Porch Work, Yard Work

Today, Liz and I had separate, busy mornings. I was helping Bob for a while in Frankfort and Liz was runing some errands with Meg.

We got home in the early afternoon. And after walking to get some garden bags and some lunch, we headed back to do a lot of outside work.

While I was mowing the lawn, Liz was clearing off the back and front porches.

In addition to just getting rid of a lot of junk (and storing things like our snow shovel in the basement), she moved several of the old bags of mulch we had on the front porch.

She also hosed down both porches, which I don’t think we’ve done since we moved in here.

When we started mulching the front yard, we got to the last bag and a half and realized we were going to come up short. Despite the fact that we were past our cutoff time (6PM), we decided to keep pushing and finish off the front yard.

So I hopped in the car, headed over to the nearby Lowe’s, and grabbed another 10 bags. We needed a few more to finish off the yard, another good number for the parkway. And we’ll probably need at least another run when we tackle mulching against the fence in the backyard.

The front lawn, freshly mulched and finished!

Well, there’s still a little work to be done with the bricks around the birdbath – but that’s some fine-tuning that had to wait, given how late it had gotten.

The back porch, now with space for sitting.

Looking out over the backyard, which we hope to improve over time.

Some front porch items that had been rearraged.

Though we’re still trying to adhere to our South Beach diet, we do allow for a victory beer after a full day working outside.

Seating along the front porch.

The funny thing is, even though we have this set up now… Liz and I still chose to sit on our front steps. I think it was partly due to habit, and partly due to us wanting to look at the front yard while we had our beer.

Liz, filling up the birdbath. Because if we’re drinking, the birds should be drinking too.

View from the front. We got several really lovely compliments from neighbors and people walking by, while we were working. It was nice to hear, as it provided motivation… and made us just feel really good. One woman said she enjoyed walking down our street because of how pretty the yard looked. That was great.

It’s still amazing to me that this area was once overrun with day lillies, and that it’s been transformed into a real yard again.

Related:
Front Yard Transformation in Under a Day: Amazing Before and After Photos
Single Day Front Yard Transformation: Before and After Photos
Putting Mulch Down in the Front Yard