Extreme Makeover: Heitmann Yard Edition

What a better way to spend a week of leave (of which I have only taken one other the past 12 months - when Wyatt was born) than to do manual labor. We have been saving and planning to completely redo our landscape. It was such a sight for sore eyes. I guess that's what two years of unoccupancy will do to a place. We had someone come in and rip out all the grass and mulch, put in a sprinkler system and grade the yard to be hydroseeded. Aimee and I (with the help of my dad) spent 3 days preparing the beds, planting flowers, laying rock and gutting the gargage. The project is 90% done. Spencer (the lawn guy) still has some top soil to spread and leaveling to do before we call to have the grass sprayed down, so here is just a sneak peak. This is the side yard. Most of the rest of the yard around the house was in the same sorry condition.

Not so much grass, but dirt, weeds and moss, with a few blades of brown supposed grass mixed in. I don't understand why the kids never wanted to play out in the back and were more eager to go play in the street!

Here is the front with the new beds placed and a much simpler and attractive curb side appeal.

The other side of the house. Then a walkway to the backyard. We had leftover pea-greavel and got our neighbor to take it and place it over his dirt you see on the right of the picture.

The view as if you were coming to the front door.

That nasty side yard looks much better and is easier to maintain.

Once the grass comes in the kids should have a nice place to romp around. There is place to play in the sandbox and we will have a stawberry patch just adjacent to the play area (long gravel area under window at the top of the pic).

The side yard in the back.

The yard wasn't the only thing that was driving us crazy. The garage was making me have mental breakdowns. Those who know me know my OCD tendancies (Aimee just smiles at that statement). I was about to admit myself to the state mental hospital if I could not organize that garage a little better. This picture was taken after we hauled 300 lbs of crap out, just so we could get in to organize.

AHHHH. Much better. I told Aimee if we were thinking we would have color coordinated the totes though (reds on one shelf, blue on another, etc!!!!!!!). The garage too is about 90% done. We have a couple big things to take to Goodwill and then we might actually be able to park the van inside. What a novel idea - to use a garage for a car.


We'll we may not have gone to Mexico to see the girls go wild but after our yard is done it will be our own little private paradise. Now I can relax for a few days before I have to go back to work. Next vacation: Aug 2009.