Clearly, I had no idea what I was getting myself psyched up for. Yard makeovers are HARD! Especially when I am the one with the most "extra time" to spend out there working. Juan has helped whenever he can, which is rare since he's so busy, but it has been slow-going compared to what I thought it would be.
We started with the South side yard. I wish, I wish, I wish I would have taken a "Before" picture to explain the depth of difference. The previous owner(s) used it as a junk yard. There were pallets, cinder blocks, tomato cages, bags of doggy doo, and decaying leaves galore heaped in a huge pile up against the fence. When I was clearing it out, I fully expected to uncover a body it was so gruesome. And although I have grown up doing yard work since I was a wee babe, I still didn't understand how many steps there were, even just to get to a blank canvas. After the junk was hauled off to the dump or repurposed elsewhere, I tilled the ground as much as I could with my little tiller attachment to the weed whacker. Then the kids and I hauled out rocks (quite reminiscent of my own childhood) and I raked it as level as I had energy and patience for. I laid the landscaoing fabric down, cut it, and staked it. We laid a few pavers as a stepping stone-type walkway, then we applied bags and bags of mulch. Just to get it to that point cost us a little over $100 and about 10-15 hours of work. I planted a blackberry bush back there as per Juan's request, so we'll see if that survives. I'm happy it is at least not embarrassing anymore.
The picnic area has been even more of a project since we had to dig to find hidden sprinkler lines, remove about 4" of dirt throughout, "reverse" the reverse slope, artificially raise the window well height, level, lay landscaping fabric, apply mulch, haul in a picnic table, build two benches for a sitting area, paint the table, buy planter pots and plants to fill them and run drip-system sprinklers to those pots. It looks a million times better and once the benches are painted, we will take a long breather from that area. I'm getting burnt out!
Meanwhile, because I'm not distracted enough from being a good mom, I've been refinishing the hand-me-down piano that Brady and Lacee gave to us a little over a year ago. It was in the garage, much to the vexation of Juan, for about three or four weeks since the weather turned poor right before I was about to start. But I'm happy to report that after a good deglossing, masking job, emptying of four cans of spray paint, installation of new hardware, and finishing-off with a gold paint pen the project is complete. I just didn't have the initiative to finish it with polyurethane, like I know I should have. I hope my kids don't inherit my occasional half-heartedness.
But it's done, and that feels pretty okay to me.
