Backyard Cleanup Day

This weekend Mom and Dad Sherburne came from Maine bearing gifts of milk and meat and eggs. They brought with them two beautiful old antique twin beds that I've had forever and been storing at Grammie Sherburne's in Maine. They're in kind of rough shape, but I'm hoping with some love and hardware they'll be able to be part of our 7 Lafayette lives! I'm currently rubbing oil into them every few hours in hopes they'll recover from being in a sunny window for several years...I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, here's a Before picture of backyard:

and side yard:

And after an entire Saturday of capable Sherburne and Campbell work:

We ripped out vines, cleaned up trash and limbs and twigs, found an entire hillside covered in poison oak (nobody has broken out yet...knock on wood) and discovered some perennials growing in the overgrown side garden. We took a truckload of yard waste to the dump, where we made friends with the very kind dump man who allowed us to dispose of waste from a truck with Maine license plates! (We had identification and utility bills with us--please don't get him in trouble!) We also dug up lawn on the driveway side of the house to make three raised beds

and discovered we have beautiful soft earth there teeming with healthy earthworms! We are very excited to get them fully ready for planting now. We set up our cute cafe set on the elegant concrete slab that used to be a garage

and started making plans for a proper patio. The concrete slabs will eventually become lawn space (I'm pretty sure I could jackhammer that up in no time) but for now they are just perfect as a lovely seating/entertaining area. Add a few plants and some flickering candles and it will be magical, I'm sure of it.

Today we finished the grueling task of hanging blinds in the living and dining rooms. I'm really good at it right now if anyone needs help--I think the last ones went up in under 10 minutes each! (the box says 27 minutes and all you need is a screwdriver. Lies.) But if nobody calls me within the next 24 hours for help I'm probably going to forget all my newfound knowledge and you'll be on your own. Doesn't it look so pretty now?

Plus now the neighbors don't have to watch what we're watching! Very grown-up indeed, blinds. Chris spent quite a while getting the surround sound hooked up and setting up the wii, and now we have SO much movie watching to do. We'd better get to it...