Fred and Valerie

We’re working on a couple of “home improvement” projects this Spring and Summer and while we plan on taking our time with them, they’re starting off quite well.

Backyard Gardens
For a while now, we’ve wanted to do something with the rock our developer put in the backyard near the ditch. In theory, the rock is supposed to keep any land from washing away, but after having been here for almost five years we realized it’s going to take something on the order of several hurricanes to make the rock even remotely necessary. Besides, it could still be done in a better looking manner.

This Spring, I started changing those rock piles into retaining wall gardens. So far, I’ve only worked on one of the two sections and I’ve managed to get all of that section’s rock moved up to the front rock pile and have about two dozen of the retaining wall bricks in place. It’ll probably take another two dozen retaining wall bricks before it’s ready to be dug up for a garden.

Interior Painting
The interior walls of the house are still white (really, more of an off-white or eggshell) almost five years after we bought the house. It’s time for color!

Our good friend Kris played Martha Stewart and helped us decide on some colors. Just yesterday, we bought a quart of the color we selected (“Wetlands” from Kilz, which is a sage-ish green) and painted a five-foot by four-foot section of the Great Room wall to see if we like it.

So far, we’re liking the color. If it’s still acceptable come the end of the week, we’ll likely start preparing for mass painting of the Great Room and picking out colors for other areas of the house.

The lawn has officially been cut and our house no longer looks like it was situated in the middle of a jungle.

I cut the lawn last Sunday and it’s pretty much rained everyday since then. Because of that the lawn is becoming way more than overgrown and there’s little to no hope that I’ll be able to cut it again any time soon.

On the plus side, the grass is green and the garden is flourishing!