Yard Waste
Since the house we bought was one that had gone into foreclosure, the yard had sat for months without any real work being done to it. A company seemed to mow the lawn, but they did as little as possible to get the job done. We went through and trimmed back lots of the bushes to make the yard seem larger. At the same time we wanted to clean out all of the weeds and small trees that had taken over the area by the side of the house. It took a few days shoveling and raking everything out of there, but it ended up looking fairly good.
Backyard Garden
When we first moved in, there were two “gardens” set up in the yard. The garden in the front yard is surrounded by stones and we plan on keeping it the way it is for now. While the garden toward the backyard was surrounded by planks of wood with some cheap wire fencing stapled around it. We had decided right away that it had to go since it made the yard seem a lot smaller by being in the way.
Backyard Garden Fence
Backyard Garden Fence Removed
As you can see, it had been overrun with weeds for awhile. It took a bit to tear the stakes out of the ground, but it all came out in one piece. The wood was torn apart and we took a weed-whacker to all of the overgrowth. The area still has a lot of weeds that we will do more with next year along with the rest of the “grass” in the yard.
Porch Window Install
Our porch has a combination of fixed windows and panels of screen. There are 2 large windows on each of the short sides and screen on all the rest. When we bought the place, one of the panes of glass was completely missing from a lower window. This wasn’t much of an immediate concern as we hadn’t had much occasion to use the porch thus far. But with the middle of summer approaching, we thought it would be nice to be able to leave the front door open without fear of an adventurous cat leaping out the window.
Helping The Stairs – Part 1
Apparently, today is too hot out to do any work, says the cat.
We decided something needed to be done with the stairs. They were still in fairly good condition, but they were quite wobbly at times. Upon further inspection, the piece of plywood that held the stairs to the house was falling apart in many places and after the heavy rains we just had, most of it was just mush that pealed off of the house.