Work in the Backyard

I think we’ve had people visiting or been away all but one weekend since we moved it – CRAZY busy!  Now we have a string of weekends with nothing planned I can get some stuff done around here. Here’s some pictures of the backyard before we moved in.  These were actually taken the day we had the house inspection done, before we had officially bought the house.  These pictures remind me of what a beautiful day it was that day – London & I had a picnic in the backyard while the house was being inspected.

Our neighbor on the right replaced her fence & cut down some trees while doing so.  Last weekend I decided pull out all the plants against the back fence, move one of our bushes back there, & plant grass.  We also cleaned out all the plants that were growing on the right hand side.  It doesn’t look like much but it feels like we gained a LOT more space back there having done this – the plants were pretty but we value the space.  Now we might even be able to fit a small play set.  Pete was kind enough to do most of the heavy lifting.

I’m hoping the grass comes in strong & the poor bush we transplanted (see back left corner) survives the transfer.  We actually moved that one on the right too but it seems to be doing much better than the other one.  Our neighbor’s (on the left) grape vine is starting to take over the fence on the left & needs to be seriously trimmed come spring.

Dad, this gives you a sneak peak of your next deck rebuild project – wink, wink. 🙂

Here’s what I was up to this weekend…

From left to right, top to bottom:

Added some chalkboard paint to these little planters I had & planted some basil & cilantro|Put the lattice up on the deck – by the looks of the picture, one of the sections needs a little straigthening|Over the last couple of weeks I built this table for the deck – I had built another one with some boards left over from our deck demo but it was WAY too heavy & looked a little scrappy; I’m pretty happy with how this one turned out|I found this chaise lounge at a yard sale last weekend for $7, it matches the wrought iron furniture I already had out there & the weather has finally been nice enough for me to use it|I found 2 chairs at Goodwill, painted them & added some fun outdoor upholstery fabric – still on the hunt for 2 more

Deck still needs to be painted but since Dad was here we haven’t had 2 rain free days in the forecast…hopefully soon!!

Oh ya, we also played some golf, had a nice dinner out, & stayed in to watch the Bruins.

Working Weekend

Thursday I came home from work to find a HUGE box on our doorstep. SO excited when I saw what it was – a fire pit & grill from my mom & Phil for my birthday! Ah! So exciting. I spent Thursday & Friday evening demoing the fireplace we had. By Saturday morning I had our new fire pit & grill set up. I was planning on having a little fire on Saturday evening but the rain arrived in time to ruin my plan. I also had to put my deck painting plans on hold due to the never ending rain.

I spent Saturday working outside – planting grass (note the patches of hay in the pictures), flowers, seeds, mulching & a little woodworking & painting & some sewing. I found the little bistro set (pictured above) at Salvation Army, the whole set was $11 – all I had to do was recover the cushions, not bad! Oh ya, I also refinished the top of the little table & stained it with some stain we had in the garage.

Speaking of refinishing…when my mom was visiting last weekend (more to come on their visit) we went for a walk & saw this kitchen cart thing sitting on the side of the road. It looked like it had serious potential…so I made my mom go back with me to pick it up with a car. I’m so glad we did. I love how it came out, wish I took a before picture. I sanded & stained it. Just got it out there but my plan is to fill the pots with herbs.

I finally managed to fill the “window” boxes on the shed with some flowers. I also built & painted this little flower box. I need to finish the table & chairs for deck but once that is done, we’ll be in pretty good shape back there.

Dad Visits & Deck: Before & After

Remember what our backyard looked we first moved it? Ya, I didn’t really remember either. I still can’t figure out what they were thinking with this landscaping. Seriously, there was no back yard. Maybe that’s it – they didn’t like to mow the lawn…?It’s come a longggg way but still seems to have a long ways to go. Slow & steady. Patience is in my development plan.

Super lucky for us, my dad came out to rebuild our deck a couple of weekends ago. Pete & I had spent the weekends leading up to his visit ripping up the old deck. The shape of the deck was not very user-friendly. We didn’t seem to have enough space to have a table or even chairs. Not sure what the design logic was. And Pete won the job of removing the dead, rotting skunk that was under the part of the deck we didn’t replace. The smell alone was making me sick, he said he almost vomited when disposing of the vermin (don’t have a picture, I actually had to leave the house when this operation was underway).Dad arrived on Friday night. We gave him Friday night off (well kinda, he had to review my project plans & figure out what additional supplies would be needed) but got straight to work on Saturday morning. Turns out whoever build the original deck must have lost their level & tape measure. We couldn’t figure out their logic, pretty much there wasn’t any which made things a little interesting. Thankfully, Dad was able to go with it.

After a few trips to the lumberyard & hardware store, we were able to get started (Dad spent about 5 minutes trying to use our Skill Saw before realizing that it wasn’t going to cut it for the job – no pun intended – lucky me, he got me a new one for my birthday!!). It took us most of the morning to “reshape” the deck foundation. I use the term “we” loosely, as Pete & I were strictly following directions.

After lunch, we started adding boards. Dad & I had a pretty good system going, he was measuring & cutting & I was doing the drilling (Pete had the afternoon off). The deck started to feel more “real” as more boards are added. By the end of the day we had the majority of the boards down. I was pretty impressed with our progress.

Day One: Before & AfterSunday morning Dad was up at the crack of dawn designing the deck railing. By the time we got up, he had the whole thing sketched out. It was too cold to start working so we went out to get the railing supplies. When we got back it had warmed up a hair & we were able to finish getting the boards down. Already looking good!!Next we started putting up the railing. I was getting more excited as each section was complete. By the time we took a lunch break, we were almost done with the railing. Looking amazing!When we were done with the railing, we had a couple of boards left, so Dad got fancy, split the boards & added a second board to the bottom of the railing – giving it a much more finished look. You can’t tell in the picture but I promise it looks good.

