Spring Fever

I should be working right now. I’m on a deadline and I have tons of work to do, but my brain is all wishy washy and crazy. So instead of working, I’m going to thrill you with plans for what we’re going to do with our back yard this summer.

Our house is on a pretty big lot, almost a quarter of an acre. That’s one of the reasons why we bought this house. We loved the space and the huge back yard. But for the past 6 years that we’ve lived here, it’s essentially just been the dog’s domain. Not really family friendly except for the area we carved out for our garden. The rest is just sort of a vast sea of mostly growing grass and the paths the dogs have created as they trace their daily circuits.

But this year, since the kids are getting older, we’ve decided to finally tackle the back yard and make it a place we all want to hang out. The one hurdle we probably won’t find a way around this year (or maybe ever) is that the stairs leading down into the yard from the deck are really steep and a bit treacherous. I don’t even like to walk down them, let alone me send the kids down them by themselves. But we’ll just have to figure out a way around that. Let me know if you have any ideas…

So the first thing we’re going to do is create an area of the yard dedicated just to the kids and the myriad assortment of outdoor play stuff we’ve accumulated. I think we’ve decided to carve out the section of yard right at the bottom of the yard for this purpose. We’ll block it out with railroad ties and then mulch it all in. We may even be able to get free mulch through the city’s xeroscape program. The only other thing we’ll do is add a trampoline to the mix and that should give the kids a really fun place to be.

We have two large and completely unattractive meters in our back yard that I think we’ve decided to finally camouflage with some sort of flowering bush or shrub. I need to do more research on that piece as I’m not entirely sure which ones we’ll pick. But in the 10 or so feet in between the meters and the play area, we’re going to create a little patio seating area so that we can all hang out down in the yard while the kids play. I think we’ll put some pavers down in a fun pattern and then put some comfy deck furniture and an umbrella down there. My husband also wants to add an outdoor fireplace or chiminea to that area, but the jury is still out on that.

The other pieces will be just doing an overall brightening and livening up to the yard in general. We’re going to put four hanging flower boxes on the deck, fix the lattice work on the deck to disguise the beams, put more rock under the deck to create more of a storage area under there instead of the mud pit it is now, plant a tree or two (my vote is for fruit trees or a couple of maples) and some more flowers around the edges.

Pretty simple plan all in all. Nothing too fancy or over the top. Just enough to make it an outdoor living space and fun for the kids so that we have more options for entertaining and play time. Plus it will add some nice resale value to the property when the market finally turns around and we can sell this place.

I’m excited about it. Of course, I’m more excited at the thought of it just being done than I am the thought of the actual work to get it there. But the work will do us all good too. Work out the cabin fever we’ve all got in spades and give the kids projects to focus on.

We’ll have a yard warming party when we’re done. I’ll post pictures.