Tuesday, April 29, 2014

SPRING CATCH UP

With the warm weather finally creeping in, the giant project that is the back yard has slowly started. First up is tree removal, which as it turns out is actually quite fun for the first 10% (chopping down the tree) quickly followed by the remaining 90% (removing the stump) which is a giant pain the ass. We've managed to remove two so far, but the cherry tree still remains, as that might require a few more sets of hands. The cherry tree is a tough one, I wanted to keep it at first, and am still a little sad to see it go, but after drafting some rough plans, I soon realized just how in the way it is. Maybe 2 feet further East and I think I could have fought for it, but alas, it's going to soon be a giant pile of firewood.

I do have actual backyard plans to share, but they are in crappy sketch form, and so I'm going to wait until Will beautifies them. In the mean time, here is the short list of upcoming projects:

• Remove the 3 main trees (two down one to go)
• Rip up the brick patio / pressure wash bricks
• Build planter boxes on East side, and fill with bamboo
• Remove old greenhouse
• Rip out old chain link fence
• Lay new patio

This list is actually quite humorous as it's just scratching the surface, and there are about 20 more things to add, but I've realized we need to start with small goals and not overwhelm ourselves with giant lists.

The other tree we removed was more of a shrub, which was right next to the cherry tree. Again, nothing that exciting, just a home depot plant randomly placed in the grass. Of course my before picture is from the house listing, so it manages to make the yard look sort of nice, but trust me, it's only getting better. They even managed to make that arbor we removed look good, which was falling down and rotting...


Before:
During:

After:


Next:



So that's it for now! I will have more updates once we get the plan hammered out a little better, which I'm very excited to share (chicken coop!). I also plan to be better at documenting the process along the way, which seeing as how it's been a month since I've last shared anything, can't get much worse.