Backyard Update.... Stain adds a bit of warmth...

Newly stained wonders of happiness. Stained to match the wood along the fence.

Back Yard update #367.. With a steal of a deal!

Yes.. the backyard is still under way... although we are getting closer! We now have stairs. Woot! Love them.. Love them.. Have I told you I love them? We also invested in an umbrella this weekend. We will soon have 2 because I ordered one from West Elm, but it hadn't arrived yet and it was hot, hot, hot yesterday. Now that we have the umbrella's we needed covers to protect them when they are not up.. and boy oh boy did I get a steal of a deal on these! (Note: the umbrella was a steal as well.. $26 with my discount at Pottery Barn and a $50 gift card I had. So happy! Love my deals!)

 Digging out for the ground work. 

 

 Hmm. What next?

 Yay!!!

 What I found while he was working.. a wasps nest at the back door! Eek! 

The boys (Eric & friend Ashley) enjoying the new stairs and watching the little white puffs float by.... I'll be honest. There were a few beers involved. A cape cod or two, some spiked lemonade and a margarita. Not totally sure who had what but those were our options that day!

 The new umbrella... It kept 6 people well protected from the sun... treats on the ottoman.... and fun to be had! It was cute. We moved all the blue chairs under  the umbrella and were huddled up together. Eating of course. Though with the new umbrella and my need to protect things.. I wanted to get a cover.. 

Can you sort of see that price in the blurry picture? $3.98! Thank you Target. 

 Fits Perfect! 

 Trouble.. watching the world go by. 

Only the garden to finish moving and we will be done! 

Alyssa

The Backyard.. Basically complete. Mini Pick-Me-Up #2.

Well. At long last the backyard is basically complete. We have a few more plants to get and areas to touch-up other than that we are basically complete. Yay!

Thanks to Eric, my Dad, Kai, and George the college student who helped out on this monster pick-me-up.

 Roll and cut. Repeat.

 Done. 

 Laying out the area for the fire pit... Someday soon we will be digging one into the ground. For now though we are using the one that my friend Lisa so graciously donated with the dog bone leg.

 Noodling some more. 

 Cypress Mulch graveyard. 

 Ella watching the labor in her typical uninterested look.

 The mounds get dumped begin. 

 Post raking. Nice..

 Our new outdoor living room/dining room. 

 We moved some plants on Saturday and the rest yesterday. I'll take some more photo's after everything bounces back. Hope for some heat please!

Saturday night. A very tired Eric. 

 Tilling the weird triangle where we are going to move our hosta and lillies that are shown behind him.

 The grape vine grown in.. you can see it here dead from winter.. ... and the hosta planted. Nice. Now to get our morning glory going again.

 Now that the hosta and lillies were moved we can have our herb garden near the backdoor and kitchen! Yay!

 The plants all moved and getting soaked.

Now back to my living room! A painting I will go.. a painting I will go.. 

Have a  great day! 

Alyssa

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Backyard update - Mini Pick-Me-Up #2 almost complete

We are almost finished with our backyard project. So exciting, I know. We can hardly wait and we can almost feel the cypress mulch under our feet.

It's flat. It's flat! I can hardly believe it is flat!

Check it out from this perspective. Flat again. Amazing. Ok, I know you are not impressed.  If you could see it in real life you would be impressed.

Well, with this much flatness in our world we decided to have a little christening with the fire pit. (Eric added the first pass of black fabric on our main walkway.) My good friend Lisa came over earlier in the night.. The Laura and Bear stopped by a bit later. We had a few bottles of wine a fire and some laughs for a wonderful evening. 

The fantastic fire we got started from the first swish of the match.

Trouble & Hazel enjoying the new digs.

Peek. from behind 67 bags of Cypress Mulch. Yup. 67.

Later in the evening the fire was so hot we had some amazing blue flames.

 

 Finally some s'mores... Lisa made a run home for the fixin's and I think it is going to be a must around our house as well. 

