A New Mystery

We have had so much water (snow and ice melting) that the sump pump has been working overtime. And its causing erosion around the sidewalk...which is where we found these. We're not sure, but it looks like a patio, a path, or possibly a really old foundation. The bricks are laid in rows and run under the sidewalk and were under about 6" of dirt. You can't tell but there are more in the top part of the picture too. I'm taking this as a sign. For the last few months I have said I want to build a brick patio using the bricks laying in the basement and crawlspace. I just wasn't sure where to put it, or if it would even look right. Now that I found these I can't wait to get started. With help, of course...I can probably lay the bricks, but I can't physically level the ground or dig these up. I have to do a little research though before digging these up to make sure they don't have a historic significance.

The weird part it that I had been on James for weeks to move the tubing for the sump pump because the ground was eroding and I have been freaking out about the foundation holding up to losing all the soil. However, if he had moved it like I wanted him to we would have never found these. Oh, and the pipe in the picture is the exhast pipe off my Kia. It fell off this past summer and James used it to redirect some of the water...must be a guy thing cause I would have never thought of that! I think that might qualify as more redneck DIY.

Vacuum not working? Rip out the carpet!

OMG...what have I done?! OK so earlier tonight I vacuumed the dining room. Its the only room in our house that has carpet and we keep saying we're going to pull it out. Well the vacuum got really hot and wasn't sucking anything up so I checked it out and found enough fur to make an animal. That's nasty. Really, really nasty. I love our pets, but eeeewwwww! So I started tearing up the carpet. I called James first to make sure he wouldn't freak out about it. 2 hours later I'm now regretting it.
I found this under the nasty black stuff under the underpadding. Its the 9 of spades. Mrs. Yochum, the previous owner, loved cards. So much that its even mentioned in her obituary. I have had several people tell me that they played cards with her here. This is the only thing we have found in the house so far that has belonged to the Yochums. I think its kinda cool.

This was the start of the destruction of the carpet. That is the carpet, Mohawk underpadding, some nasty black stuff (whats there is all that I've found of it) and the bare floor. It looks like they stripped the floor before putting carpet over it. And if you look close you can see the floor is laid a different direction than the next room. The dining room and kitchen are laid this way and the other rooms are the other direction. I have no idea why.
See the beautiful unfinished hardwood? You gotta look around the adorable little dog. I did a little Redneck DIY...the tools I used were a Craftsman grill scraper, a pair of side cuts, hammer, carpet knife, and a Tupperware canister to hold the nails and staples. Not ideal, but got got it done. Now I have to wait for James to get home because I can't move any of the furniture. Not taking any chance of re-injuring myself. Oh...the cute little dog is our Shih-Tzu Socks. He was a wedding gift from a friend.

That's all I got for now...more to come though. By the way, does any one know what kind of wood that is? I have no idea. But I like that its already sanded...saves us a lot of money!