Backyard Overhaul 2011

Our backyard is pretty much our favorite place. It may be 70% of the reason we bought our house, okay...80%.  It's big (for the city), so it's hard to get a picture that justifies it's awesomeness. The deck is two levels, and has built in benches. We just love it. 

The backyard also has 17 trees. Which means great shade, so it is always 10-20 degrees cooler in our backyard, again awesome. Throw in the brick pathways and the amazing elm with the perfect branch for a swing and I'm telling you, you should be jealous. But before you hate us too much...all that awesomeness comes with a price. And now that we are wrapping up our second year in the house, we have learned. 

17 trees produce a lot of leaves. No problem, we bought a blower. But, brick pathways and lots of gardens require maintenance, like weeds and stuff, ugh. That is my kryptonite. I did not get the southern girl gardener gene (like that alliteration, don't ya). And when the weeds grow, it is hot y'all. 

So last year I hired someone to really clean everything up at the beginning of the summer, then I used the weed eater for the rest. This year I got smarter. If you don't want to pull weeds out of the ridiculously large garden, take out the garden! This fall we will be seeding the empty spots so next summer all I have to do is mow! Problem solved.

Next, trees. Trees require maintenance. Professional maintenance.  Because we had such a stormy spring I really started to analyze the branches on those 17 trees. Especially our 80 yr old Elm, directly behind our house, hanging over my child's bedroom. I called Harrison Tree Service, I highly recommend them of you have large trees around your house. Mitch is great. Honest, stands behind his work and he is a certified arborist, so he didn't just hack at my trees, he wanted them to be healthy.

Finally, the deck. As I said we love our deck. We spend a lot of time on it. And more importantly it is the gateway to  the back yard, our back door literally opens on the deck. So we are adamant about taking care of it. And, we have come to that time in our life when we look at projects and if they have more than 3 steps or involve chemicals.....ding ding ding..... we hire someone. Enter Dr. Deck n' Fence. Again, if you need someone, could not have been nicer guys, I highly recommend! They came out for an estimate within days, and did our deck in 3 days (would've been 2 but it rained). So here's the before:

Not falling down or anything, but definitely getting rough. So here's the after!

They are bad phone photos, but hopefully you can tell it is now all one stain, and what you can't tell that is more important is it is sealed! Which apparently it was not before. So good all around.

All of these improvements were our attempt at being conscientious homeowners, but more importantly we also hosted Fourth of July this year. I kinda have a busy weekend (#kentonio2011) but next week I will be posting on the fun we had Monday night!