So I was thinking about how I was going to spend my summer and I have been thinking long and hard about some large outside projects that I need to finish. Dalton will be getting his tonsils out on the 30th of May, so for about 10 days we will be stuck at home not doing much. Then I have one week where I won't have a child during the day because he will be at day camp, and we will be taking a trip in July. Lots of time to finish some really good projects. So I've made a list and I unfortunately can't put them in an order to get them done because each one is equally important and needs to get done.
Here goes....
1. Trim huge oak tree in backyard- As much as I want to save $150 and do this project on my own I don't have a ladder and the tree is well over my roof. I have been putting this off for 4 years now, but it has to happen soon. I could climb the tree, but again I'm not good with heights!
2. Clean out gutters- Another project I've been putting off. When I first moved in, the gutters had a mesh net over them to prevent leaves and stuff from getting in them. However, in the years I've been here something has happened to the nets and the gutters are overflowing with leaves and debris. Also one of my drain pipes has come off the back of the house. Really not excited about this task!
3. Weed flower boxes- So I hate insects and spiders and to me weeding is the worst job in the world. I wish I could just dig it all up and start over, but I can't. The worst flower beds are in the backyard against the house and around the deck. They are very overgrown and full of bugs. My neighbor told me about a product called Preen and I think I'm going to try and buy some to help keep the weeds back, but I actually have to rid of all the weeds first. I would like to put some bushes back there to help cover the flower beds. That's another project on my list.
4. Plant bushes and flowers in flower gardens
5. My huge oak tree in back covers quite a bit of my backyard and a lot of grass doesn't grow under it. I would like to make a stone bed around the tree and fill it with white rocks. This way I won't constantly have mushy mud right off my deck. Cost is a problem here because I want some nice large rocks to make the circle and then white stones to fill it with.
6. Also, my deck leads right under my oak tree and I would like to lay a cement patio there to help keep the mud at bay. I found an awesome idea on Pinterest to making a patio using a picture frame as the holder for the cement. I really think this would be a fun project, but again expensive in purchasing the cement. The other thing I thought about was putting down large cement tiles. Just need to figure out what I'm doing on this project.
7. I would like to build a fire pit in my backyard where a bird bath used to be. The bird bath was broken when I moved in and now the area is full of weeds. I want to dig a bigger hole, place white bricks around it and burn all the kindling that is laying around in my backyard.
Man it sounds like my backyard is in desperate needs of a makeover!!!!
8. Clear all the weed plants that are growing around the fence. Any suggestions to figure out how to keep them from coming back? I also need to re-seed my backyard because I have an entire corner covered in clovers. I have a big tree in another corner that I really want to cut, but the tree trunk is not in my yard so I'm not sure what the policy is for cutting a tree that isn't technically yours, but I hate how it hangs down over my yard and now many of the branches lie on the ground.
9. Clean off the stairs leading to my basement. This is in preparation of covering my stairs and making it actually part of my house so that we can go to the basement without going outside. I want to turn my basement into a playroom, but I have a lot of work to do on the cement stairs that are completely covered in leaves. I also have a door sitting at the bottom of the steps that needs to go to the dumpster.
10. Tear down my front porch fence and rebuild it. This needs to be done asap. I found wood rot and many of the beams are broken. I started chipping off the paint back in February when we had warm weather intending to just repaint it. Then I found the wood rot and decided that it wasn't worth repainting, it needed to completely be torn down and rebuilt. I'm pretty sure I can do this, I'm good with a hammer and nails, but again it's figuring out the cost. I found a porch fence at Home Depot for $80 something, but don't know enough about it to know if it will work. Need to do some exploring and see what I can do!!!
So these are the projects that I would like to finish on the outside. I need a whole other blog to make a list of the things I need to do on the inside. Why have I let some of these things get so bad? I like to be outside, but I really don't like to be eaten alive and there are snakes and spiders in my yard. Not a big fan!!!!!
Any suggestions would be awesome, I want to prove that I can be handy, and not spend a lot of money. Now that I've made the list I really wish there was a Home Makeover- Backyard Edition that would come and make my backyard pretty and safe to be in. LOL!!!! Need help, desperately!!!!!!!!!!!
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