More wood work for the patio….and a little bit of snow

May 6, 2014 / Winnie / 1 Comment

I have a long list of items I want to complete this week…..see my white board below? I decided on staining the Adirondack chairs today. I got one chair completed – I am using the same stain….the Behr -Weather Proofing in Redwood.

You can see in the above picture the beautiful completed chair. It is so lovely. I was all set up to complete the second chair when my neighbor came to the back fence to chat with Jules and I. She told us that a storm was rolling in and that hail and snow were expected over the next 2 days. Jules went in to hyperdrive and moved all my plants into the dining room. She was a girl on a mission.

And they are now awaiting less threatening weather. Can you believe it? Snow forecasted….in May. I will be waiting to finish my other chair as well.

Dave decided to put the scrap wood to use as well. He made a slated holder for our recycle bins. Those bins are ridiculously ugly. Now that the holder is done…..I feel like it should have been taller….but it’s done and I am happy that we used up more scrap wood. The very end has a space big enough for another black garage can and I will be purchasing another one to hold the wood scraps we will be keeping as fire starter.

Parting shot of our newly mounted garden tool holder…..with Jezebelle watching over us from the doorway…..can you see her beautiful eyes?

Details, Details, Details….putting together a functional back patio

April 29, 2014 / Winnie / Leave a comment

The heavy lifting for the back yard is over and done with…As previously recorded here, here and here. I have moved on to pulling the details together to make the area functional.

First up – seating for the fire pit. I found some wonderful low chairs from Lowe’s and purchased two. I absolutely love the way they look.

I also purchased 2 Adirondack chairs from Amazon. They needed to be put together – and I did the first one by myself….took a little while with Jane (First Officer of Destruction) around. *Cough*…….could have taken me…..*cough*….2 hours…*cough*. Dave and I teamed up on Saturday and put the other one together in 30 minutes.

Next up – pulling my patio set from the wwwaaaayyyyyyy back of the shed. I purchased this set at the end of the season last year and I am so excited to use it all summer.

Two smaller projects – moving the compost we have been ‘making’ to the raised garden (you can see in the above and below picture) and adding in solar lights to the fence. Dave drilled holes into the 4×4 posts and placed solar lights down the length of the fence.

As a final note – we were able to use the fire pit. It was a tad bit chilly, but we powered through and it finally feels like spring….even if it did snow the next day 🙂

The start of something manual laborish

April 7, 2014 / Winnie / 3 Comments

This weekend was the kickoff for the backyard update. Update seems so mellow after I am on this side of the 2 work days. I am exhausted! Part of our to do list before the start of camping season is to get our garden prepped. Unfortunately – we need to completely start over in the garden department – so we used this weekend as our backyard update kickoff. Here is a totally awesome sketch I did of what the yard should look like.

Look at that. I feel like I did this in school. First step was to take out the chain link fence where all of the purple stuff labeled Privacy Fence is on the sketch. Then Dave was able to get in with a mini Bobcat and move some dirt around. The Bobcat was imperative because we are built into a hill and our yard has some serious slope going on.

The layer of turf is gone and flat ‘terraces’ were created on each side of the house. The terraces will help keep the gravel where we need it to be.

The Privacy Fence has been put into place. We have a few more finishing touches to do – fill the spot between the fence and the retaining wall, build 2 gates and map out what type of fencing we will put up on top of the retaining wall. First and only idea so far for the retaining wall is a short tiered 3 foot privacy fence. This will allow us to match the fence we just put up but also keep it low enough to (hopefully) save the fence from wind destruction.

Those large timbers will be for the steps and the slats are waiting for gates. Once all the fencing and gates are up we will be ready to complete the finish work on the dirt leveling, the gravel and building the raised gardens….did I say gardens? Yup. I know the sketch only had one on it……but I think I need two 🙂