I'm really excited just to HAVE a back yard!
Most of the work I've been doing outside hasn't been photo worthy. Picking up sticks and pruning trees, well... not horribly exciting stuff. I'll put up some pictures once the apple trees bloom :)
Like I said, my work outdoors has not been worth a photo, but there are some major landscaping changes that have taken place over the past few weeks.
My most excellent and industrious father-in-law decided it was time to clear some of the woods that separated our home from his front yard. There is a lovely little mess of a copse of trees, grape vines brush, thorns and barbed wire that really needed a good purging. I went through and marked all of the trees that we wanted to keep - mostly ancient apple trees and some solid hickory trees - and Dad and Daniel took out much of the rest.
Still needs some work, but already it is 10x better
than it was before.
The biggest change in scenery happened directly in back of our house. We woke up to the sound of a bulldozer one morning last week, and in a matter of hours, the ugly pile of junk and fallen chicken coop had disappeared.
Before.
Going...
Going....
Gone!!!
In it's place, we have a large patch of bare earth. So much nicer to look at than the remains of a chicken coop! One of my future endeavors will be to pick rocks out of this area; I'm not really looking forward to this part, but if it means we can get it seeded and growing grass before the end of the summer, I'll do it!
We FINALLY finished tiling our kitchen floor - this was a week long project that took a month, thanks to the stomach flu, a back that was thrown out of place, the wrong color grout (please tell me why I would want the grout on my floor to be the color of a pumpkin...), and other such fun factors. It's done though, and we are no longer living out of a mini fridge from Dan's college days.
Dan makes incredibly straight lines - so glad that he
was good at that!
Finished! I posted this picture on Facebook, and was
amazed at how many people liked it, or commented
on it. It was great to know that friends and family
thought we did a good job :)
Now that the tile is finished, Dan and I were able to bring in a pretty neat piece of furniture. My Oma gave it to me last year, and it's been waiting to get into the house. Behold, my kitchen hoosier!
History lesson: these were very popular in the early
20th century. Used to hold baking implements and
things like spices, flour and sugar. Companies actually
made glass jars and canisters to fit these specific units.
I'm not cool enough to have any, but I have this, and I
love it!
Kind of a neat story behind this piece. Early on in my Oma and Opa's marriage, my Opa took a job helping someone to renovate their kitchen. Rather than taking home a paycheck, he asked if he could take this hoosier home instead, because he knew Oma would really like it. It was given to him, and it's been in their kitchen for close to 50 years. Now it is in my kitchen! I still need to give it a good cleaning with oil soap, but it is in wonderful condition, and I am thrilled to have it in my home.
Speaking of furniture....
My sister-in-law decided to give me a
birthday present 5 months early. I fell in
love with this chair at a consignment shop
but was unable to afford it at the time. Amy
brought it to me a few weeks later. It fits me
perfectly! All I need is an end table to keep
my drink and sewing box near me.
We inherited some porch furniture from my mom and
dad in law. Yeah, we're THAT couple with the two chairs
on the porch :)
Next on the house agenda are the bathroom floors. More tile. Ugh. First we're going to take some time getting some smaller things done around the house and yard, like buying floor registers and making gardens. I plan on staying outside as much as I can!
