Outdoors Progress Report

In case you have been wondering what I have been so busy working on outside I thought I would give you a little update on some of the outdoor projects. 

You may remember about the rocks we were having delivered mother's day weekend.  We are still working on this project but it is coming along beautifully. 

This is the picture I shared before we began our transformation.  Take note of that awkward slope under the deck on the right side of the photo.

The first stages of the project.  Yes we are doing it ourselves but not without some heavy equipment (thanks to the company my husband works for - a construction framing company) to help lift these heavy beasts.

This is where we are at in the project right now.  You can see we are halfway done with the steps.  The wall will stay about this height (of course levelled out) and the steps will turn and continue up the rest of the slope.

The long term plan is for the flat area underneath the deck and the whole length of the wall to be completed as a flag stone patio and an outdoor kitchen.  Not this year though.



We also moved this beautiful shipping container.  We purchased this container to store much of our belongings while we were in between houses.  You can see it has been parked along side the driveway in the front of the house.  I'm sorry that I don't have a better photo of how it sat in front of the house.  Not pretty.

Well, we finally got it moved.  This is not recommended.  Next time we will be sure to hire a crane.

And now it sits in the back corner of our property waiting to be painted and beautified by moi, hopefully sometime in June.  It is being used to store quads, yard tools, etc.

All the stakes you see in the ground in front of the container are my garden.  I picked a spot in our yard (used to be pasture), and rotor-tilled, and rotor-tilled, and rotor-tilled until I was able to get some seeds in the ground.  The manure from its previous life as a pasture should help out.  My plans include building a storage shed/kids outdoor play house, a cute fence, and some flower beds around the perimeter.  But again, not this year.  The list is already full for the year.

And here is an early picture of our front entrance.  You will notice the cut ends of the timbers are still unstained, and the shadow batons in the gable are just primed.

Another coat of stain for the timbers, and paint for the shadow batons.  The bed on the left of the door has also been filled with top soil so I can now begin filling this bed with shrubs and perennials.  I even learned to drive the bobcat because my original method of shovelling trailers of dirt and then emptying them is far too time consuming, and labor intensive.

So there you have it. I'm getting a free suntan and workout all while turning our little piece of pasture into a yard.