Our Old House

So the whole backyard patio was built around an outdoor fireplace that we ordered before we even picked out the pavers. This spring, we found time to work on the hearth for the fireplace to sit. I haven't done masonry since I was in grade school... it was really interesting to mix the mud and work with trowels. Lots of memories...

The inside is cinder blocks filled with compacted gravel.

There was an attempt to be level =)

I really didn't mean to be as messy as it ended up being... but I did want to make sure they stayed on!

One side on.

Front side on.

Leveled off the top with sand.

on a roll....

Rookie mistake, didn't have enough cement, too tired to go get more to finish job.

Finally got more mortar and finished the top... now if we can just get the fire place set up!

So you all know how much I love garden season... and this year I got to start from scratch with new flower and garden boxes =)

Love bleeding hearts.. never had a white one before =)

Hope these survive the snails..

Box along the driveway.

Ladies mantle

Box behind the mailbox

Front of driveway box

Strawberries!!

Our goal is for the paver driveway to eventually have grass and stuff growing.. I planted a few ground covers hoping it will spread.

Here is one of them.

Here is the bed in front of the porch... Still working on this one.

My kitchen garden... sage, rosemary, and thyme.... and a few others =)

including lettuce, onions, parsey, and chives.

Raspberries... the best idea ever! I have been really really enjoying having these this year!

So, school started and I could not do any more paver work, so Janet took over.

Laying out the area for the west driveway.

The path from the door to mailbox.

other side of mailbox path

mailbox path now.

Go Ducks!!

Nice to have our west driveway back!

This is where it was starting to get exciting... could see the end.

Same thing, slightly different angle =)

another angle.. like taking pictures ... can you tell?

It's done!! It's Done... well almost.. some holes in a couple of places... but the main body is done!

Totally beautiful =)

First of all.. I can't even begin to tell you how sore I am in so many places... had no idea that I would be THIS achy after just a third of the job done!! That said... I am pretty happy with the progress Dad and I made in our 10 hours of work this weekend... took most of Sunday off of patio building to clean house and get some other things done.

AnJ and I took a trip to Canada the first week of September, and while we were gone... Dad and our handyman Elias did a few things....

Dad and Elias hung the rest of the bamboo, then built and filled the remaining flower boxes.

Then the weekend we came home, the awesome yard duo Scott and Donna came to help move gravel and prep for bricks =)

This weekend... I was determined to get some bricks down!! We rented a compactor and got to work bright and early Saturday morning!

We had a little trouble with the compactor...but we sprayed the plate with WD-40 and it went totally smooth after that =)

Lesson one... just because it is strait in one place... doesn't mean it is anywhere else!

Looking good!

West side, end of day one.

East side, Day one...

End of Day one, 8 hours later... let me tell you how much I DON'T envy the people who do this stuff every day for 8 hours a day..

On the upside, we emptied a pallet! (540 bricks just in case you were curious.)

End of day two, only worked two hours... but happy to have this corner mostly done.

Wasn't as bad as I thought, and it only get's easier from here!

Thought you would like to see how the bedroom turned out.....

Course have to show you how we got there first.

Fiona wants to help...

Janet rehangs the window treatments.

Fiona models the soon to be painted wall...

Take a picture!

I really really would love to have a talk with whoever stapled our old carpets down...

The wall is painted.. the door was painted by Fiona and Janet

and now the floor is all painted!

More Ikea furniture =)

pretty white bed frame.

Fancy!

Have to take a few more pics of the bed now that we have the headboard etc all put together... that's another post....