When we started the home buying process in 2008, we were pretty sure we were condo people. For one thing, we loved the idea of a nice spacious balcony with lush potted plants, but shuddered at the thought of caring for a real yard. We had a yard at our first place together. Let’s just say the landlord had to send us a letter to politely remind us that we were responsible for lawn care.
But when we started touring available condos, none of them felt right. (Rude awakening: balconies on the places we could afford were, um, not so spacious. Or even existant.) We switched our search to townhouses for a variety of reasons but still considered a lawn a “minus.” Fortunately, 110 had exactly what we thought we could handle: a postage stamp lawn in the front and a patio-only backyard. But it was a sad, sad state of affairs when we moved in. So much so that a proper “before” was apparently not worth capturing on film (er, disk). Here it is after about nine months of benign neglect from us.
Wanna barbecue out there? No? Are you sure? Yeah, we didn’t either for a long time. It’s been a slow evolution out back (much like the front of the house), but we are finally enjoying it this year. Quite a lot, actually. Let me give you the quick rundown of our meager efforts out back prior to this year, then I’ll show you how we’ve finally whipped it into shape.
Summer 2009
Our backyard goal for the first year was just to minimize general grossness by picking up tons of trash and having a scary unused home heating oil tank removed. But our focus on interior renovations didn’t leave the back untouched. We moved the kitchen, so we had to reverse the orientation of the back door (already done in the picture above)…so we decided to move the porch light, too…so we had an electrician working out back…so we went ahead and had an exterior power outlet installed. That was one of the best renovation tips we received. We’re doing thrilling things with that outlet this year. I only wish we installed one out front, too. (No outlet = no Christmas lights. Bummer.)
Spring/Summer 2010
We were still very busy making the interior livable by spring 2010, but we did squeeze one big exterior project onto the docket: leveling the patio.
You can see that our slab pavers were pretty wonky in a few spots. Some of them rocked substantially, which made a post-rain walk from the car to the house like running a gauntlet of shoe soaking land mines.
We planned to DIY the leveling job, but doing it properly required moving LOTS of dirt. And it turns out we have the heaviest dirt in the world. Also, by the time we got to this project we were on the countdown to babies’ arrival, so we decided to call in the pros and focus our DIY efforts on more reasonable projects for us. We also purchased supplies to add a back fence between the pavers and the parking pad, but, well, it turns out that wasn’t reasonable for us yet either.
Spring/Summer 2011
OK, now we’re getting somewhere. What better excuse to kick things into gear out back than hosting our girls’ first birthday party? None! Well hosting any event would probably do, but these are our only children and they’ll only have one first birthday and it was sort of an overwhelming marker of growth (them) and survival (us) that we (I) just had to make a big deal out of it. So we launched Operation Backyard Defuglification.
First up: fencing. But still not that back fence we bought supplies for the year prior. Nope, we had to address our hideous chain link fencing pronto. Tearing it out was way too big a deal to mess with, so we used it to support something more attractive less offensive. We just rolled out some some thin reed fencing (like this) and cable tied it right to the chain link. Have I mentioned that we’re a class operation around here? We are. Here you can see our fencing overlay started.
(I quickly snapped this picture while that huge tree–and later the duplex behind it–was being removed to make way for new construction, which you’ll see below.)
Second travesty to address: the back porch.
It’s a tiny little space, but it was packing a lot of ugly punch with it’s rusted railings, mauvey-taupeness, and paint spill on the steps. So we grabbed some already-on-hand exterior paint to give it a once over. We weren’t going for perfection or durability. We just wanted to minimize the eyesore for the moment, and one coat did the trick.
That’s all we could muster before the party in early June, other than adding a table (with this kit) and chairs. I know, not such a big “operation” after all. And the only project we tackled later in the summer was to beef up the retaining wall around the basement window well…on account of the floods. (Yes, that’s plural.)
Spring/Summer 2012
That brings us to this year. Hubby declared early on that this is the year, darn it! This is the year we use and enjoy our outdoor space. His conviction and commitment have paid off. Here’s what it looks like today.
Why, yes, we did finally get that back fence installed, and it made a HUGE difference the minute it went up. It finally made the space feel private and safe (i.e., no toddlers darting out into alley traffic). And yes, those are custom built planters.
With real live plants in them! Wait, let me show you another view.
Yup, more plants. Alive! And look over on the right: we can have ferns after all. These particular ferns are doing a great job of distracting from some ugliness. This area could still use some work, but it’s much better with the ferns for now. See:
Three other notable projects out back this year:
(1) We hung a shade sail for…take a guess…shade. More on that in another post.
(2) We installed a trickling water feature to amp up the feng shui. More on that in another post here. The water feature, not the feng shui (since I’m throwing that term around casually and don’t really know anything about it — don’t send hate mail/corrections).
(3) We strung up cafe lights so we could see at night. See and be charmed. So glad we installed that exterior power outlet (which also runs the water feature). Btw, the shade sail doesn’t normally droop like this. We just had it hanging loose–ha ha, hang loose–while we fixed one of its posts.
Again, Hubby’s drive to whip the backyard into enjoyable shape this year is really paying off. Especially since we’ve been able to eat, play, and relax so much out there during the spring, i.e., before the brutal summer heat descends and I become a sun-avoiding troll. Not really. OK, maybe a little. What can I say, slathering toddlers with sunscreen is one of my least favorite mom jobs. The squirming, the greasy hands…ugh.
Of course there is one more huge change to come out back when the house gets painted in a couple weeks. (PAINTED!) We may or may not do a few other little projects this year like hiding the air conditioner and/or hanging window boxes. We’ll see. Either way, we’re going to go ahead and pat ourselves on the back for all this backyard progress.
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Linking up with the DIY Show Off’s Party Parade; Bowl Full of Lemons’ One Project at a Time; and here: