Clearing the Wilderness: Backyard Transformation, Day 1
As Liz and I were watching, we kept shaking our heads – remembering how long it took to clear just a little bit ourselves.
Posts Tagged "our first home"
Backyard: One Last Look
Tonight, after work, Liz and I stepped out on the back porch and took one last look at the backyard. It’s a crazy, overgrown mess… but all of that changes, in less than 24 hours.
Backyard Concrete Demo
This is after a few hours. It was slow going, and the concrete actually ran much deeper than I anticipated. There’s actually a layer of brick underneath everything, and I was pulling up chunks that were several inches thick.
Much Mulch
Liz did the math for how much mulch we’ll need for the backyard (we’re keeping a 3′ gap between the yard and the fence). All told, we’ll need 22 bags – so we decided to split things up into multiple runs.
Flag That for Later
Came home to find some small flags, planted in the backyard. We’re going to be having work done next week, and learned that this was part of the process (although I thought it would be JULIE, turns out it was DIGGER – gotta love those acronyms).
Before the Flowers Arrive
Yesterday evening, we got a knock on the door around 7PM. It ended up being Carol Jean, a neighbor of ours from two doors down. She was just stopping by, and chatted with us a bit about our backyard (she had heard we were going to get some work done, and was just curious).
Tending to the Front Yard
The front yard really is a lovely thing to see. I’d argue it’s the nicest looking plot of lawn on the block, but then… I’m a little biased in this regard. I am still awed when I think about how this all used to look, before Liz and Julie tackled it.
Backyard Sunday
A lovely photo of Liz, with our house in the background. Bit by bit, we’re making things better. I cannot wait until this backyard area is all cleaned up. I’m truly looking forward to inviting folks over to come and hang out. Can’t wait.
Backyard Plans
The good news: we’re getting some landscapers to come in, and do all the work for us. We priced out a few options, and the one we’re going with is having an outside company come in, clear the yard, and level it for us. After they’re done, we’re going to get a delivery of sod and lay that down ourselves.
Saturday Cleaning Day, Part 2
Saturday was another big cleaning day for us. Originally, the plan was to tackle the whole first floor last weekend, but we ended up only getting though the kitchen. Today: the remainder of the first floor. Mostly.
The Worms Crawl In, the Worms Crawl Out
After dinner with Liz’s folks on Sunday evening, we walked home in the rain to discover the yard was awash again with earthworms. See those long lines in the soil? Earthworms, every one of ’em.
All Day Cleaning Extravaganza
We’ve had this day on the books for a while: on Saturday, Liz and I spent all day working on cleaning the first floor. More specifically: we meant to clean the entire first floor, but ended up spending all our time in our kitchen.
Friday After Work: Hanging Out in the Front Yard
Here’s thing with some of the flowers that have come up: the tulips in particular are really big! On just a casual glance, the yard has a lot of color. But once you start staring at the tulips, Liz pointed out to me just how large/tall they actually are. And they’re huge!
Adding Insulation to the Master Bedroom
We made some great progress in this room about two weeks ago, when we cleared out the closet and north wall. We’ll have a similar task when we jump one room over, and try to tackle the same (but inverse) in the guest bedroom.
Shadow Selfie
I like this photo because it captures a lot of what we do, when we arrive home. Which is namely: pausing at the sidewalk, and looking at all the flowers that have started to bloom.