Shirley Projects - Summer 2008

As promised... here are pictures of the house and ongoing projects...

Here is the house with the solar screens. Our house faces the west and we get some incredible heat from the afternoon sun. These screen block 80% of the suns rays from getting in the house. They are supposed to help our electric bills and they also provide a nice cosmetic touch to the house. Compare this pic to the Mother's Day pic in the previous post. We got them from Texas Solar Screens at a 33% discount that they were running. I thought that it would be really expensive to get something for those octagon windows but it really was not that bad at all.



Now the fence... it's been a major feat to accomplish here at the Shirley house. It's taken several weekends, but it's finally coming to an end. Here is it from every angle...
Zach still has to build a gate here in the corner that will open towards the alley. This way we won't have to walk all the way around the fence to get to the front of the house.

The back side....
This is taken from down the trail behind our house. It's really to point out that you can't see the back door if you are coming down the trail. Used to people could see straight into our backyard... this was before the retaining wall was built.


The wonderful gate that works and shuts very easily. As you can tell from this picture, Zach still has to trim some of the posts down and cap them off.

This will be my job... probably with Zach's help though. We'll be staining the fence . ;-) So let me tell you why it pays to have a husband that works at Home Depot. No we don't get an employee discount... he gets many other benefits that make up for that fact though. This is why it pays... Adam who works at the paint desk let Zach know that someone brought back a 5 gallon bucket of stain that they didn't like. You can't get your money back on that and then the store can't sell it for full price because the color has already been added to the bucket. So we got a 5 gallon bucket of stain originally priced $150 for $15. It's called Opps! paint... great deal. The paint counter at Home Depot will always have some paint cans like this, but they may not be this great of a deal. So anyway... even though it may not have been the color I would have originally chosen, it was only $15.

So the next project to be started is the deck that will go on the side of the house. I'm really excited about this because it's going to make the yard look so nice. The giant recycle bin will also be moved once the deck is built.


Here are all the supplies for the deck. The holes are dug... it's just a matter of Zach having time.
We are project kings and queens. There's never a dull moment that's for sure. Hopefully Zach will have some more time in about a week. He'll be done with his Maymester class next week and will then only have 2 hours of class a day for the month of June. Also, another praise... Zach is now working full time at Home Depot. This has been something that we have been wanting for several months now and it's finally a reality. It's a very good feeling! I hope that everyone else is having fun with their summer projects. ;-)