There’s quite a few projects going on around here that I never finished blogging about, or that simply don’t deserve their own blog post. So this post is my dumping grounds for all those misfit projects.

First off, we have our garage/carport. Last time I blogged about it, it had been assembled  (you can read that post HERE) and that was about it.

Since then we have done a few things to it. First we spread crushed granite under the carport and added another thin layer to the rest of the driveway.

Let me just say this…it is so so so nice to have the cars parked in the shade. I guess I didn’t realize what a huge difference it would make. Here is South Texas it is around (or above) 100 degrees everyday during the summer, which makes the inside of a car that has been baking in the sun roughly 17 THOUSAND degrees. The leather seats melt into your skin the second you touch them, the seat belt is scorching and the steering wheel is not to be touched. And you can forget about putting kids in car seats without blasting the AC for few minutes first. I figured cars in the shade would still be really really hot…but you know what? They’re not. You can just throw everyone in and go, no back of the thigh sweat puddles or seat belt burn marks. It’s a beautiful thing.

The biggest thing  that has happened to the garage is that Adam finished running all the electrical. We now have lights and outlets! I’m pretty proud of my husband for doing this. He knows absolutely nothing about electrical, in fact he seems to shock himself every time he changes a light bulb, so neither one of were feeling particularly confident when it came to doing a whole workshop. But he did great! Everything works, there are plenty of lights and outlets, and I think he only zapped himself once.

This is the main light, and we have one over each (non existent) workbench as well.

He even added a motion sensor light to the outside that turns on for a few minutes when we pull the car in at night.

The next step is to get organized. We need to build some workbenches and organize all out tools and paint and ….everything, really. We did buy a mini deep freeze though, and it’s nice to be able to buy frozen stuff at Costco now.

In other electrical news, we did a little bit to the lights on the front porch as well. This is what the lights on front porch have always looked like….

Cheap, dirty, gold, boob lights. Ick. We took them down and this is what was underneath…

Bright blue. The picture doesn’t do it justice…it’s the kinda blue you see on houses at the beach. I knew the trim was this color previously, but looks like the ceiling was too. This means that before we bought our house it has pinky salmon walls, red trim, bright orange stained concrete floors….and beachy blue on the outside. Interesting.

Anyway, we didn’t replace the light fixture, I just spray painted it pewter and threw it back up. Now it’s a cheap, ugly, pewter boob light. One day it will probably get replaced, but that day is not today.

The other side of the porch (the side that is going to get seating) got a brand new ceiling fan though.  Granted it’s not the prettiest ceiling fan, but the price was right and it’s a Hunter. I had to paint the bright blue around the base…I used the same color to paint it, except that the white is much brighter since it’s fresh. I’m not quite sure how to make it match…perhaps I’ll rub some dirt on it. No really, I think it just might work.

Up next is our backyard. Remember when I told y’all about our new fence and showed you the official backyard before pictures? Well, it looks the same. Sorry! It’s just been too dang hot to do any yard work. The only thing we’ve done is start on the back beds, just a little. I now have a tiny little garden that folds around the corner of the house. My parents helped me move the rocks and plant it earlier this summer. This is what it looked like not long after it was planted.

Everything was doing great, then yesterday I went out to water it and discovered that the tomato plants were looking like something from “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and were covered in these…

I went through and snipped off the branches that they were on and shoved them into Elijah’s bug cage. I thought he might get a kick out of them when he woke up from his nap. (I know it’s hard to see, but there’s 17  mutant sized worms in that cage.)

Turns out the kid is terrified if them. Terrified. I don’t really blame him though, they are huge and creepy. You can hear them chewing.

Hopefully I still get some tomatoes…luckily my cucumber plant is going strong.

Too strong, in fact. I’m getting so many giant cucumbers that I’ve decided to make pickles. I picked up canning supplies at the grocery store…now I just have to figure out how the whole process works.

And now, for the most random DIY project ever posted on this blog…a sawed off shotgun. You read that right, a gun before and after. We’ve had this 12 gauge shotgun forever…

It’s old and kicks like a beast…I shot it once and hope to never shoot again. One Sunday after church Adam and his brother, Taylor, decided that it needed a makeover. They asked if I wanted to write a blog post about it… I said sure and handed them the camera. They got to work…sawing, painting, and saying things like “hey dude…did you get a picture of that?” They took pictures of all their steps just like any good blogger would. Unfortunately all the pictures came out blurry…except for this one, the classic left-hand-holding-your-project photo.

Here it is after they were all finished.

They cut down the barrel to 18.5 inches (legal length is 18 inches…they were extra legal), cut the stock down, painted it black, added a shoulder strap, had me sew pockets for ammo, and officially declared it a “sick awesome zombie killing machine”.

I think y’all are all caught up now! I’ll leave you with this sneak peek (if you like me on facebook then you have already seen this)…

We’ve started working on or kitchen again! I’m so excited…it’s going to look “sick awesome”.