outside..

Even with the nasty temps lately, we have been doing outside work.  We hate outside work..oh, wait...have I said that before? Yea..we hate it..  But it must be done..

So here are the before... what you cannot see are the new gutter guards that went up on Friday...

Front Yard before, although you can see supplies there..

These plantings were at the house when we purchased it, but not tended to in a long time...

This holly (ivy?) is by the back deck...

looking down the steps on the deck

Back deck steps..

And here are the afters...  after sweating and raking and lugging and sweating and carrying and well, you get the idea...  WE WORKED!!!!

Three planters across the front of the house

Ten years of leaves were raked away from these plants, more than one dead plant removed and mulch added.

Nothing will grow here...nothing...it gets no sun..and the cats would tear up any plantings while new...   We thought about mulch,  but we figured the cats would just scatter it everywhere..so Rich carried 28 bags of white granite chips down the side of the house and i ripped them open and dumped them... It may not be the best landscaping but it looks clean...go back and take a good look at the before photo again.. See all the leaves he raked away...we didn't even realize that the concrete step went all the way over to the house...

Somehow i missed getting a photo of the clipped holly (ivy?), so look at that before photo and imagine it all clipped nice and round with black mulch underneath...believe me it's pretty..

 Rich mowed the pasture...twice...with a riding mower...

 but that was after he tore down a section of fencing, weeded and cut..

This is us in the truck driving out of the pasture...

And so we proceed....

This is our parking situation at the moment.. At the most we have three cars and a truck parked in various places..the problem is that propane tank.  It's in the worse possible position...many a times we almost hit it backing up in the snow and ice...

see how close it is??

The propane man came today and trenched across the driveway (and might have cut the phone line, uh oh!!)    Tomorrow he will return and move that propane tank across to the other side of the driveway....behind a stand of trees...and out of our way...

And more workers are coming tomorrow to do a HUGE job...  photos to come...

Nancy

weekend update...

When last we you looked this what what the back of the house looked like..

and the right side...

This past weekend we experienced 90-92 degree heat...so what to do?  Go to the pool? no...  Sit in the AC and sew? no... Work outside in the heat?  SURE!!  Why not?

116 boards   $470.00
696 deck screws  $25.00

throw in 2 old people...and this is what you get...

left side....  That's the sun porch up there..

and right...  Sorry about the lawn mower..I had just finished cutting the front grass..and was waiting for the back to dry a bit more before cutting it...luckily I didn't have to do it.  I left to attend the String Concert for a grandson and Rich cut while I was gone...

and finished...almost...We Rich will be adding a sliding barn door in that big gaping hole and it will be painted to match the deck..but that's for next summer.  You have to let the treated wood dry out before you can paint it...yea for that...

I have decided that I just might be getting a bit old to work outside in the sun all day...

Nancy