Week ending 9/24/10

Today was a big day - we had our paver patio put in! Now we have a decent place to sit and it will hopefully cut way down on the dust in the yard, on the dogs and in the house. It will be so nice to have a flat, safe place to walk on at night with no worries of twisting an ankle in a hole!

Here is the early stages of prep:




Here all the gravel has been spread:


The beginning of the stones being installed:


And done!






Danny enjoying the dirt pile


They came back a few days later and took the dirt away and fixed the bare patch of grass.

Week ending 9/17/10

This week we worked a deal out with our gardener to put in a paver patio. I went to Home Depot and purchased the materials for him to pick up.

Week ending 9/10/10

On Saturday, we spent a few hot, laborious hours working on the patio. We dug up the top level of dirt in a small area to see how hard it would be to excavate the whole thing enough to lay down pavers or something else. After a few hours, it was clear that it wasn't worth it for us to do this job and we decided to just let our gardener put in a paver patio. I'm not thrilled with the solution we came up with, but it's the best available so onward and upward.

Here's Danny helping out. I'm sure he's confused about why the people get to dig and he doesn't.


Here I am using a pick to break up the top level of soil.





I still haven't figured out the kitchen paint yet. On Tuesday, I got a quart of the existing color in semi-gloss to see how we like it. The current paint is eggshell, which gets too trashed from the dogs. Unfortunately, they don't sell samples in semi-gloss so I had to get a quart.

Here's another piece of junk we found in the yard. Red glass this time. I really think the people who had this house before us just threw their trash in the yard.

Week ending 9/3/10

On Sunday, we worked 4 hours on a temporary fix for the patio and got nothing. The problem is that we put a patio set on a patch of grass outside the back door and closed off the sprinklers in that area. Between the dogs and the sun, it's become a dirt pit that kicks up huge amounts of dust that the dogs track in. As a result, the house is always dusty and we can't really sit outside. It's dangerous to walk on at night because of the holes.

The problem is that we don't want to spend a lot of money on a fix because eventually we are going to do a big project there - either a one-story enclosed porch, a nice deck or a two-story addition. This temporary fix is really about getting the dust abated and having a place to sit in the meantime. We were determined to find a cheap, easy fix that could be torn out later but haven't found it yet.

I'm still working on picking the interior paint colors. I put the color I thought was "it" on the wall and I hate it. It looks nothing like the chip and I'm not sure what to do now.

On Friday, the guy that cuts our lawn gave us a new tree that he even planted for us. He had it left from another job and it had outgrown the pot it was in. It's a ficus that matches our hedge, and for reasons unknown the hedge wasn't planted all the way to the back of the yard so there is a gap this tree is perfect for.

Here's a shot of Danny laying in the dirt. You can see just how bad the dirt situation is on the "patio." The cone is so he doesn't aggravate a hotspot on his skin.




Here's our new tree. It should fill the gap perfectly.

Here's more junk that was buried in the yard. The people who lived here before us must have just randomly tossed stuff in the yard instead of in the trash.

Still here, behind as often happens

We are still here, still working but I'm very behind on the blog as I too-often write in this space. Stay tuned, there is more to come.

Michele
12/26/10