Outdoor Fun

Well, to make a long story short...

'Tax refund=the largest, sight unseen, online purchase we've ever made...a swing set for the kids!!'

We are not going to tell Liam about it because we don't want the same thing happening to the swing set as it did with Riding Thomas. It will just have to be a big surprise, and aren't those the best anyway?!

We have thought of getting a swing set for a while now. But, we really didn't want the maintenance of a wood set, and all the metal ones we had seen were a bit of an eyesore. I happened upon Costco's site yesterday, and found a really nice, attractive metal one. It has really great reviews on all the sites we looked on, and is $400 less than the manufacturer's site...gotta love Costco! It will get here in about 2-3 weeks, and we are very excited. Our yard is pretty, but is also pretty boring for kids...so hopefully this will get us out enjoying fresh air and our yard more!

VIDEO

Pergola

So our house faces north, which means our backyard gets the sun ALL day long, and we really can't be outside in the yard comfortably until 8pm, which is also Liam's bedtime, and he just LOVES to be outside, and asks to go 'outside' or 'side' all the time. Last year we put in some trees, but it will be a long while until they are big enough to provide any shade. So, we bit the bullet and decided to put a pergola in so that we could enjoy our yard more. We had considered the idea of finding a plan, and doing it ourselves. Then we actually found a decent kit online that had free shipping....but then shortly after that Mike was driving down the road near our house, and saw this beautiful pergola, so he stopped to take a look. An employee saw him as she was returning from break, and she set up an appointment to get a bid. The guy that came out convinced us that we should cover the entire patio, and he did have a good point that we wouldn't want to be bumping into posts as we moved about...anyway, we decided to go with the bigger plan...and even though we don't even want to think about how much it was, we are really happy with the finished product!

Patio before the pergola...

Gettting started






Finished Pergola






With Furniture...

We Have A Yard!!

We finally have our yard in, and we are very happy with it! Here are a few before and after pictures:

Front yard Before

Front yard After

Under Porch Before

Under Porch After

Side Yard Before

Side Yard After

Park Strip Before

Park Strip After

Side Yard Back Before

Side Yard Back After

Haven't Posted In A While

Not a whole lot has been going on lately, so I haven't had much to post about. Things are well. We are so happy and relieved to not have to worry about the townhouse anymore. Although now we have a new project to think about...getting our yard in. We got a couple bids, and we finally figured out what we want to do, so we signed the contract today. Unfortunately, they are super busy and won't be able to start for about 6 weeks!! Although I guess this gives us some time to set aside some more $$ to pay for it. It will be so nice to be able to hang out in the back yard and not see ugly nasty weeds. Not to mention the awful fox tails that have been stuck to our dogs fur and our floor for the past several weeks, and the stray puncture weeds that fall randomly on the floor...those things really hurt! Anyway, we thought that we would start with the front yard this year and work on the back yard later, but we decided to just get it ALL done at once! We have a fairly large yard, and it's going to be quite expensive, but it's one of those things that just needs to be done, so we just can't think about the cost-just have to bite the bullet and do it! So here are our plans...Tear out the old dead lawn and weeds, grade/topsoil and new sod everywhere! Add some planters to the front yard with lots of bushes. Add a kidney shaped planter with large shade tree to the side yard. Lots of trees in the back yard, including a small fruit orchard off to the side of our backyard. We will have an area for our garden and also an area for a swingset in the future. We are excited to get it in, and I'll post before and after pictures when it is finally done.

Our First Spring Project

So we moved into our new home last fall, and unfortunately the house had been vacant for at least a year, so the yard was not cared for at all. Our first priority when we moved in was to get a fence up for privacy, and for our dogs. Then winter came and then Liam was born so we have not worried much about the yard since we got our fence up. Everyone in our neighborhood has fairly well kept yards, and it is pretty embarrassing to pull up to our weed-full lawn! And now that spring is here, it's time for us to get started on the yard. Our first project is the front yard and the park strips since that is what is visible to passer-by's, then later we will tackle the back yard. We are not exactly sure what we plan to do, but we do know that we would like to plant lots of trees!

Here is a picture of our only tree that was there when we moved in.


BTW, sadly a cat (could be our garage cat, or another in the area) thinks this tree is it's personal scratching post. We hope that it won't die from the scratches, but if anyone out there has any advise on how to protect it from getting worse and/or dying it would be greatly appreciated.