I know, I know

The other day I said I was back but it just may have to wait until after this holiday weekend....sorry! We've been working hard all summer on some projects that we're in the midst of finishing up and it feels like my attention should be directed toward them! I'll give you a hint - our backyard no longer looks like this.

the really sad & hideous fence is gone!

Literally all summer (since Memorial Day weekend) Ben has been slaving away on a new fence - he insisted on doing it all himself. It is in the final stages we just need to finish up some trim, install the stone on the columns and then stain, stain, stain. But soon friends you will get to see it. If I do say so myself, it's awesome. Thank goodness our yard is the size of a postage stamp because otherwise we'd probably be working until next Memorial Day weekend! And the best part of it all is that this little girl is no longer sequestered to the deck. She's got her yard back - albeit nothing but dirt!

poor little girl was without freedom all summer!

Speaking of dirt, our front yard is about to undergo a bit of a makeover as well. If the backyard is postage stamp sized, the front is .....well so tiny there isn't really a fair comparison!

overgrown & dead

In the fall/next spring we plan to do some real landscaping but for now we're at least going to trim things back and turn that lawn green. To save face for summer we threw some seed down and got a bit of grass - fescue . We watered a lot, but it still ended up looking dead. So after some research Ben decided to kill it off, so from about July 4th on it looked like a haystack! Last weekend we traded in what was supposed to be a little anniversary trip to the mountains for the chance at giving our house some very much needed curb appeal - in the form of sod. So instead of hiking and hanging out in Brevard, we chopped & tilled the front yard (and side yard) & ordered our sod....to be installed this weekend. Yay! Good thing my parents are coming to town to help us! (Do you like how we tack on a bit of work to all family visits to NC? It's bonding time, right?)

So prepare yourselves (well not too much - I don't want to let you down). The next time you see photos of our yard it WILL be green. The yucky old paint job on the front porch will still be there and so will those giant bushes (at least some of them), but there will be changes. Effort has been made. Poco a poco, right? We're not miracle workers - just DIYers!

Happy Holiday weekend!