We finally finished the patio!

When we moved in a year ago this was our back yard and porch


And then the first weekend we started this project in August- we had NO IDEA what we were getting into


and perhaps you remember my post about the black cherry tree which halted our progress?

Then finally, the excavation was finished, the cherry mess was cleared away and the brick laying began


The patio project also included the task of taking down the small red stairs that led on and off the porch and removing the railings to make a wrap around staircase so the porch was open to the patio, instead of blocked off and disconnected looking


So yesterday morning, best friends in hand, we finally finished with our project- just in time for fall, lol!




The finished project! I know it's not any award winning backyard makeover like you see on TV, but we did it ourselves- with the help of good friends and it is exactly what we wanted for our lifestyle. Our backyard is now a useable space for our family!

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Making a house a home

is not necessarily just about decorating the indoors. When we moved into our house last summer, the yard was pretty bland with some over sized greenery that had to go.

The beds are overgrown, everything needs pruning, the only saving grace are these roses growing over my garage.

Once the heat of summer dwindled into the cool of autumn, we took out the giant pine tree that dwarfed the house and also the behemoth shrub on the corner that stretched up to the gutters.

Then we rototilled some new beds and called it quits until spring.
(Here you can see how empty the yard was over the winter)

Well, my friends, spring has sprung and I am dead sick of looking at my barren dust bowl of a front yard, so as time and money permit, we're beginning to add some life back to our little home.




Today, we tackled the new front bed.


We planted a Cleveland Pear Tree

Some dwarf Japanese Juniper shrubs

A broom plant

Some bottle brush fountain grass (which is the dead looking tuft in front of my giant piece of driftwood- which is there to hide the stump from the pine tree we removed last fall)

Delicious smelling lavender

and some white candytuft

Finally, I dragged my old cement bird bath out of hiding in the back yard and placed it in the front bed to balance out the pear tree and mulched the whole area. We lined the bed with rocks from the beach down the road
Sorry for the quality of some of these pictures, it was getting dark and I was rushing to get the shots. I'll update tomorrow with more photos!

Little by little, getting there!

Oh, and don't forget! Head on over to Low Tide High Style -Monday is the last night to be entered to win a pair of my pottery shard earrings!

updated: a few photos of the finished bed

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