East of Common: July 2013

When the basement project ended earlier this year, Grant told me that I had to "cool it" (direct quote) for a while on home renovation projects. One, basement renovations are not cheap; Two, we were simply exhausted from the constant flow of workmen in the house; and Three, we were sick of the utter chaos of boxes amongst which we lived for too many weeks. And, last but not least, as many know, we are expecting our first Baby Bartlett in December and decided that we needed to get our life and finances in order for that new arrival.

But, then spring came...and the jungle that was our backyard would not stop haunting me. I cringed at the sight of it - broken concrete from the poorly constructed original patio, life size weeds that fought valiantly to survive, out of control ivy, a decaying fence. Being pregnant I didn't have the energy to keep up with the craziness back there and frankly, both Grant and I lost interest in even trying. We were tired of the small cosmetic fixes we had been doing for the last four years to make the space presentable. The yard just needed professional help.

To me, December still seemed far enough away that there was no rush to decorate a nursery. Why not keep the renovation momentum going? Why sit still? Wouldn't it be nice to add an entirely new backyard "room" to our house which will give us more space for Baby Bartlett and all of his/her stuff?

The first step was success in my brilliant salesmanship to convince Grant that the backyard just couldn't wait any longer. The second step was Grant's financial wizardry in finding a reasonable solution to affording such a project. The third step was finding a contractor...which was easy (enter Sean Sutherland at Rosemont Landscaping and Lawn Care: http://www.rosemontlc.com/).

Like the kitchen and the basement we knew that any renovation to the backyard would make the space look better. But there were essential elements:

1. Gut the yard of the old concrete and weeds
2. Grade the land better and install a proper drainage system so that we would stop getting pools of sitting water in the yard every time it rained (aka man-eating mosquitoes)
3. Replace the rotting fence
4. Install a new patio and retaining wall (which could couple as much needed seating)

I have told all who will listen that the best part of this renovation is that no workman ever needs to set foot in the house...the mess stays outside where it belongs. The added bonus is that our transformation will be finished in less than two weeks from start to finish. This means plenty of backyard enjoyment this fall and plenty of time to be finished before Baby Bartlett arrives.

So far kudos to our incredibly hard working crew. They are religiously here from about 7:30am - 6:30pm and even worked last Saturday in a downpour.

So, after day three...here are some pics!