Pergola | Part 1

We took our first steps this weekend building the pergola. 

We needed some deep holes.. and the Mister was just the right man for the task. 

We went about 3 feet down, set a concrete base, 

then placed about 4 inches of gravel down there for drainage.  

Which is very necessary in that very soggy part of our yard. 

We managed to set 3 out of 4 of our posts. 

Unfortunately the 4th post in the corner of our house will need to be mounted to a concrete base.

While digging we hit some solid concrete...not quite foundation, but more like extra random concrete.

Not too big of a deal, but just one more thing to figure out. 

We have definitely learned that projects are always a problem to solve!

It's Garden Season Y'all!

Things are getting GREEN around here

and we could not be more happy about it! :)

Our showy snowball bush is already pushing out flowers!

We had 2 beautiful days of weekend weather and used every moment 

to make the most of the arrival of Spring!

I started by building our 4 garden boxes.  

(2) 3x8ft boxes

(2) 2x4ft boxes

To build them we used 6ft cedar fence pickets.  

Below are the 2 finished 3x8 ft boxes.  

We plan to use the 2x4ft  boxes for tomatoes.

Once all the dirt we've been piling up from other projects gets leveled, 

we will put the 8ft boxes to the left of the tomatoes and place a trellis between them.

Take a look at this GORGEOUS GRASS!!! 

It's so green and lovely! :) 

We also planted our first bulbs! About 30 Gladiolus flower bulbs. 

I cannot wait to see them popping out of the ground!

They are going to be such a beautiful burst of color this summer. 

While the mister was digging some holes [Pergola: Part 1]

I managed to also get the front, side, and back lawn fertilized and over-seeded. 

Things are about to get much more GREEN around here!

Gluttons for Punishment? No way!

Last weekend we were able to make some good progress on a few projects. 

We finally had some grass growing!!!

It was just brand new baby grass last weekend, but we keep giving it TLC, 

and are very hopeful about having some grass by Summer! :-D

It did rain on Saturday, but the temperature was beautiful

and (in our minds) it was only a light drizzle.

Please note the lovely flooding that occurred:

We like to call it a rain garden.

Plus, the sun came out after we were finished 

and we were able to take a nice stroll around the neighborhood 

with a completely healthy Pippa!

Sunday on the other hand.... was sunny, but COLD!  

I might have been able to take the cold, but not the wind.  

It was too miserable for me to do much outside.  

So instead, we picked up our Pergola frame wood, 

cut our Garden Box pieces, and finished the 

last few touches to the Kitchen China Hutch!

While in the middle of our patio project, a nice neighbor pulled up along us, 

rolled down his window, and told us we "sure are gluttons for punishment!"  haha

Even though it was raining when he said that,

and we were shoveling a cubic yard of gravel into wheel burrow loads 

to spread out as a base to our patio... 

it didn't strike us as punishment at all!

All finished with the gravel.. next up, posts and sand!

Although some of our tasks might be difficult, 

they seem far from punishment! :) 

At the end of the day, our hard work is so rewarding that

 it feels pretty darn good to revel in our progress! 

One day soon, we'll be able to take more weekends off 

and enjoy everything we've been working so hard on! :)