These pictures were taken in March 2006 before we decided to buy the house.  We looked at it several times before deciding to make an offer.  It had everything we both were looking for:  original trims, floors, great hardware, lovely design, and was in reasonable condition thanks to the previous owner who renovated in the early 1980s.  We decided we'd give it a shot.

Not that there weren't problem areas mind you.  The previous owner was retired and an avid gardener who had every plant imaginable stuffed into the earth between the fences.  During the 5 years that they didn't live in the house, the gardens fell way to the wayside.  Being working folk, there was no way we could revitalize the planting areas and still have time to work on both the interior and exterior of the house.  We decided a clean-up was in order since several of the plants were either dead, diseased, or just plain planted too close or in areas not condusive to proper growth. 

Back yard 2006

Back yard 2008

Gazebo, uncontrolled vines swallowing the large pecan tree on left, blackberry pen behind gazebo, grape vine arbor on the right. 

Finally, we have something that resembles a lawn although there's still plenty to do.

Behind the gazebo.  The building on the left is a lawnmower shed built out of, well, leftovers from who knows where.  Beyond that is the blackberry pen.  Did I mention there were no living blackberrys growing there?  Just weeds, bugs, and a nice family of snakes. 

After a few weeks of clean-up, the mower shed is gone, the blackberry pen is gone, the "fence" that is made out of sheet metal has been camoflaged as much as possible, but I'm not sure I care for the new view into the back yard of the rental property on the next street  over.  At least this picture doesn't include the clothes, pillows and bottles on the roof.  Thank goodness they've since moved!

The north side yard had its share of issues as well.  A little clean-up took care of that as well.  the new view is fabulous!

Then there's the "shop".  Notice to the far left is a carport.  Following the carport is one shorter room, fairly large, followed by the taller room, also large, followed by a greenhouse, full of water.  Behind the greenhouse is another leg of "shop" that extends into the back yard.  There is a mathcing leg that extends the length of the carport along the neighbors yard.  Yep, the back of this mess is facing their yard.   Now, the striking thing about the shop is that it is made entirely of reused materials that other people were throwing out.  It actually looks worse inside than it does outside.  I think the previous owner was the inventor of the "trash to treasure" movement. 

Donnie, hard at work with my little Poulan electric saw.  Surprisingly, that little saw removed all that mess and still works.  My tools may be old, but they've served me well. 

Donnie, still smiling, but has little idea of what still lays ahead.  Check out the "fence" behind him.  You really can't see it, which was actually a good thing! 

We plan to replace the "fence" with a wooden privacy fence that matches the one that the neighbor behind us has put next to the offending property next door.  Unfortunately, we have a few more pieces of the shop that need to be removed before we venture into that and we're using the part that needs to come down right now.  There is no such thing as quick and easy.

They say its all in the details and that it's the little things that really make a nice difference.  In this case, it was the replacement of one rotting drive through gate.  The story goes that we were browsing through Lowe's and came across some sections of short fencing.  We were having a problem with packs of dogs coming into the yard and terrorizing the cats, so we thought we'd try them out to close up the openings where the dogs were coming in.  2 pair of gates and 2 straight sections later, the dog problem was solved, but the big gate was still an unattractive element but there weren't any fence panels that long.

So, Donnie put his thinking cap on and drew out a design that would accommodate both the available sized panels of fencing as well as a wheel. 

According to him, working in a machine shop may not be all that much fun, but it can come in handy. 

The next thing I knew, a frame for the gate was pulling up in the drive. 

A little primer, and some gloss black paint to match the wrought iron fence around the house, and the panels were ready to mount.

I think it's lovely.  Wish I had a picture of what that whole area used to look like.   It was quite unattractive.

You know, I didn't really realize how much work has been accomplished in the two years we've been here.  This place was a mess!  The first year we spent a lot of time cleaning up the yard.  How can a person spend so much time cleaning up a 1/2 acre spot of land?  Well, as I'm looking at these old pictures, I'm beginning to remember.   The sad part is, we still have a lot more to go.

Exterior Projects

Floorplan of the shop: