Back Porch Railing

Mr. Windmill finished the railing on the back porch.  
And I couldn't be more in love!

Just a photo dump today. 

( I can't wait to paint that back door! )

The Front Walkway

I haven't had a chance to show you the pictures of our finished paver walkway. 
Without further delay....... 

We still have to fill in around the walkway with topsoil and plant new grass.  
I'm not sure if we are going to leave the section between the retaining wall and the sidewalk with grass or fill it in with black mulch and some hostas.  I have to think on that for a while.

 Here you can see how it leads out to our gravel driveway. 

The polymeric sand set this time unlike our back patio which you can see here.

Things around the Windmill Cottage are slowly becoming less dirt and mud!  Yay!

Ground Breaking! To the Front, to the front..............

There seems to be just enough pause in the rain to do some ground breaking.  It's been raining every single day for nearly two weeks.  Hubs headed outside to layout the path for the front walkway.

 It's amazing what a tape measure, a roll of string and some stakes can do!  

Mr. Windmill (my hubs) had lots of help from Little A and Big C!

Mr. Windmill makes short work of digging.  He seriously is the digging master!  

He grew up on a farm...go figure!

Some landscape fabric and the first layer of gravel shown here.

 Little A taking his turn with the tamper.  I think that tool weighs as much as he does! 

And there's the stack of pavers waiting to transform into a front walkway!

 You can see the Knock-Out roses and the Stella lilies on the side of the house.  

They seem to be doing okay.  They could use a little more sun and little less rain!

A Little Patio

Hubby and I knew when we built the back porch that the gas grill would never be housed there. We've seen first hand the grease mess that splatters all over the place.  The deck at our old house had grease spots and stains all over.  And a friend of ours melted their vinyl siding from the extreme heat of their gas grill.  We purchased these pavers and set to work preparing to make a little patio.  We've never had any experience with installing pavers but thanks to the great internet, there are hundreds of tutorials out there.  I settled with this one from Better Homes and Gardens.  

 Here's a before.  I know your diggin' the 5 gallon bucket on the porch.  And the crammed up furniture.  I keep moving it back where it belongs but two little boys I know keep rearranging.  

A view from the top of the stairs.

Nearly ready for the pavers.  

We used cap blocks for the border.  

And the finished project.  We used a polymeric sand to fill the cracks.  This sand combines with polymers to make a solid but flexible filler.  It's supposed to keep the insects out and keep the pavers intact.  But it rained for a week straight after we installed this patio.  I've noticed that the sand didn't set properly. We may have to scrape and vacuum out what we can and redo later this summer.  We'll have to see. 

 See the baby grass starting to sprout around?  

Don't be jealous of my gorgeous flowers in those pots! 

 Just use your imagination!  That's what I do!  ;-) 

BP and AP (Before Paint and After Paint)

Just wanted to post a quick before and after!

This morning, I had some time to sneak in the first coat of black paint while the boys watched Ratatouille.
The weather man is calling for thunderstorms later this afternoon.  I HAD to get out there and get a first coat applied.

You can see the Knock Out Roses at the far right of the picture.  They need to be planted, so I need to paint!  I'm hoping to get the 2nd coat of paint applied and the roses planted next week.

It's amazing what a little paint can do!

Have a great weekend!

Talking to a Brick Wall

Hubs has been working very hard on a raised flower bed around the house.  So, Yep, I'm talking to the brick wall.  "What should I put in you?  What will you retain?  I mean, after all, you ARE a retaining wall!  Do you want perennials, annuals, a little of both?  Do you get full sun, partial sun, mostly shade?"
I've been talking A LOT to the brick wall.  I think it listens as good as my kids.

Let's just say that landscaping WAS NOT on the agenda this spring.  We wanted to do more inside work than outside.  Our local big box home improvement store had a great sale on landscaping bricks, blocks, pavers and all things hardscaping.  That sale made it hard to pass up the savings.

What WAS on the agenda this spring was to paint the foundation.  Before the foundation can be painted, it needs to be cleaned.  And before it can be cleaned, we need to find a way to stop the dirt from splashing all over the block every time it rains.  The solution to this problem is simple.  Cover up the dirt.  So thanks to our local home improvement store, we found a way to cover up the dirt and save money.  Well at least we are retaining the dirt for now.  Covering the dirt is the next step.

Let's recap the side of the cottage.

This is what it looked like when we bought the house.

In this picture you can see evidence of a jackhammer that demolished the concrete and stone patio.

And no more mud room/ enclosed porch.

Here's the hubs getting a start on the retaining wall.

Wow!  What a difference!

And just a little peak of what's to come for the front of the house. 

We need to finish the front porch with a roof and railing.  We are hoping to get to that project this summer.  Fingers crossed!

This picture makes the retaining wall look like it slopes downward toward the front steps, but it is completely level.  It must be the angle at which I took the picture.  

That or the uneven yard.... Who knows.  

We are waiting on a masonry company to re-point and clean our chimney.  She really needs some love!  The company did an estimate in April.  It's now the end of May.  Let's hope masonry companies don't operate like tree cutting companies.  Ay yi yi!

"Skirting" the Issue

Hubby started on the skirting of the back porch.  What a difference!  Little by little we are transforming our cottage.  We still need to install railing, but before we do that, our yard needs a little TLC.

Remember when we took down the big Oak tree?  Well, that left us with a big humped up area in the backyard.  The tree company ground off what stump they could, but we were left with a hump.  Plus all that heavy equipment driving around killed what little grass we had.  See that bump in front of the play set?

This big ol' pile of dirt is going to help us level out the yard and hopefully make that hump a little less noticeable. 

One whole day of earth moving.....and voila.............

Now on to planting new grass.