GUTTERS and FLOWERS

Our house came with no gutters. The roof was new, which is way more important, but we figured gutters were pretty important too. So, I googled a bunch and got some quotes. The prices shocked my socks off. Considering that our house is a one story rectangle, I figured white, plastic gutters would cost a couple hundred dollars. Turns out they would have been a couple thousand dollars installed from Lowes or Home Depot. We ended up spending a couple hundred dollars doing it ourselves. Actually, Daniel pretty much did it himself. I strategically placed the ladder and kept him company. That was last year.

Guttered roof

This year some gutter maintenance was in order. We had some heavy rain and wind and a couple of the downspouts came off (we hadn't got around to securing them with brackets); and the gutters filled up with leaves 'cause we skipped the leaf guards. To fix all this, Daniel chopped back some trees from the house, unclogged all the gutters, and attached a couple more downspouts. Then he re-attached the ones that fell off with brackets. We decided not to put on leaf guards, because going up on the roof once or twice a year to unclog them is super quick and easy.
Mari had a good time playing outside while we worked. The weather has been sunny and warm, in the 70's, so we've been spending a lot of time outside.

"Smell the flowers, but don't eat them"

 Crawling around outside seems to tire Mari out more than anything else. I'm trying not to complain too much, but this weather is not wintery at all. Today I nearly broke out my flip flops because it was 77 degrees!!! IN FEBRUARY!!! The daffodils are blooming. I wasn't sure they would survive when I planted them because after being dug up they sat in our laundry room for awhile. Then when we tilled up the yard last year, I was afraid we tilled them up. So seeing them come up this year pleasantly surprised me. Mari loves them too, and has learned to hold them under her nose and sniff. She likes to hold them up to my nose, daddy's nose and her baby doll's nose too.