After having slacked off a good deal on house improvements, this past weekend I dove back into it. First up was the horrendous shrub/bush/whatever in the front yard, which looked like a christmas tree run amok. .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

A trip to Home Depot and a chainsaw rental later, and the shrub/bush/whatever had started to significantly shrink.

And then there was none.

I think it looks a whole lot better. The plan is to re-rock the front yard with something a little more asthetically pleasing than what's there now... maybe some small dark brown stones or something like that.

Oh, and as an aside, using a chainsaw is the Scariest Fucking Thing I've done in a long time. I tried to do the manly "hold the handle in one hand and yank the starter cord with the other" thing, but _twice_ the whole thing twisted and I banged the blade into my shin. Lucky both times I hadn't actually started the thing, or I'd be Petey the Peg-leg Pirate by now.

When I was finishing trying to cut away the stump to a reasonable size I guess I hit a rock or something, because there were a few sparks, and right then the chainsaw became about as effective at cutting the stump as a stick of melted butter. I still have a large mulberry tree to cut down in the backyard, but given the choice of trying to figure out how to get the blade sharpened or returning the saw under the 4-hour window for a cheaper rate and trying again another day, I opted for trying again another day.

Next was floors. I finished up the two small hall closets and the threshold into the bathroom. Doing the small tricky little spaces is way less satisfying than laying down big chunks of floor in wide-open rooms. Also, I discovered an interesting side benefit to taking up carpets and reflooring. If your dog happens to puke on the carpet in a room that you're going to be reflooring, you can just cut out the offending section instead of actually cleaning it.