Outside Home Improvements!

As horrible as it sounds, I completely dropped the ball on taking a picture of the old, nasty, disintegrating steps outside our kitchen door before we complete demolished them into big and tiny little pieces.  So, this picture will have to do and by no means, does it do the steps the justice of how ugly they were.  What it fails to show is the two lower steps, one of which was nonexistent and the second which was close to meeting it's untimely death as well.  But what you can see is the pealing paint, the nasty cracks (which we made the mistake of thinking went all the way through - NOT EVEN CLOSE!), and what some would consider a 'handrail', but was really pipe threaded together and painted.  Now don't get me wrong, this lovely block of cement served its purpose for MANY years and without it, we would have some fun jumping contests off the kitchen and it would have been an interesting five and a half years lugging in groceries.

So after a quick hearted, "I never want to see you again" good-bye, lots pounding by a sledge hammer, shoveling little pieces around, moving big pieces and finally the renting of a 100lb. jack-hammer to remove that which you see...the base of 6-12 inch thick concrete and cement blocks (and limestone, and bricks and rocks which were used to build the base!)  Poor Jason struggled for about 45 minutes to break up all the pieces, but after many hours of hard work by my loving husband...

...the old steps were GONE!

Not knowing how to build a deck (which makes for some weird looks from the husband and asks "How am I suppose to do this?") we enlisted the help of a close friend who knows how to do and build just about anything!  What a great help he was to us!  This is the beautiful deck we ended up with in the end!

Isn't it gorgeous!  I painted the old back screen door as well to match the trim a few weeks ago and it adds to the beauty of the back yard now (don't mind the horrid orange recycling containers underneath - we will be enclosing this at some point, but it is far from being a priority!)

It has taken 5 years, but the back yard is finally shaping up to be what we envisioned it be so long ago.  

Before (the burned out lawn didn't help either!)

This is the porch that extends off the garage.  It is so pretty when it is lit up at night and the new paint job on the house makes all the difference!

This was the first re-do when we extended the flower beds, planted new plants, a limestone path to the bench and added a rock border (not to mention the greened up lawn!).

This is now!  The plants have matured, the Althea bush (one met the shears and is making a slow comeback and one was taken completely out upon its death) has bushed out more than we thought and everything is filling in nicely! Not to mention a fresh blanket of chips does make it more appealing to the eye!  Down in the corner you can see the red crab sandbox has a new home in the corner where it is off the patio and out of the way!

The bench has found a new home by the Althea bush and the swing now rests by some grasses and a butterfly bush.

Again this is a way before with the first re-do (notice the red chips and dying grass).  Until last year, this was just a "fill-in with left-over plants" area.

Now: it serves as our garden.  Yes, a garden!  Last year we planted 9 tomatoes (and got more than we ever thought we could use!), 3 peppers and 1 crooked-neck squash.  This year we went for a little more in the same space and have 6 snow peas, 5 green beans, a row of lettuce, 1 crooked-neck squash, 3 tomatoes (plus 2 in pots on the patio) and a few carrots in that tiny little area! Believe it or not, yes, it all fits!

This is the front of the house which is filling in nicely and for the first time in five years, has chips now too! It looks beautiful when all the flowers are blooming (and again, the paint job makes a huge difference!

We still need to complete painting the trim around the windows (especially the aluminum windows you see here from the porch!).  One of these days, the outside will be finished!