Journey of a Front Yard

Before (2006) & After (2010)

2006 Progress

After my parent's help with what we called "Project Chernobyl of the Bushes", Cam continued all the way to the roots for the driveway strip of bushes

Next, removing every other board, slowly opening up the fortress

After hacking out the huge pit of ivy in the middle of the deck & the deck walls in front of the ivy

2007 Progress

Planted some rosemaries by the driveway and it stayed like this all year. Notice the front bushes have relentlessly grown back, not to mention how huge the side bushes are .. it's the same plant.

2008 Progress

Rosemaries bloomed, so did the weeds

2009 Progress

Side bushes out and progress on front bushes

remainder of deck comes out

2010 Progress

Deck all out, creating flat area for a pathway on top

Installing drainage under the pathway

Daddy gets lots of help, Pretty sure Ryan just ate dirt

digging begins for sprinkler system, rosemary plants moved in front of pathway

hired landscaper to lay sod

Sod is done! Biggest difference yet in one morning after all the years of slow work!

We added rocks, lights and planted strawberries in the bed; landscaper added mulch, orange tree, and avocado tree plus new rosemaries since we killed 2 of the 3 we had moved over :-)

Now it's a yard we can play on!

They love to run up and down the path

Front Yard Helpers

Feb 20

Mar 7

Mar 20

I can do that too, Daddy

How does the dirt taste, Ryan?

Progress so far: hard to see the landscaping that's done so far, but you can see the new garage door and new screen door and no bushes or deck anymore!  The rosemary plants are now on the right in front of the path instead of along the edge of the driveway.  There's also an avocado tree and and orange tree!

Getting Ready for Baby Bwuzzo

The guest room is being transformed into a second baby room. I got all the painting done in November and all the clothes we have so far hung in the closet and organized in the drawers. The crib will go in as soon as we get a new bed for Reagan. Here's Reagan "helping" me paint.

Bye Bye Ugly Wall!

We ripped out the patio wall and the difference is amazing! We love it! Not only is the view 10,000 times better from the house, but it feels more open and inviting and the patio seems like part of the yard. Before, it was like you were either doing a "patio" activity or a "rest of the backyard" activity, now it's like one big open inviting yard and it feels like the patio is 10x bigger too. Even the concrete looks nicer now that you can see the curvature and the flow of it without this big stupid wall in the middle of it. We kept it all this time thinking it was put there to block the wind, but after leaving the windows on it open for a while, we couldn't tell a difference. When it's windy, it's windy, wall or not. Here are some before and after shots!

BEFORE

AFTER
BEFORE
AFTER

Our Kitchen's Done!

First, some progress pics since February, the last time I blogged about this project!

Cam tears out the old countertops (Jun 10)

We live in a disaster zone and eat off paper plates (until Aug 1)BEFORE

(drum roll please ...)
AFTER!
Window and Sink
BEFORE

AFTER
View from the Dining Room ... and the big question is: should we extend the "Nantucket Mist" color on the rest of that wall? You can enlarge the pic by clicking on it. Don't worry, whatever your opinion is, you'll only upset one of us :-)

Room Rearranging Again ...

A few months ago, we decided another work station in the living room would be nice and moved a desk from the too crowded guest room. It was a good arrangement and worked pretty well (served as my sewing/quilting station). Not everything was ideal though. So this week, I decided that since Reagan's a little sick and I couldn't take her to the gym daycare, I'd have Cam set up his bike trainer so I could ride during her naps (I wouldn't normally care to ride my bike that much, but my triathlon is 3 days away now!). He quickly set it up over his lunch hour in the middle of the room. This won't do, it's time to draw up a new plan, make a permanent spot for the bike! What, an excuse to rearrange? Well, I ditched the pen and paper and started moving stuff around pretty quickly. It never looks right just sketched out ... you have to spend oodles of time with a tape measure and graph paper or excel ... no time for that right now. I'm blogging about this because I have never so geniously rearranged a room before ... well, there's no spot for the papasan chair anymore, but we hardly ever sat in it. Something had to go with the addition of the bike. I met every criteria you could think of (anyone need to hire me? :-))

1. TV sitting area still it's own cozy compact area and all spots can view TV well
2. Reagan's play area in plain view of the couches (never been the case before)
3. Bike and Sewing/workstation both facing the TV (also never been the case before)
4. Reagan's play area in plain view of the kitchen and dining room too!
5. Still room behind the TV to store the physio balls
6. Room looks and feels sectioned into different areas yet extremely open as well
7. Bike right next to the window; open if you're hot and the sill holds water, remote, towel, etc.

With all this hard work, I still haven't cared/had the time to ride that much ... or at all. Oops! :-)

From dining room...

Stepping in, looking right (bike is under blue tarp, sewing/workstation in foreground behind Cam on the couch)

From the sewing/workstation toward the new play area

New Sink & Faucet!

Nothing less than thoroughness from Cam, I love it! In order to make sure we'd have room behind our new sink to install our new faucet and to make sure the faucet had adequate reach to both sinks, Cam made a replica of our counter space out of a cardboard box and set the whole thing up. I just liked seeing what it was going to look like together. :-)

Our Kitchen Project is Underway!

Before Picture (from the Camelina Welcome Project in May 2006)

Progress Pictures
Feb 5 & 6

Feb 26 (Cam did a great job patching the drywall!)

Reagan's helping Daddy pack up the lights (we're going with different ones, they were too close to the cabinets.)

Reagan's New Room Arrangement

well, one side of the room ...