Of course I failed at getting sufficient 'before' pictures so I'll try to entertain with exaggerated tales and brightly-colored drawings along the way.
Update #1: The aspen trees. You all read my reasons about why they had to go and I've been called a hippie-no-more by family. But look what got planted instead: 3 columnar flowering pear trees in front of the house, 2 peach trees (one in the middle kidney-shaped planter and one on the corner of the house), and lots of bulbs/seeds that will hopefully bloom in the spring. Hi Hudson!
Since we're in the front yard, let's just continue by turning down the road a bit.
Update #2: Park strip water whore is gone! That is fancy flagstone instead of grass and inefficient sprinklers. The planter areas have hyacinth bulbs and mini roses with drip irrigation.
(The next picture is a close up of the flagstone in the park strip on the other side of the driveway.)
Update #3: Also in the background of this picture you are able to see one of the major reasons for repouring the driveway. The carport was widened so hopefully no more visitors or ladies of the household will run over the sprinkler heads. And the other reason for gutting the driveway was that the 'drain' actually was one 4" hole that emptied into an empty rotted 55 gallon TIN drum(?!?!?!), which caused the very large crack and settling in the driveway. Not cool. Now there is a 6'x6'x6' gravel french drain with a sturdy metal cover, and no backups! We also put a little planter area just in front of the ugly 70's rock that allowed the side drive to be graded more gently. We will be planting some lilac there come Spring.
Update #4: Squint your eyes and you might be able to tell at the end of the carport by the garbage cans is brand new steel black gate. The railing is strong but thin so it really opens up the view to the backyard. Both sides open from the middle and into the backyard like a french door (the previous wood gate had sagged and dragged on the concrete incline...and it rarely shut all the way). The other thing about the gate area is that we installed a trench drain running the entire length of the concrete that drains to the backyard lawn. Our gutters are piped to the drain too, so the side drive isn't an ice-skating rink in the winter anymore. Because it's a concrete slope and our neighbor thinks that grass has to be flooded all summer to grow, we had a constant mud field in the backyard. Hudson loved it, we hated it. Nothing could grow there because the water literally flooded it every year, as well as it being completely shaded. In fact, let's take a closer look at the back yard.
Update #5: Ok, here's the ugly diagram. Just deal with it.
Imagine that you actually managed to park in the previously sharply-angled, steep carport and you get out of your car to our old fence/gate. After you pried the gate towards you with several Herculean heaves, you look down to see what damage you may have left on the cement from the gate and also see the mud bath you now have to swim through to reach the patio. Now you look up to see which direction to jump to and BAM! shed right in your face. And behind shed is this weird, random cement pad (previous previous owners told us it was a dog run but no one really knows why it's back there). And there's a pine tree that makes sure nothing will grow between gate and shed, just in the case the flooding may have let anything survive, tree makes sure it doesn't reach germination.
Update #4 fixed the mud bath, update #5 was moving the shed to the vacant corner of the back yard and out of the way of the backyard entry. This is a view looking from our patio beneath the deck. It took men (Mark included) and equipment, and I don't want to know how it happened or how (un)graceful it may have happened. But it's moved. For next year, we will build a simple pergola over the concrete pad and maybe give the shed a bit of a facelift. The exposed side was up against the fence before, and the previous owners just jammed a bunch of scrap wood and lots of garbage back there. In fact, the shed was propping up the fence as the backyard trashed when we moved in (in fact, November 14th we woke up to the wind blowing down three sections of fence, which Mark and our neighbor quickly improvised back together again just in time for Sis's engagement party).
Update #6: With all of that flooded out area under the pine tree where nothing could possibly grow, flagstone went down. I cannot explain how much bigger our backyard looks with it in! It was like tripling our patio area! So lovely! Hello there again, Hudson!
So there you have it. No more yard updates until spring. And also in spring we will need to break in our new landscaping with a worthy party. I've already got the pinata.
