The Great Outdoors

Tonight's home maintenance adventure will involve an irrigation repair guy coming over to tell us how badly our in-ground sprinklers are broken. If one were to drive by the house and guess at the answer to this question based on the state of our lawn, one would probably guess "Pretty badly." I'm sure the neighbors are thrilled.

This was one repair we didn't really know about in advance, in that on her disclosure form next to the "Lawn Sprinkler System" line, the seller checked the box for "Yes, that is working." Then on our closing day it was super hot and we made some crack about running through the sprinklers and the seller was like, "Oh, yeah, those are broken." Kind of brazen, lady! Great timing on that revelation! 

We didn't make a thing of it at the time, but based on the estimate the guy gives us tonight, we may Make a Thing of It. Given that I'm not the best at plant care and maintenance (Exhibit A: All of the plants I bought in May to make the condo patio look cute have gone on to that big organic garden in the sky. It was a miracle I could keep them alive long enough to sell the condo, and after that I was kind of like, Well you guys are on your own now. Get a job.), and given that neither of us has had to think about a lawn for about a decade, the ability to put sprinklers on a scheduled program and forget about them was something I was really looking forward to. Instead we had to go to Home Depot on our first evening of home ownership to purchase hoses and sprinklers, and then proceeded to make fools of ourselves in our front yard trying to figure them out. Probably the neighbors looked out their windows and said to their spouses, "Oh honey, the new couple moved in... They can't seem to operate a sprinkler."

We have also purchased a weed puller and little shovel thingy. They're currently in the shed with the tags still attached but one day soon I will go out and do battle with the dandelions. I swear. The good news is that a lot of the non-lawn part of the landscaping consists of hostas, which I am told are easy to care for and may survive my laissez faire approach.

So, updates to come after we talk to the sprinkler guy! Hey, based on how bad it is, maybe we can kick off next year with the nuclear option.