Backyard Update: Gravel and Grass!

You might remember that this summer has been about landscaping for us.  Be sure to visit update #1 and update #2 to see how far we’ve come, but this post recaps it all nicely too.  The first year in the house was about the inside, and this summer we’ve been working on the backyard.  What a job.  To reiterate, we started with a backyard full of dirt.  Then out of the dirt grew a jungle of weeds!!  We also had a half-dead pine tree that we cut down.  I wrote about it here. Well, we finally have a backyard that has been basically landscaped.  And by basically I mean that it is usable.  By no means “done” (is anything ever done as a homeowner??) but at least we have all of the ground covered with SOMETHING.  Well, the grass is a little patchy since we just grew it ourselves and having 2 big dogs doesn’t help, but this winter we should be able to re-seed the patchy parts and have a beautiful lawn next spring!!  Now if that didn’t attract killer mosquitoes around here…

Move-in, July 2008:

March 2009:

June 2009:

July 2009:

August 2009:

September 2009:

And I think we are going to fully rip the overhang off of the house.  We were debating on keeping it and fixing it up, or just ripping it off and we’ve decided to rip it out.  We want to build a new patio and the overhang won’t be the same size.  We’d also like to paint the huge metal eyesore…I mean shop/woodshed.  We also need to get rid of the weeds in the grass and re-plant.  Next summer will be about accessorizing the backyard – I love outdoor rooms!  Oh, and fix the fences…

Now we need a nice deep freeze to make the mosquitoes to go away…and the news is saying it might be next week! The end of September is my new favorite time of year I think!