And so it begins...

the continuation of our yard remodel. The first stage was removing the 7 pine trees back in June (as seen here). 


Now we are starting stage 2:  the removal of our old driveway, the pouring of a new one (on the other side of the house), new walkway around the house, new landscaping, and more. Of course the weather, which has been unseasonably warm this month has decided to get crappy all of a sudden. With all the rain, our yard is now one big mud-pit ... wrestling anyone? Needless to say, Bentley is lovin' it all, and I'm just praying I survive the next 3-4 weeks.


Here are the pics from mid-day Friday (Day 1):

the beginnings of our new driveway entrance.

this is where the new driveway will be (runs the whole way back to the basketball court).

view from the basketball court to the street.

the west walkway in the back (used to be solid weeds and about 1 foot high). This will be all concrete sidewalk - probably my fave part of the project as I wasted so much time trying to keep this weeded over the summer. 

Just some of the ivy, weeds, and debris from the south side of the house.

just another view of the south side of the house.

view of the back of the house & irrigation ditch where the new wraparound sidewalk/walkway is going.

Here today, Gone tomorrow - Final

Well, as of noon today, it's done. And I think our yard might be feeling a bit naked. Or maybe it's me, feeling a bit exposed to the world now. I can't wait to plant some new stuff.

For BEFORE pics, click here.

These are all "After" pics. They are going to bring a truckload of wood-chips back and we'll use them to clean up some areas I have already weeded and have yet to weed.

And here's all the firewood Ryan gets to cut. He doesn't know this yet as we had decided not to have any wood left behind. But I couldn't let perfectly good firewood go, so I had them leave me the trunk of the smallest pine tree. This is what he gets for having the scout 50-miler (which isn't really 50 miles, more like 25) when they took the trees out :)

Here today, Gone tomorrow

I'm a little sad that we are removing ALL 7 pine trees in our front/side yard today & tomorrow, but only when I think of the shade we will be losing. I will most definitely NOT miss the sappiest pine cones ever (all gazillion of them) and the annoying pine needles that are everywhere they shouldn't be. Here's to hoping we can get the grass growing & green again. I've already started planning new trees/bushes for the space which we'll hopefully get planted next Spring.

Day 1 Before

Day 1 After

Tomorrow, these will be on the chopping block - literally.

Front 2 pine trees and ...

One more pine tree by the back deck.

Check, Check, DONE!

Here are some of the projects that I've crossed off my to-do list the past few weeks/months. I need to pat myself on the back because I have a gazillion more projects staring me down!

1. Oilcloth chair covers for a friend who was moving to Chile. I think they turned out great and am thinking about making some for our kitchen chairs too.

2. Re-paint the upstairs guest bathroom walls & cabinet

before we moved in: the renters who were in the house before we moved in left this house in shambles. It was so disgusting. Check out the ceiling shot of this bathroom. We had it all scraped off and treated for mold since it the black stuff was all over the ceiling. Lucky us.

after we moved in: We took down the light fixture, painted it yellow, and had the tiled walls & countertop sprayed white by Miracle-method. But we hated the yellow paint the minute we saw it on the walls and I've been meaning to re-paint it for the past year. Sorry no picture of the mess.

now: I finally used the rainy cold weather to paint the walls. The ceiling still needs a little touch-up, but I'm happy with it. I just used the same paint that is in the hall & kitchen so it flows well. Ryan wanted the lighter taupe in the family room, but since I did the painting myself, he lost :)

I also decided to paint the cabinets because they were just ugly old wood (as in the before we moved in picture). Since we plan on remodeling the bathroom from floor up when we do the kitchen/formal dining room in a few years, I figured I'd do a fun color and I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

We also got the new mirror installed which meant Ryan could FINALLY get our light fixture put up - a year later of course. Yay for having light in the bathroom :)

3. Clean out the barn - I wish I had a before picture to do an after picture justice, but oh well. Ryan and I busted our butts this weekend getting the barn cleaned out and organized (as much as it could be) before our dumpster was collected. All I can say is that we packed that dumpster FULL! The only thing left is to take the hundreds of oil cans, gas cans, random chemicals, paint thinner, old tires, and paint cans left by the renters to the waste treatment center.

Of course, this checked item just leads to more "to-do's" have we uncovered lots of old fun furniture/shelves that I am dying to re-paint and re-purpose. I'll have pics of those project before & afters soon - or once the weather clears up.

Our house is a very very old house

Last week kicked off the start of our basement remodel. Needless to say the house is a mess and we are living amongst boxes & tubs in our living room & dining room as we had to move all boxes/furniture/etc upstairs. Here are photos from before the remodel (most were taken when we moved in back in September 08). Notice the pee-stained carpet? That's thanks to the renters who apparently let their 2 big dogs have run of the house. And the beautiful paint jobs in the green paneled room, minty bathroom, armageddon room and italian room are also courtesy of the renters (painted only a couple years ago apparently).

Here are photos after week 1 of the remodel. Notice the mold, the water (still very wet and we have NO clue where it's coming from), the asbestos tape on ALL the ducting/vents, the water stains on the concrete foundation walls (oh and lots - I do mean lots - of dead mice, but I don't have pictures of those cause that's just sick!). Yeah, we are SOOOO lucky that we get to deal with this. I guess that's the price we pay for liking old homes with character. We're hoping that by digging bigger window wells (there weren't any before), removing all sprinkler pipes from the perimeter of the home, and by burying our raingutter under the lawn and across the yard, that it will solve the leaking water in the storage room problem. Here's to hoping right?