Outdoor Shenanagins

Now that the weather here has begun improving (ok, aside from the SNOWSTORM today!), we scribbled down our outdoor to do list. It is long. It is extensive. BUT, it is doable. I think. I hope! Here is a shot of what we have to do for this year.



The decking gets delivered tomorrow and we'll be getting the permit this week so that we can break ground on that next weekend. That is super exciting for me!! We didn't have a deck at our first house either, so it is going to be new and fun for us. May is a busy month for us, so hopefully we can finish it before June.

I did manage to accomplish a small task last week. Mulch! Steve picked it up during lunch one day and dropped it off for me. I spent nap time with the monitor on my hip and got to work! I managed to finish most of the front "garden" and it made a big improvement. It is always amazing the difference mulch can make. Gives everything a fresh, clean, polished look. Very affordable too. Lowes has mulch on sale for $10 for four bags. Cheap cheap. We used 10 bags for the front.

Here are some before shots. I only managed to use my iPhone that day. Notice the rock edging we did last month. We dug out all the red scalloped brick edging they had previously.

And the afters (again, sorry about the iphone pics. Nap time hurries!)

Look at our purdy flower blossoms! (I don't know if this is a cherry or crab apple or what. Do you??)

We stuck with the dark brown mulch and I like how it looks like nice freshly tilled sod. Or dirt. I don't really know the difference. (Can you tell I am not a landscaping expert??)

These are some of the bushes we will be ripping out. Yuck! All the greenery you see are Black-Eyed Susans.

Ahhhh improvement already! All it took was $25 in mulch and an hour during naptime. Plus I scored a free arm workout (dragging those bags around) annnnnd a teeny sun tan. SCORE.