Crazy Project Lady

Crazy Project Lady - that is probably what my husband calls me.  We have been working hard on the home projects - WE ARE DOWN TO 8 WEEKS.....8 WEEKS!!!  So we need to move on some of these things and we have stuff going on about every weekend in May, so it might be a challenge!  We have knocked out chunks of quite a few projects, but not many are 100% complete so i haven't posted pics.  The cabinets in the garage look great, but still need some organization and shelves.  I'll try and post a pic soon.  The baby room is painted, Keith has been working on hanging window treatments and I've been working on some final touches.


Patio progress has been slow, but I think we are finally making some ground (or digging some up).  Above is how we started - I know, very professional approach.  Hose, blankets, sandbox lid - you are going to want to borrow my supplies!
I was dead set on this seat wall with a seat and Keith finally talked me out of it since one little patio did not make us professionals.  (I still think we could have made it happen) So now we are onto a bit of a different plan.  Since we skipped the seat, we are still doing a wall, but switched to more of a square and will have a square fire pit now.  I think this will be easier and opened us up to more block options.

We finally bought some pavers so we could test out a few ideas and try to get a handle on how many pavers we will need.... A LOT!  So the wall will look a bit like this - on the right is the start of a column.  (FYI - if you are building a patio, Menards has these stones on sale this week.  We are purchasing the patio pavers from Country Landscapes in Ames, but using this for the wall and fire pit.  Did I mention these pavers are REALLY heavy!!! So I guess Keith will be moving all these ones.  

Now for the worst part of this job.... the DIGGING!  Digging 7" down into our clay - cement-like yard.  Keith went ahead and pulled up the sod so we could have a better idea of how it will look.  Tomorrow we are going to try and set some furniture out to make sure we like the size.  Then comes the serious digging and filling with rock and sand.  So more to come on this project.  It will take a while though!

This is a project I am so happy to have off my to-do list.  I have wanted to do this for about a year now.  I wanted to hang some of our favorite pictures of the boys, but I have thousands of pictures and it takes FOREVER to go through them all.  Then I should have put more time into it with a bit more editing and planning the sizes better, but I just wanted to get it done!  I had them printed on Styrene, which is pretty durable and shouldn't curl.  Then I hung them with twine.  I had planned on using a picture hanging wire, but the wire didn't lay as nice.  I wanted to do black/white because of all the color on the wall - but did end up with a glimpse of color in one.  It took me quite a while to get them lined up right.  At first I had them all in a horizontal line - but that was a bit overkill.  It was also a challenge because we are outside most nights, then once the boys are in bed I couldn't work on it.  The boys seem to really like them.  

 

It ended up being too many, so I hung this one behind the door.

 

Here was a quick and easy outdoor project the boys and I knocked out tonight.  We had clematis at our old house and I loved it!  It bloomed about all summer.  It didn't take off well until the second year, but then grew like crazy.  So I wanted to get it planted this summer, in hopes we will see many pretty flowers.

I bought this trellis, but after I jammed it into my SUV and got it home, I realized Keith probably could have built this for a quarter of the cost.  I guess we will say maybe it wouldn't have been the best use of his time right now and move on:)

Of course I had a couple great helpers.  They were impressed by the two snails we found.  And I was happy they didn't pick them up and agreed with me that they were gross!  

 

 

Looks like our trellis is a bit crooked.  

We planted these about two weeks ago, they are a lime green hydrangea.  It is really hard for me to not to attempt to plant more, but I just need to be patient, by next summer they will be quite big and fill up much of this space.  Someday I might add more plantings in this area - but this is as far as I'm taking it this summer!  Now I need to finish the other side.  I bought some grasses, we planted a tree, we just need a few shrubs and a nice day and we will be set!