House: Work In Progress

It's bee a long time since I've posted about the "house project." Actually, I've been pretty busy. I thought I'd post a series of pictures showing the exterior as it has evolved over the last year or so.

1. Pink House with Sand Spur Yard

The first picture is before the house was painted and while the yard was nothing but sand spurs. The Ponytail Palm had a dead branch and nothing was planted in any of the flower beds close to the house. The yard was primarily sand (under the sand spurs) and because of the slope, the sand was running off into the street.

2. Sand Spurs Pulled Up, House Painted and Building the Wall

I spent a few weekends  digging up sand spurs.

Painting the exterior took me several more weekends. My children helped me 2 of those weekends and a few other people helped me one other. The last few were done solo.

Then it was time to tackle the eroding of the yard. My little Ford Escort only held a few block at a time, so I just worked on bringing a few at a time and building the wall a little at a time.

3. FREE MULCH!

I was out working in the yard one day when a very LARGE truck full of mulch drove by. The driver saw me and stopped, asking me if I wanted some free mulch. "Sure," I said.

The small mountain you see here has already been taken down quite a bit. More weekends were spent spreading that mulch.

4. Real Plants in the Yard

Okay, here's the latest. I've started putting in some plants and I've got the irrigation system working. I actually have to cut the grass now!! When I look at it this way, I feel more encouraged. I can tell that I'm actually making some progress. More to come.