paint in the flower bed under the eaves and on leaves of some of the shrubs too, but the cabin looks so much much better. The first day I came here by myself to look over the place with the home inspector, I really began to wonder about my senses...I mean, it did look like we'd really taken on a monster, but once the work started, then it seemed like it wasn't as bad as we first thot. And people driving by on the paved road would shout to noah, "Nice job!", so I know that made him feel pretty good.

He's got a job already, too! One of the fellows in church talked to him last week, and said that when noah got thru with the exterior work, that the guy wanted noah to come to work for him. so last night he called the guy, and started this morning. I've got no idea of what he'll be doin, but just the fact that he got a job that quick is really sayin' somethin'. He got up pretty early to walk over to the guys house and get a ride, so I'm sure by the time he gets back here tonight he'll be pretty worn out. But he likes to put in a good days work, so I can't blame him for takin' up this offer for a job.

Tomorrow I'll post another photo of the flower beds. I spent some time in one of the larger beds yesterday pullin' some really nasty weeds, that look like they've been in that poor defenseless bed for sometime. The one neighbor said it'd been a couple years since the yard has had some real work done, and by the time I got 4 feet of work done, I believed every word she said. The suprising thing is the amount of bulbs and perinnials that are buried in this flower bed! Wow, I'm finding some really fabulous flowers, that are just getting ready to bloom. Whatta great find! Irises, more daylilies, Bee Balm, and some others that I'm not sure of...but they all have really perked up since the weeds have been pulled from around them. And we had a good soaking thunderstorm early this morning, so the flowers are Really doin' good today. I'm excited to see how they'll come out after the rest of the bed is cleaned up.

Lady of The Tulips -- who thinks there are some tulips in one of the other flower beds that happen to also be buried under some rather ughhlliieeee weeds, but she's just not sure...hmmm...