Home Improvement News

Recognize this?

I think all of you knew this, but four years ago Brian and I bought a purple house that was filled with garbage. We chose this house because of its location, its potential, and because it was filled with garbage we knew we could kind of afford it. We've put a lot of TLC into our home, and over the past few years we've repainted the exterior and 90% of the interior, replaced all of the flooring with ceramic tile/laminate hardwood, updated the appliances, installed new light fixtures, reestablished the front lawn, added a drain and path along the north side of the house, built a bar, and retiled one of the showers. We did all but a few of those projects ourselves. We both love this kind of thing, and we're getting pretty good at it, but there are a few things that I think are worth paying people to do.

One of these projects was completed last week. Up to that point, we had only two major projects remaining on our list: fix the backyard and renovate the master bathroom. We decided to tackle the backyard first. It only took a week, and it was well worth paying other people to do it. It's so nice to have a normal space back there now, and we've taken full advantage of it so far.

I thought you might like to see the transformation for yourselves.

Brian had marked off our plan for the patio before we got started.
You can kind of tell what condition the backyard was in up to that point.
It was not good.

Dirt's here! Not the greatest surprise I've had in my life, but luckily
having a giant dirt mound on our front curb was short-lived.

You're not going to leave it like that, are you?
Apparently, the answer would have been "Yes" if Brian and I hadn't been
adamant about incorporating a grade into the new yard.
I'm no dirt looker or anything, but I think I see a problem with this. You?

Day 4: Lisa begins breathing again.
The workmen added a nice slope to the yard, and they got started on the pavers. Progress!

Ta da! Welcome to a little bit of heaven in our backyard. Washers, anyone?