It's hot, but I won't complain.

So our house/yard has some major things going on.  Our basement is about 2/3 unfinished, so about 2 months ago while Dave was still working,  Dave's dad and mom started knocking down some walls and framing in what will eventually be our finished basement.  The first project downstairs - build a second bathroom!  WAHOO!!!!  I couldn't be happier about this.   When Dave's parents come back into town, they will be helping (and by helping, I mean they are the experts 'cause they've done this kind of stuff before,) us move our staircase so that we can lay out the rest of our basement without a staircase in the dead center of everything.  We are extremely lucky to have their helping hands.

In the meantime, we have 2 bathroom projects going on.  TWO?  yes.  Walls get knocked down, then...

One thing ALWAYS leads to another when doing home improvement projects, right?  It's kind of like the song "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly."  Except ours takes this course of events:  The framing leads to needing to move pipes for future bathroom, which means digging out major basement concrete to put said pipes, which means plumber needs to move the main plumbing bones of the house, which means upstairs bathtub (good riddens, I HATED that hideously gross bathtub) has to be pulled out, which means we discover unstable, old wood beneath removed tub, which means bathroom floor must be removed (all of which means no shower/bath as of last Friday,) which also means Dave has to pull out a bunch of dry wall, which gets him thinking "I hate this texture in our bathroom, I want to just put new drywall up," which means totally new bathroom upstairs but....oh...that also means no bathroom until it's done.  That was the worlds longest run-on sentence.  We were only without a toilet for about 12 hours thanks to McKay who came in and updated all of our plumbing.  (thanks Ali for having a great boyfriend who does an awesome, affordable job plumbing, and whom you loan out on weekends, and thanks Jessi for introducing us to said plumber.)

In addition, we have no AC.  Well, we do have an AC unit that was intended to get installed and hooked up, but that hasn't happened yet.  We also have not (when I say we, I mean Dave because I am so incompetent when it comes to fixing and hooking things up and all that home improvement stuff) hooked up the swamp cooler.  So it's hot.

We also had 5 tons of rock delivered in our front yard. That, I could do.  Dave and I spread 5 tons of rock over various areas in our yard, as well as completed (almost) a rock garden in our front yard complete with boulders, small rocks, and waterwise plants.  The best time to get all that finished is when Isaac is napping, which just happens to be in the dead heat (around 1 ish to 4 ish.)

So this week I am thankful for the annual pass we purchased for a family Christmas Present to Murray Rec Center.  They have both an indoor and outdoor pool, and showers.  Yup, that is how I've been getting my shower on the last week, at the rec center.  We have a nice swim (cause it's HOT) and then we shower.  It also works out because Isaac hates showering at home, but for some reason he LOVES the rec center shower.  He will stand under that thing until you practically pry him out of there.  I should have taken some before and during pictures of the whole bathroom(s) process, but frankly, It's too hot.  :-)

Here is some progress we've made on the rock project, however - we still have to add a few plants, but the hope is that these smaller plants will start to spread and flower.  I'll feel good about using scant amounts of water, plus I'll feel like a more competent gardener because I'll be keeping things alive (you see, we don't have auto sprinklers (see future home improvement projects,) so anything out of hose range pretty much dies because we are too lazy and/or forgetful to hold the hose up and use the spray to water.

Oh, and finally, the title of the blog?  I am not going to complain about the heat because I complained A LOT about how cold it was clear into mid-JUNE (still bitter) and I don't want to wish away summer.  NOT AT ALL.

Our rock garden.  Don't worry about the McMANSION in the background that was built over the past year, blocking our views of the Mt. Olympus and owners driving-a-tractor-into-our-backyard-and-not-fixing-the-fence-or-grass-still.  No, just pretend you can't see that.

More rock garden.  THere is a little piece of Dave's bro, Jiri, in this rock garden.  He hauled that piece of curved wood back from Southern Utah probably 15 years ago.  Then he moved to Atlanta, sold Dave his house.  It stayed.  Then, it made the move to Holladay with us where it sat in our garden for three years.  It has found a final resting place, I think!

First flowers making their appearance in the rock garden.  Awesome!

I've always, always been drawn to plants like these.  These are hens and chicks.  The plants in our rock garden consist mainly of different kinds of sedum variety.  My fave.