This is grass. This is grass on my property. I never thought I would see the day.
Landscaping
During the week of July 4th, 2008, we finally bit the bullet and had our “grass” resodded. I put the word grass in quotes because to say that the stuff we had on our plot of land was grass is a big, big stretch. It was more like some form of green moss growth…it was terrible and made our property look like the Pigpen of the neighborhood.
So during the July 4th week, I stayed home and we had some landscapers come to our house, rip up the top layer of dirt across the whole property. They then dropped down a new layer of topsoil, they put down 45 lbs of grass seed, and then dropped hay all over the place.
We are now seeing real, actual grass growing on our property. Photos to be shared shortly.
Unrest in the Forest
Its been a long while since I’ve updated this area of the site about the progress we’ve made on the house.
In the early summer, we had some trees cut down from the property outside. It really cleaned up the outside and let more sun hit the house and yard, but as the summer has moved on, sometimes I look around and it does not feel like we did a thing. I am already eyeing several other trees that I want to remove. We are really going to try to focus on the outside of the house to get that straightened out. It’s a mess.
As for the inside, we’ve been doing little things here and there, but no big projects to speak of. I’ve been trying to clear out the basement to get that renovated from its 1970′s dark wood paneling, and I made some great progress during the July 4th week. My big project downstairs is to clean the masonry walls in the unfinished part of the basement, paint them with a sealent, and then install lots of shelves so that all our stuff can be stored there. Not an easy task.
We really want to update the hallway and install hardwood floors, and update the 1/2 bathroom in the hallway, but that’s a bigger project than we think. But apart from the basement, its the last fairly big project inside the house (the kitchen does not count, because that’s a project that is off the charts).
Outside
The past few weeks have been somewhat unproductive inside the house for a variety of reasons. The things we have done have been minor and the rooms we are working on are not at a point to share photos yet. They are close, but not done yet. The kids bathroom needs some more paint. Our bedroom needs baseboards and furniture, although we did rip out the nasty carpets and have the floor sanded. The closet needs a light. And the master bath is probably the farthest along, but still needs baseboards and a frame around the window.
We have begun to venture outside to address the mess that is our front and back yards. We are seeing some accumulation of dampness and water on the ground at the back of the house and that is definitely a problem. We think that a lot of that problem simply has to do with poor drainage from the gutters on the house, so hopefully that will not be a big project. Lisa cleared out a ton of leaves that were near the house and that should help a great deal.
More photos to come.