Back to the Outdoors

Two months is a LONG time not to post. 2018 has not started out as planned.  My furnace was condemned (literally!) and had to be replaced New Year's Eve as we were expecting a hard freeze and temperatures in the 20's - which literally never happens in Houston.  Ever!  Except for the year my furnace dies, of course.

Then I needed emergency dental work that didn't work that has led to more dental work.  I could have bought a new car for what I've paid in dental and orthodontia bills over the past three years...

And February is almost over.  Sigh. My living room was SO cute for Christmas. And I was happy with my fireplace for Valentine's Day (I am much much smaller scale for other holiday decorating). But I'm not quite ready to put up what I have for St. Patrick's Day or Easter.

What I am ready for is to look into my backyard and not see a mud pit.

Our backyard has been pitiful from the begining.

This is the only picture I took of it when we were house shopping because there was literally nothing there.  A few trees that completely shaded the backyard and left nothing but a pile of dirt. Four years ago, a big storm came through and knocked down the largest tree (barely missing the house!) which was great for letting light back into the yard...and not so great for the weeds that started growing.

I wish I could tell you we've done something in the last four years with that backyard.  But aside from picking up the dog poop...we have not.

Last year we finally decided to make this sun room a livable space for us. The Builder built a brand new table for the space and we re-screen and tried to dog proof it (ahem, we're re-screening again for this summer, but just two this time instead of every frame!).

Late Summer

And this...is what I never show anyone.  This is my sad, sad backyard.  This is mid summer, so there's actually some weeds greenery and the tree is full. But this turns into muddy mess come spring and any summer rain storm. This winter it was a baren waistland. We didn't even want to use the fire pit (thus the logs you see from a tree we removed).

Which is now the goal! My oldest son is graduating in June and has already enlisted in the Navy (proud future Navy mom here!!) My brother and his family will be out and I'd like a nice backyard where the kids can play and we can relax in the evening. My sun room is so relaxing now, but the view out the windows is just terrible.

The whole back fence has to be replaced. Our neighbor to the left replaced her side last spring and we went in with our neighbor on the right to replace that side. But the two behind us are renters and so I don't really have any hope that they'd be interested in sharing the cost of rebuilding that fence. Once the fence is done, we're going to gravel around the fire pit, put in a brick path with reclaimed bricks back to the dog run, and put down sod in about half the yard. I don't have small kids anymore so there's no need to grass in the entire yard. Believe it or not there are actually already sprinklers here, we just need to make a few repairs to some broken lines and replace the sprinkler heads to get it running.

So here is The Plan:

1. Replace the entire back fence - I wish I could say this is the most time consuming part...but it may not be. The goal is tear the fence down in sections, replace the rotted fence posts with new posts (we'll be digging new holes, which is labor intensive, but not chipping out concrete to use the old fence holes like we had to do on the side fences - bonus!). I have three teenage boys and I've promised them cold hard cash for their cooperation with this project. Ideally, we'd like to have this done in a weekend....but it may take two, depending on the weater and what we can actually get done.
2. Lay the brick path from the sun room back to the dog run in - The Builder started with a lovely chevron brick pattern, but this may be hard to continue all the way down since we only have so much reclaimed brick. Either way, we need to dig a new trench for the path, lay down sand, and then complete the pathway. It will basically run the lengthe of the house. We'll be able to walk out to the dog run in any weather and not have to wonder where or what we're stepping in...
3. Fill in gravel -  some of the muddiest places in this yard are around the fire pit (just to the right of the logs in the snow photo!) and in the dog run. Which means if I need to bring the dogs into the sun room, the are a mudy disgusting mess! We'll put a layer of weed paper down, then sand, and then the gravel which should definitely reduce, if not eliminate, the mud issue. We'd like to use crushed granite for it's durability. I am pricing out a few places to see what the final estimate will be. We're willing to spend more to get a more durable product for this one. 
4. Install the sod - once the gravel is in, we're going to rototill the remaining yard, level it out, fertilize it, and lay down sod. This sounds simple, but my dogs have tore up this yard.  They've dug holes, created running tracks, and just made a wreck of it. We've marked out where the grass will go so we can figure out how much sod we'll need.  We're leaving a dirt area at the end of the house so the dogs will have a place to do their thing, as well as a 'path' around the edge of the yard for them to do their laps. My dogs live here and I can't have a space that isn't suitable for them, but we will be training them to stay off the grass.

Which all leads to the fun and pretty stuff!!!  If you follow me on Pinterest Pinterest - MrsMike you may have already seen this pin on my Backyard Red-do board:

I told The Builder that while I don't want lights over/around my fire pit (we plan to have tiki torches - more on that DIY project in another post!) I would love to have them strung across the grass area.  Four simple posts and some cable wire should do the trick. It's not listed on The Plan because this is not something that has to be done this summer...but it's something I definitely WANT to do! It would be lovely for backyard entertaining!

Of course there are many more things on my Pinterest board that I'd like to get done eventually, but I'm trying to schedule things that can reasonably be done in the next four months. 

We also want to build some cozy seating around the fire pit and some small side tables to set food and drinks down. I love these chairs from Ana White

We figure four chairs and two benches should comfortably seat our guests. This is another project on the want list due to time constraints.

And the time constraints are the biggest issue we face. We figure six weeks to get The Plan completed, providing the weather cooperates (highly unlikely) and The Builder doesn't have any required overtime at his job. In a perfect world, that puts into the second week of April, and just four weekends until my family arrives. This is why the pretty lights and the chairs and benches may need to wait until summer or even next year (when my second son is graduating from high school!). We also have some indoor projects that have to be done, like kitchen cabinets to refresh (our update in 2016 for the counters and backsplash still look amazing, but the cheap cabinets are showing wear again) and some touch up paint to complete. 

My daughter (the 2016 graduate!) also wants to put in a container garden. I don't see that being completed that in time for June, but it could be a fun summer project since she grows most of her plants from seeds and can easily transplant them. I'd really love to have a nice herb garden and salsa garden! We've actually discussed where the perect spot in the backyard to build a raised container garden will be. So that's on the one day list. 

Let the Backyard Redo commence!