yard progress

If you tuned in a few weeks ago, we were thrilled to share a little {mis} adventure, and history of our back yard.

And then later on, we shared our over all plans for the back yard space, with our dining area/porch progress.  We included inspiration and a few rough overhead views of what we have planned. When we haven’t been busy helping the kids with school work or work of our own, we’ve been hitting the yard and making it happen out here. Sometimes, our yard is magical all it’s own with its mature trees and little surprises here and there, but it’s definitely going to need some help to get it to a pretty little garden vision that we shared last week.

We love our dining area so far. If you remember from before, it had the ugly pump, purple shed, etc. out back. This was a great way to expand everything since we’re limited by septic. It also helped us hide the horrible pool pump, which can’t be moved without spending thousands more. Sometimes you work with what you’ve got. Since we’ve already replaced all the parts, restored the pool and installed a pool heater, that just didn’t seem logical to relocate it. The plan is to integrate this in seamlessly with the rest of the design over time.

The brick included a german smear, and if you look not-so-closely, you’ll see we still have a few touchups coming. 

Here’s a glimpse at the before. 

It looks so different already! I know we waited a while to do it, but since the home + addition were total gut outs, we’ve had our attention {and budget} divided for a while. We’re thrilled to focus on this area.

I’ve also been busy gardening, adding a little fresh color to the back, and nursing some other plants I’ve held onto all winter, back to life. 

I have plans for a fun vertical garden, and when these guys showed up yesterday, I couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s so funny how I’m really excited about the simple things these days. 

In the meantime, we’ve been starting on our new fence. If you check out this post, you can see an over head of how we plan to expand. 

This is the good side of the fence. It’s been breaking off in chunks since we arrived… probably around twenty years old… and it was clearly ready to change over.

It will also be good for Rigby + Fitz to have  more room to roam. The pool area has really limited their space for the last few years and we’re thrilled to give two restless farm dogs more space to get out all their energy. They’re red heeler/pyrenees mixes, so this is a good call for their sake. 

So Jamin has been busy measuring out and planning for months now, along with permits to dig. He was thrilled to finally get started. 

We’ve recruited our oldest, and he’s been hard at work with Jamin. It’s really going to transform the way our entire yard feels… we couldn’t be more thrilled. Ever since our outside makeover, the fence has been a blaring eyesore.

It served its purpose in the meantime, but it was definitely time to go.

Again, it’s funny that our most exciting project this year is this fence.

We love it. 

We adore that the kids will be able to easily get to the hideaway now, too!

Which is next on our list for the big spring clean. I think we have more projects than quarantine time, but I guess we’ll see. 

Oh, and last week, we planted some more privacy plants. These are called skip laurels, which we chose for their fast-growing ability, and the minimal mess they’ll make around the pool. We will be taking down the fence in sections, and I believe, adding more privacy walls in certain areas behind that, until they can grow more. And adding, over time, as much greenery as we can. We’re about five years out, so a few little privacy walls may be necessary. We had to dig up all the monkey grass. ALL OF IT. FROM 1990.

I. HATE. MONKEY GRASS.

Sorry I blacked out for a second.

The front yard is next. We’re coming for you, monkey grass. 

We actually expanded the garden bed… and got rid of all the weeds.

This is a glimpse of our before -we relocated the rose bushes to the other side of the house. And then a frost came and they died. 

Ya win some, ya lose some. 

It’s made such a big difference!

We’ve been hard at work in our yard, finding a little therapy in the simple processes.

Baby steps, one season at a time. 

Thanks so much for tuning in today, and of course let us know if you have any questions! We hope to have this little dining area reveal very soon. Here’s our fence progress as of yesterday… 2/3 of the way finished. It’s going to be a beautiful dark grey. Our yard is so much bigger. I can’t feel my neck. And all the tutorials coming soon. 

Have an inspired day!