Outdoor Update

Darren has been very busy working outdoors as spring has sprung! I wish that I had more photos to share because our yard and neighborhood are so beautiful this time of year with all the sunshine, green grass and budding trees! It is nearly impossible not to smile when you look outside!

The front yard is still torn up from the mainline replacement we did over winter, but we just had guys come out who smoothed out the dirt and removed some of the bigger rocks in preparation for seeding. They also poured our new sidewalk (Happy Birthday, Darren & Kristin!), which turned out wonderfully! We finally got our new front door painted a few weeks ago, so the front of the house looks so much better (though we still need to repaint all the stucco, among other things that are not part of this phase of our remodel).

In the backyard, we had contractors chip our huge pile of sticks into mulch, which we spread around the play set. We had a huge pile of dirt delivered to fill the raised garden beds, too. The garden beds are nearly done, though we need more pieces to complete the tiered beds in the front and surround some additional plantings around the main beds. I need to take more detailed photos of the raised bed garden, but the photo below gives the view from the house. Darren has been busy at the nurseries. We lost two cherry trees over the winter, so he replaced those. In the off-season, he bought some blueberry bushes, and he purchased blackberry, raspberry and currant bushes also. Those will be planted around the raised beds. He also bought some strawberries, perennials for the kids' garden and some onion & asparagus starter sets. We do not plan to plant the entire garden this year, but we will definitely make a good start of it. I am going to try to get better photos of the garden.

There is still so much to do, especially before the heat of the summer sets in. It seems like every time we step outside, we think of one more thing that we need/want to do. I have a natural play area for the kids in mind that I need to think about some more to see if we will proceed or not. Not only do we have lots of work outside, but we are proceeding with the kitchen remodel. Darren is taking a few days of work so that we can pick out backsplash tile and lighting, among a long list of other things. In about 2 weeks, we will need to have the kitchen & dining room cleaned out so that demolition can begin on that big job. Whew!