let there be light

It pains me that for the passed few days there has been a picture of a turkey as the first thing you see when you pull up my blog. I apologize. And while I have an excellent excuse (Pink Eye for Max, me and now Quinn, plus some sort of horrible cold that put me in bed ALL DAY Sunday and most of Monday and has left me completely voiceless), it is still unacceptable. Especially when we (Zach) crossed something so amazingly epic off of our list of "Things to do at some point in order to raise the standard of living for all who live in this home (but mostly Katie)." On Monday while I layed in bed and the boys played blissfully in the yard, Zach tore down something. Here's some before shots - See if you can see it lurking ominously in the background of these otherwise happy pictures:

Do you see it? Do you understand how, in a home where we're truly trying to be eco-concious, we would do something like TEAR DOWN A GREENHOUSE???? Let me give you a few reasons, just in case you want to beat me up right now.

1. It covered up two GIANT south facing windows which meant hardly, if any, natural light coming into the kitchen.

2. It's carpeted. Seriously, the lady who lived here before us must have been OBSESSED with carpet. The only ground surface that isn't carpeted is the lawn. Thank goodness.

3. Ants. I battle ants from the beginning of spring to the end of summer. They come in through the greenhouse. Zach found hoards of them living in the pipes of it when he took it down. Sometimes we would let the boys play out there in dirt in the one smallish planter box. I looked out the window one day and saw Max standing with his arms out in front of himself just staring at them. I went out to see what he was so entranced by, and found that he had ants crawling ALL OVER HIS BODY! AND Quinn's! *shudder*...

4. Have you ever heard of Seasonal Affective Disorder? I think I have a mild form of that. Year round because of that blasted thing. Ugh.

5. It's down right creepy people. When we first moved in I hung big blankets in the windows so I wouldn't have to look down into it. Especially at night. We've always called it "The Mad Scientist's Laboratory" because that's what it looks like at night. There was something that happened one of the first nights we lived here, before we hung up the blankets, that literally scared me so bad I've thought about it every time I've looked down into it at night ever since. Zach had just gotten out of the shower and I was sitting in the living room. I didn't see him standing in the doorway of the kitchen, but I saw his reflection in the window that looks down into the greenhouse, and from the angles and the lighting, it literally looked like there was a naked man hanging by one of the support beams in the greenhouse. I know, funny that it was actually just my naked husband standing like, 10 feet away from me, but still. Not funny for like 3 seconds. Nightmares people. Nightmares. The blakets went up the next day. Again, *shudder*...

Those are just a few reasons.

So my sweet husband worked himself ragged all day on his day off to tear the thing down. There's still a lot more to do with it. We haven't taken all the poles down, or the end walls yet, but it's already a welcomed change from the gloomy before. Here are some after shots:

First two panels off:

Our new lovely view:

This is when Max came running in the kitchen while I was taking pictures of the wonderful light, gave me a huge hug and a big kiss on the cheek...

And then ran off.

This is my view at the computer. This is when I knew Zach had ripped off the first panel. That little patch of light on the door frame made me want to cry, so I took a picture.

It still makes me want to cry. I haven't had to turn a light on all day. And won't until 9 o'clock tonight. That, my friends, is eco-concious. Now I just have to get some curtains up there for that brief moment each day when one of us sprints from the bathroom to the bedroom after showering. Or, if you're Zach, instead of sprinting, hanging out in the kitchen for a bit. Maybe getting a glass of milk or something. Yeah, there will definitely be some changes to get used to. Welcomed changes. :)