The Great Outdoors

When we first looked at this house, it was February and there was a ton of snow in the backyard. We knew that there was a deck off of the living room and we could see that the yard was pretty large, but that's about it. We had no idea that there were any issues with the yard.

Once we moved in and the snow melted, we were left with this:

Yikes. Luckily for me, Bill had a vision and works his rear off. Last summer, we painted the deck and rails gray. (What can I say, I have an affinity for gray!) Bill also took the rail off the near side and extended the stairs so we were left with a large opening. We've also had loads and loads of soil delivered to fill the large hole where there used to be an above ground pool. This year, we finally have grass growing there and you can hardly tell that it used to be a gaping abyss.

I'm so excited that our deck now looks like this:

I think that all of the furniture came from Target over time. I bought the two wicker chairs for the porch at my old house. The other matching chair and loveseat are also from Target. I got a great deal on them last August - both pieces for $100. Amazing.

We added the potted plants today. Hopefully I'll be able to keep them alive long enough to bloom! You can see how to make the birch candle holders here.

Down the steps we have a large concrete patio. The dining table and grill live down there, along with a planter box that Bill built last summer. I can't wait for those grasses to grow and provide some color.

In the far right of the picture above, you can see the wooden swing that used to be in the back right corner of the yard. We moved that pretty quickly after we moved in because Bill thought that space would be perfect for a fire pit. We bought one of those "Fire pits on a Pallet" and installed it in about 15 minutes. We then had a bunch of river rock delivered to complete the space.

Bill says that the next project will be trying to get grass to grow throughout the main part of the yard. It's been a challenge with a dog that uses the whole yard as his urinal, not to mention that most of the yard is in full sun for the majority of the morning and afternoon. I'll leave that yard work up to him. I wouldn't want to step on his toes!!

I'm not sure that I'll ever call any space in our house "done," but the backyard is shaping up quite nicely! I'm so grateful to have a husband who takes pride in the yard and does all the manual labor. I hope you're all that lucky! Enjoy the weekend :)

Thanks for reading,
Kathleen