This weekend we got a little taste of what the next few months will be like while we renovate the heck out of our new house. We started with the backyard because we wanted to get all of the work done and the grass planted before the Texas heat sets in. While the backyard didn't look too bad from far away, once you got up close it was a mess. I'm pretty sure the previous owners hadn't raked or done any sort of maintenance for years. There was also an old, warped deck that was very poorly put together, but at the same time terribly difficult to remove. It was full of crappy diy concrete work that we weren't expecting, and when they cut the boards, they just left the extra pieces under the deck along with a huge amount of rock that we had to clean up. There was a good 3-4 inches of dead leaves and weeds in all of the flower beds, along with a bunch of dead, diseased, and overgrown bushes on top of it. It was so far gone we decided to just take most of it out and put grass in its place. We want a place for Tobias to play and we just want it to be clean. Currently it is a breeding ground for snakes, spiders, lizards, and many angry ants, and we want to spend our time lounging by the pool, not worrying about whether or not we're going to be bit by ants and spiders.
(Sorry these pictures are blurry. Charlie changed the settings on my camera, and I didn't notice it as I was quickly taking these pics!)
This is how it is currently... I have to keep telling myself that it will get worse before it gets better, right? This is after ten 30 gallon bags full of yard debris had been cleaned up. We're hiring someone to haul away the old deck boards as well as the red brick trim along the pool and the various other random stones that were littering the yard. We're also cutting down the bush blocking the sidewalk by the house, the bush behind the diving board, and removing the diving board. After this is done we're getting pest control out to get rid of the critters, planting grass, and power-washing the concrete. Then I can finally get around to the fun stuff and order all of our patio furniture. I expect we'll be finished in the next week, and the grass will hopefully have filled in over the next six weeks before we move in.
I'll make sure to share the after once the project is complete!
