a few more improvements

I painted a door.... it was the same nasty blue as the rest of trim was and for some reason we didn't repaint it when we painted the garage...

Then we fixed this down spot. 

And we paid some local folk to come do this...

a big trench

became a curb

a lot of rebar

became a garage floor

and a big truck came twice and dumped a lot of gravel

So what's left?

Rich installed two new garage doors.... 

And next weekend he will be installing two garage door openers.. at which point I will start actually pulling into the garage...i can't wait...

This week I start a new job.  I accepted a full time position as a team coordinator for a local hospice.  It's been at least eight years since I worked outside the home.  It's going to be quite the change....and I am very excited...

Nancy

outside...

As the weather warms up here in the Midwest, I am being forced to work we are doing more outside work...  This past weekend I was gone Saturday from 8am and didn't return home until after 5pm...

"Someone" decided to do some planning and working on his own... I was surprised to come home to this..

Adding a step (or two) will help...

Sunday morning, I was asked nicely if I could help with some outside work, I was told to drink my tea, eat my breakfast and come on outside... ugh...

Remember, we started with this...

A partial walkway...
leaves everywhere...
no grass...

Oh wait!!  Did you notice the fence?  It's new!!   Since that happened a couple of weekends ago, lets start there...

Isn't it nice...  We needed to add the fence in order to be able to get dirt to stay IN the yard and not wash down the hill...

and then Rich and Ryan shoveled  dirt into the front yard.. This was 11 scoops of dirt dropped into our Chevy truck...

more dirt...

So now we have a fence and dirt... Remember that before photo?

Leaves, no grass, and more leaves... I don't know when the previous owners raked, but it wasn't anytime in the last 10 years...These leaves were matted down...into a leaf carpet...ugh...

I raked these....

Some came from the side of the garage...

Some from around the steps..

And now after working all day yesterday, in the rain, we have two stone walls...filled with dirt... two new steps...grass seed and straw...  and a pad of concrete pavers for the trash can..

Now we need to research plantings for those areas...We know absolutely nothing about plants..we need something that will grow in partial afternoon sun and that won't die easily...Hostas maybe? We did manage to save the Clematis on the right..I'm not a big fan of the lattice structure, but it's woven so tight on it I don't know if we can change it... We are open to any ideas on plantings.. Grapes are going in on the right..and the cat door is going to be closed up..I'm pretty sure that's where all the kittens are being produced...lol

Grass is already starting to grow in front of the house and hopefully with all the rain we got in the last two days the grass under all that straw will germinate and start growing...

And now we move to the back...

We've had more visitors show up...

FREE KITTENS... They are approximately4 weeks old now.  They were born under the steps below our bedroom window and I have seen 3 so far...this one has the bluest eyes... They should be ready to be adopted soon!!

And the same three deer show up every day unless it's raining or windy...  They are very comfortable and don't mind us being on the deck snapping photos..

Now I need to go and make a birthday cake and get the house ready for company...It's my grandson's birthday tomorrow and we are hosting tonight with BBQ pork steaks, baked potatoes, fried corn and pineapple Birthday cake...

Nancy

I want to do something besides....

PAINT!!!  Please....

Saturday was my monthly Modern Quilt Guild meeting so I didn't make it to the house until around 3pm...or maybe later...
Rich took off around 7am and got the rest of the front of the house painted.  By the time I got there he was ready to quit, so I helped him finish trimming the windows on the garage.  There were three windows and none of them had any trim...  Then we ate dinner. Rich put a pork butt on the smoker and we had pulled pork sandwiches and then headed to town to see Cowboys and Aliens.  It was ok...a great way to spend the evening...

Sunday morning  Kristin brought over already cooked homemade pork sausage, a coffee cake and some mini-muffins..I added scrambled eggs and fruit and we had a great breakfast.  With all that food, we didn't even stop for lunch..The grandkids start school tomorrow.  Owen will be in third grade and Ava starts kindergarten.  Where has the time gone.  The other grandkids will start school on Thursday.  Grace in fourth, Jackson in third and Abbie started a new day care that is working out wonderfully... 

 before photos...

after photos...

I hope the mosaics look OK.  I am learning how to use Big Huge Labs...  I hope they are click able and you can see them better.  This is Before and After of the garage..  And the weather was fantastic..in the low 80's with a nice breeze and we were in the shade all day...

Next weekend we will start on the trim... let's keep our fingers crossed for nice weather then too..

Nancy