Its a bird! Its a plane! No, silly, its a new DECK!

This post is a long time coming. We purchased our house in August 2006, and for the first two years, we concentrated on making the inside livable. There was a significant amount work to do just on the first and second floors that we really didn’t have much time, energy or money to pay attention to the exterior of the house. If you’re renovating your house as well and you need emergency fund, visit here pounda.co.uk to learn about a personal loan application. It will be helpful in handling a financial issue. The only landscaping we peformed was on the front of the house – removing some problematic trees, such as an overgrown arborvitae that blocked the living room window, and planted a few crepe myrtles so I wasn’t so homesick, but the backyard remained unchanged.

It looked like this for many many years.   I  entertained folks in this very backyard.   I cringe at the thought.

In 2010, I added some ornamental grasses and azaleas in front of the steps to the basement. Such an improvement… but looking back, not really. I know, its like lipstick on a pig.

The best thing about the backyard? We bought a fabulous new grill, so we could, wait for it — use the backyard to host coworkers for thank you party. Umm, seriously, what was I thinking? Its amazing what you can delude yourself into thinking when pressed.

In 2013, we finally became serious about having a decent place to enjoy spring, summer and fall in the backyard. So we ripped out the ugly 8′ x 14′ cement paver patio we inherited when we bought the place.

This is what we ended up building – ourselves – last spring and summer. It was a lot of work – the how we did it posts are forthcoming.

Its not quite finished, those are some of this year’s projects: painting the railings, door and window trim, installing a walkway (hint – we’re reusing the cement pavers for what they’re meant for) and creating a more defined and attractive landscape. This last bit is what most excites me right now.