Thanks for joining us at our inaugural fire in new backyard. This was last Wednesday. We have since added the mulch and have placed the furniture. Today we are moving all the plants later in the day and then I will post the final reveal tomorrow! Have a great Sunday.

Alyssa 

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Backyard update.. Major progress on Mini/Major Pick-Me-Up #2.

 Staining the side boards.. reclaimed wood.

 Digging the trench for the block retaining wall that will separate the living area from the yard.We did have to buy the block for this area unfortuantely. So, our lots of labor/ mostly free project is getting a little more expensive. We also will be building a little mini deck/stairs along the sidewalk by the house. Again, unexpected add expense.

 Leveling said trench.  Egads.. that was painful. 

 The finished product... now for some more grating and a planting and a throwing wood chips we will go. Almost finished! I still can't believe we will have a flat area in our yard after this.. what a lot of work. You will notice us out here everyday rain or shine enjoying this area upon completion. :)

Also, wait until you see my next post... 

Oh, I added some kitchen photos here. I cleaned the floor last night and decided that it was sort of presentable enough to photograph. Scroll down to find them. Keep in mind the make-due nature of my kitchen. Not a design wonder that is for sure.

Alyssa 

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Backyard update.. Mini/Major-Pick-Up #2.

You've missed my stories about my backyard hell, haven't you?  I know. I can tell. Well... work was done today. A lot of work... I can almost see it now...

 We added a new worker. George. The college student.

 Checking out the progress. Pew. Smells like manure. But yes, it is getting flat.

 That would be a 1' drop-off. We will be spending some money here to create a new mini deck. 

 A path. What? Solution to be determined.

 The crazy, bitchy neighbors perfect back yard. They totally hate us. :) That makes me smile. 

 We are so ghetto. It's awesome. Even my dad said we should clean up the driveway. 

Finally, this one comes to ask me for bread so she can go bird watching. Wow.

Yep. There you have it. The backyard update in a nutshell. 

Alyssa

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Mini Pick-Me-Up #2 - The Backyard Edition. Day 6. More rain.

 We delayed our weekend trip to the cabin by a day... because the rain was not a comin' until this afternoon. As you can see, hopefully, progress was made. The dirt is almost all moved and almost flat. The next thing to happen will be for my dad to bring the grader over and really level the ground. It did start to rain about an hour ago, so Eric had to finally quit and we are getting ready to head out now.

 My soaked honey... doing a little clean-up. Note the Peony he moved on the left.. Huge.. and deep. When we did the basement finishing we added an egress window and as it was November when Eric was installing said window... he just dumped the dirt near the garage and it happened to be on the peony. Now because of that our peony is the last one out of the ground in the spring. I can't wait to get my garden in when this is all finished... and set up the dining and living area.. Eeee!

I also decided that the Allium had to move.. I was getting too nervous about it getting damaged... They look so cute up here near the front door now.

Alyssa

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Mini Pick-Me-Up #2... Day 4 & 5... More Rain.

Well. It seems to want to rain. A lot. Which has not boded well for getting work done on what I am now calling our backyard debacle. :) That is a wry smile if you can't tell. Eric, my honey, did get some work done the other night before it rained again and made considerable progress. Unfortunately, the photo's do not do this justice in showing how much dirt was moved.. but believe me it was considerable. About 6+ inches have moved away from the sidewalk as you sort of can tell. Thankfully it is not going to rain tonight or tomorrow am... so Eric will be able to get lot's done during that time. Enjoy the show!

 Pushing the dirt back with the tiller... He is getting to be a pro! 

 Aww.. Ain't he cute! My farmer boy. 

 You can kind of see the mound he moved here. In real life it is quite impressive.. 

I also had to share the first garden harvest of the year. Our asparagus! So cute and yummy! 

Ciao for now... 

Alyssa

Oh and ps.. this dirt smells like manure! Yuck.. I bet you are glad the computer screen is not the scratch and sniff variety. I will be glad to get this covered.

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