Backyard Update!

It only took five months, but my week-long backyard makeover is finally [almost, mostly, kind of] complete.

Just don't look at the dead grass.

I said don't look at the dead grass! But do look at that very happy chicken!

I finally got my butt into gear after coming home from our honeymoon to Hawaii (yes, we've married three years, yes it took us three years to take a honeymoon, yes saving up for Hawaii was worth it). After spending a week on the beach, coming home was depressing, and I had to do something to get out of my funk and enjoy the fact that I was home and not in Hawaii. So, I decided there's nothing quite like manual labor and home improvement to snap you out of your sadness.

(Seriously, this is a picture I took. This is a real place, and I was there. Even the swelling of sunburnt legs does not take the taint the joy of Hawaii.)

The thing about finally finishing a five-month long project is that you mostly do it in three days and you really don't take any pictures. Because when you finally find the motivation to finish, you're not taking the time to take pictures.

Especially when you are the person hauling 3,000+ pounds of sand, rock, and step stones...and your husband is at work (he was home the last day and laid the last part of rock by himself; it may have been the best day ever).

The point, though, is that I finally got around to finishing the path through the yard. This path connects our gate at the front of the house (side yard) to the gate at the back of the yard (alley access). My favorite part about the path is that the dogs and the cat follow the path when trotting through the yard. ADORABLE.

Because we had left the path undone for so many months, the first step was two hours of weeding and fighting with goat head stickers. Note: Toms are not appropriate footwear for thorny weed mitigation.

You have no idea how satisfying this photo is:

 Just look at all that weed-free dirt!

Unfortunately, the next time I took photos was AFTER I had leveled, tamped, weed barrier-ed, step stoned, and river rocked. Oops. But, tl;dr, that's how it happened.

And it is GORGEOUS! I love-love-love my new backyard! Here are some things that I learned:

• New mulch can make any landscaping project instantly gorgeous
• The cheap river rock will look just fine and is half the price of the beautiful Mexican beach pebbles 
• My Ford Taurus can haul about 700 pounds distributed between trunk and car before I begin to worry about my suspension
• "Adequate" is an ok mantra for DIY landscaping. Perfection is not necessary. 
• Measure your square footage, calculate your rock/mulch needs, then add about a gajillion extra cubic yards, and that is how much rock/mulch your project needs. 
• You save money by DIY because the labor is REALLY FREAKING HARD, but I did find it doable. 

After all of the rock and new mulch was laid, I got to turn my attention to the fun things! 

The path looks great. Those little sticks of plants in my cute DIY planters? Not so much.

I planted some new plants, and added some new seating to my patio, courtesy of IKEA and Target. Oh! Here's one more thing to add to my list of lessons! 

• Taking five months to complete your one-week backyard project means you get up to 70% off on your patio furniture because you waited until the end of summer to buy it! 

For the planters at the corners of the patio, I selected tall tickseed plants. I think the height helps add some dimension and definition for the patio. 

Then I potted just four of my pots. After all, it is September now, and that means cold weather is just around the corner in Colorado. Fall is a very short season here.

While doing so, I discovered the dogs had been using my dirt-filled pots as a hiding place. 

See that there?

I'll uncover it for you. It has been MONTHS since we've had English muffins...

Even though I only planted a few pots, I think it's a good effect because of how nicely they group between the adirondack chairs. 

Next up: that fence. Our neighbors have graciously agreed to replace it.

Last summer we bought the Falster table and four chairs from Ikea, but what I really wanted was the bench to go with them. I've been to Ikea at least four times since, and each time it's been out of stock. This week, though, it was finally there and I got my bench!

I also picked up three little outdoor rugs with green stripes (on sale!), and four Marius stools. I was intending on just stacking the stools and taking them out as overflow seating, but then I found the table at Target for less than $14. The table folds and the stools stack, so this little seating area can easily move out of the way. I'm thinking of spray painting the stools and table--what do you think?

Next up in the yard, we'd like to replace the slab patio so it doesn't drain toward our house, and we're going to have to do something about that dead grass. I'm thinking I would like to make an outdoor chalkboard like this one. I also would like to paint a mural on the side of the shed facing the grass. I made this painting, which hangs over our couch, and I think I could scale it up for the side of the shed.

It's taken an entire summer, but I'm very pleased with my new backyard. Just so you can really feel my sense of satisfaction, here are some photos of its humble beginnings: 

And now: 

Much better.