We have lived in this house for three years and every summer we have had to replace something in the irrigation system. We didn't pay that much attention to it until this year. When we had a lot of things break in it. So as my husband was digging in the front yard to fix the irrigation, he discovered that most of the pipe had not been buried correctly. As he kept digging the trench, he discovered that the pipe was only buried three inches deep and was not slopped correctly. The pipe was sloped to the highest point with a drain back valve, which was plugged because they didn't put it in and gravel.

After seeing that mess in the front he had to dig the whole system up and fix the slopes, but new drain back valves on it and dig a lot of it deeper. It took about two months to do because we wanted to reuse the pipe, so he had to dig the trenches by hand. Wish was kind of hard to do because the ground was packed solid by clinkers. One of the previous owners of the house used the whole back yard and garden area as a trash dump, and a place to put the clinkers from the old coal furnace.

We are so glad that this project is now down. I didn't even think to take pictures to show the stupidity of whoever put the pipe in only three inches deep. When you are digging a trench that will house pipe, you want to make sure that it is 6 to 12 inches deep and that the pipe slopes to the lowest point in your yard with a drain back valve buried in gravel.

There is a little building that is connected to the garage that we have been using as a storage shed. I have decided that I wanted to turn that storage shed into my photography studio. I've always wanted my own studio to play around in, and here was my chance to have my own.

Here are a few pictures of what the inside looked like.



As you can tell from the pictures the place was a complete wreck. There was stuff piled everywhere, plus some cats had gotten in there and used it as a bathroom. That was just really gross. I found a black widow in the corner, which I squished right away. The peach paint was peeling as well. I'm thinking the previous owners had a thing for the color peach. A lot of the inside of the house is painted that color, plus the little shop is painted peach on the inside and on the outside. I'm not sure why the paint was peeling like it was in some of the places.

It took me a couple of days go go through everything and empty it out. A lot of the stuff went to Di and was thrown out as it was broken. After I emptied out the shop, I proceeded to chip the paint away that was peeling with a putty knife. That took a couple of hours to do. After that was done, I got some plastic and masking tape so I could tape over the outlets and light switch. When that was completed the power to the shop was turned off, and I grabbed a garden hose and squirted the whole thing out. That was kind of fun as I like to play in the water. Though the weird part is that as I was squirting the walls off bubbles were forming on them. That was just plain interesting.

I let the shop sit over night to completely dry out. The next morning I went in there and swept out anything that had gotten in there. I decided to paint the whole inside black, so I wouldn't have any reflection on the walls, when I'm in there with lamps and taking pictures. It took two gallons of black paint to go over that obnoxious peach color. I even painted the floors. I had to make sure that the black paint was flat, as glossy would have made things reflect when taking pictures. When I was done painting, I moved some things back in there that I would need to store things in.

Here is what the inside looks like now.