Can you believe how good this looks?! We are so incredibly happy with how it came out (so are our neighbors!). Thanks Dad for all the work!!!

You can kind of see some of the landscaping work Pete did in this picture.  He dug several HUGE rocks out of the yard & planted some grass.  You can see that he’s pond is no longer but I’m pretty confident that we will get much more use out of the deck than we ever got out of the pond. 

Once the lattice is up & we have patio furiture, well be good to go!  Maybe this weekend!

Before & After: Shed

It is a well-known fact that a coat of paint can transform a room…or a shed. And a transformation was exactly what this shed needed.

Last weekend I pulled out the paint supplies & got to work removing this eyesore from our backyard. During the painting process I realized that a new door was also in order (truth is I really didn’t want to put the filthy, beat-up door back on the freshly painted shed). So I built this door to kind of match the style of the shed. It’s made of tongue & grove boards (I talked the guy at Home Depot into giving me a 50% discount since the boards were broken on one end) & ended up costing me about $9. Over the course of last week & this week I was able to finish this project up.

I was looking at pictures of sheds & really liked the ones with windows. Of course, I wasn’t going to (don’t know how) install windows (plus the inside of the shed is still gross). Then I came across a shed or two with faux windows & that was the winning ticket. I really can’t decided if looks a little too…I don’t know old ladyish or if I like it. No question that it beats what it was but I’m not sure if I got a little carried away with the window boxes…

In other backyard news, we’re super impressed with how well the grass is coming in back there. I had to replant in a couple spots this weekend but overall it’s looking good. And..anyone notice that little fire pit on the right? Ya, we built that yesterday. I’ll post better pictures & the full story later this week

Backyard Progress

So I’m happy to report that we made SERIOUS progress in the backyard last week/weekend.

We called a landscaper to get a quote for the removal of all the vines & I thought it was extremely reasonable & worth paying – ripping up groundcover/vines is not really the most fun (they do our neighbors lawn, so they evaluated & quoted us a price based on scoping from the neighbor’s yard). They were supposed to come last Wednesday. I got home from work & nothing had been done. So I called & they assured me that someone had been there to “weed the flower beds”. I assured them that was not what I wanted done & even that hadn’t been done. They had someone there bright & early Thursday morning that I could show what I wanted to have done. Of course, when they saw how annoying the work was, they almost tripled the quote…so I ended up doing it myself which in hindsight wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated.

By Saturday mid-morning, I had ripped out all the vines & we were ready to rent a tiller. We smartened up this time & rented one that was drastically easier to handle & had the whole area tilled in a jiffy (not sure if Pete would agree that it was a jiffy but comparably speaking, it was like night & day). Then I raked it & raked it & raked some more, making sure I got as much of the crap out as possible. Put a little (14 bags) top soil down, raked again, then, to quote our other landscaper “seeded the $h!t out of it”. Covered it with straw & watered. And have been watering everyday since.

It’s a little depressing that the “then” pictures look better than the “now” pictures. That was also in the spring before the groundcover area became seriously overgrown. I think by next spring, we’ll be much happier with how things are looking. Next up…paint that eyesore of a shed.

Weekend Happenings

I’m sure everyone can agree that the weekends are never long enough. At our house they fly by. I wish I had a finished project to post. I don’t. We did do a lot of work this weekend, whether or not one can actually tell is a different story…

We are getting there with our backyard. Pete even said yesterday, “wow, this has the potential to look really nice”. I love when we hit this point in a project, that is when Pete goes from being a skeptic to a believer – it’s a magical moment for me. Luckily he had it this weekend because we’re far from done with the yard but at least now he’s on board with all the labor equity we’re putting into it. And I say we because although I thought (told him) this was my project & he didn’t have to help – I changed my tune on Saturday morning when I started tilling. The machine was HEAVY & not easy to handle – we tag teamed & managed to get about ½ the lawn done during our 2 hour rental. I don’t think our bodies could handle much more.

Sunday I racked, leveled, & seeded the area we finished. That one little sentence took a couple hours.  *Notice the evidence a little visitor left on our deck*We went to Home Depot to get lumber for the mantel I’m going to build in the basement & 2 trips later ended up at home with the stuff to build a dry bar in the basement. Funny how that happens. So I spent Sunday afternoon staining the cabinets & mantel pieces. You can see the garage is a bit of a disaster area.

We did find time on Saturday afternoon to head to the Renegade Craft Fair in Wicker Park. I didn’t buy anything but did get some great ideas which will probably be popping up on the blog sometime in the future.

Progress on Pete’s Pond

So it turns out that Pete’s pond did spring  leak on Saturday…I hoped for a few minutes that this meant we could kiss the pond goodbye but no.  After a failed patch Pete got a new tarp & we put it in on Tuesday night.  We still need to complete a bit of landscaping but for the most part this project is wrapping up (yay!).  Pete picked up the lights when he got the tarp; I think they are a nice touch.

Despite Pete’s best efforts, we lost three fish in the process.  The remaining 14ish are thrilled with their renovated home.  We also saw a field mouse when we were moving around some of the rocks around the fountain which resulted in me scraping my leg & having a gauge cut out of my foot (I jumped out of the pond & ran for cover when I saw the mouse, apparently hitting a/stepping on a few sharp rocks on the way).