Home Work

It's been a busy week here in the Cardin/Almasarweh household, which doesn't really differentiate it from any other week. Too bad none of what we have been doing is really that interesting. I have been working on a new research project which is really neat, but unfortunately I can't disclose what it is on the internet! Anyway...

I thought I would post some pictures of our house since most of you have never seen it. We only have 2 more years here, so like I told Stephanie the other day, you better get busy making plans to visit if you want to see us here!

Ahmad and I have done a lot of work on the house since we bought it. One of the big projects was building a patio for the backyard. Mom and Dad came up to help us last summer and we worked for two days solid on this project.

As you can see, the guys did most of the laying of the stone so we could blame them later if it didn't turn out right. Mom and I carried every single piece of stone to them, though, so over the course of the day, we moved a ton of stone together. It was hard work, but we had a lot of fun, and as you can, the finished product is amazing. We've already thrown several cookouts and the patio is a big hit.

The patio turned out great. And this picture also illustrates the huge cherry tree we have in the backyard which in the spring fills up with cherries that are bright red/yellow and taste delicious.

The jungle (see the previous post) is also visible, as is some of the landscaping we did on the back yard. My project for this year is to landscape around the patio. I can't wait. I have to admit, landscaping and working outdoors is my favorite part of home ownership.

And here is the landscaping we did on the front of the house. We have single handedly kept our local Home Depot in business!

Lastly, Ahmad remodeled one of our bathrooms. It was sorely in need of a lot of work when we bought the house. Here's the before and after pictures.

Winter Birds

Ahmad and I have a crazy neighbor lady who owns two empty lots between our house and hers. While she's certifiably crazy, she also keeps those two lots filled with trees...except for the middle in which she has made some sort of garden/bird feeder/squirrel haven.

Here's a picture of what we lovingly refer to as "the jungle."

All of this is fine by us for several reasons. One, we love the privacy of having "the jungle" next to us and not some other house. Two, the animals are nice, except when she leaves out donuts for the birds and squirrels. The squirrels love to bring the donuts to our front porch and try to hide them in our chairs. But that's another story. Three, she leaves us alone despite the fact that we use about 7 feet of her property as part of our yard. Plus, the "jungle" makes a great place to blow all of our leaves in the fall without having to pick them up and put them into bags!

Due to the fact that she religiously feeds the birds, we have 5 or 10 cardinals that spend a lot of time near our windows...and the view is beautiful especially when the trees are white with snow. Here's some snapshots of cardinals I took today: