Georgia O'Keefe I'm Not

Ok, I just had to post this picture I took of one of the lillies that Faith picked out for the backyard. I took pictures of every flower, but this is the only one that came out looking relatively cool. I think it has much more to do with the flower being cool looking rather than my artistic skill with the camera but I'll take what I can get.

The Backyard is Done Too... Mostly.

 

Not to be left out, the backyard is in the final stretches as well. Faith went out yesterday and bought the remainder of the plants for the retaining wall planter, and those went in the ground this morning. Ken had his guys do some cleanup and even scrubbed down the blocks of the wall. Only thing left for him to do is connect the one sprinkler valve to the timer in the garage. But I think that's easier said than done. While the other valves out front already had wiring, this new one in the back doesn't, so we've got to run it either under the house, or through the attic to reach the garage.

Those of you who know me, know I'm not a little guy, and while I don't suffer from claustrophobia, there's no way on earth I'm going under our house, and I feel bad for anyone that does. I'll leave that up to our contractor Ken, or whoever he can talk into doing it. My job on the other hand is to finish up the restoration of the spa. I got the new filter in the mail the other day, so I'm got no more excuses. Hopefully I'll have that done in a week or two, so we can at least use it to cool down in our wonderful 100 degree heat!

 

Frontyard is Pretty Complete

 

So it looks like the front yard is pretty well completed. All the concrete is laid, all the sod is in, all the bark is down, and now all the plants are in the ground. The only thing missing at this point is connecting up the 3 sprinkler valves to the timer in the garage. Should be easy, since they were connected before, and the wire is already laid.

 

My Tree

 

I told Faith when we started this project that I don't really care about the plants, and she could have full reign over any decisions. My only caveat is that I wanted to pick the tree in the corner, which I did. I chose an Acer Rubrum or what's more commonly called a red maple. This particular one is called an October Glory, which means it turns a really bright red in late October, and then holds its leaves until around the beginning of December. Should be beautiful, and hopefully it'll provide a little more shade in the backyard to compensate for all that concrete.

 

The Gate

 

Since we had the guy out to do the lattice, we also had him replace a section of the fence and the flimsy gate at the side of the house. Our contractor recommeded this guy Arne to do the work, and I have to compliment him on the quality. This thing is bomb-proof! Literally, if there's an earthquake, I'm not heading to a doorway. I'll be standing under this gate. Now we just have to paint it to match the neighbor's fence and we're in business.

 

The Lattice

One of the main problems with our backyard has been the lack of any privacy. When the house was built behind us, the builders put the whole lot on about 12" of fill, which meant that our 6' fence was actually a 5' fence that anyone could look over. We'd considered putting up an entirely new fence, but because of the trouble and cost, we instead went with adding lattice to the top. My only regret with this is that we didn't hold out for the 3 panel privacy lattice, but it was just really difficult to find a source for here in the south county. Well, when the star jasmine vines get a bit bigger, they'll fill the gaps.

 

The Sod Goes In

The surface of the moon has been replaced with nice lush sod. Woohoo! The downside is that it's getting hot around here (~90-100 degrees) so we've got to water the sod every 2 hours during the day. Sure glad we have the new sprinkler system in for this.

 

The Retaining Wall

Here's a quick picture showing the retaining wall blocks that were delivered. Some poor guy had to schlep all of them into the back yard one-by-one using a wheelbarrow.

Also, in the near foreground you can see some of our newly poured concrete as well as my early steps at refinishing the spa in the background. Lots to do as always.

 

Pouring Concrete

The next step was to pour concrete. Our backyard is pretty small, and while I would've loved to put in a bunch of grass, it was out of the question because of the concrete that was already in. So we went the other way and added more concrete, so we'd have more 'usable' space. Plus the kids can ride their bikes, without Faith having to stand out front to watch them.

 

Laying the Ground Work

Once demolition was complete, they started laying the ground work for things such as the sprinkler system and the forms for a concrete path we wanted going out to the mailbox. What was cool, was the fact we were able to be very hands-on. For the shapes of the path, and the borders between where the sod and bark would be, our landscaper gave me a bunch of PVC pipe and some stakes, and said "show me where you want it." I tend to be pretty nit-picky, but our landscaper was prepared for that when I handed him a scaled drawing that I put together in Visio. Yeah, I can be kind of obsessive on some things.

 

The Demolition

The first order of the day was to clear out all of the junk. Our landscaper, Ken Alfson, brought in a bunch of guys and they had it demolished before I knew it. While it left our yard looking like the surface of the moon, I was amazed at how much it opened up the house and made things look bigger. And I was really glad to see the junipers and roses go. You can see that the only things we saved out front were the beautiful japanese maple, and the little purple daisys that Faith had planted next to the garage.

 

The Before Picture

 

So every big project needs a before picture, and this is ours. Our major undertaking right now is the relandscaping of our front (see above) and back yards. I don't think our house was the worst in any sense, but the people that owned the house before us had overplanted in a lot of areas so it became a jungle. Plus there were some plants that I just can't stand such as the junipers in the picture and our 14... yes 14 rose bushes in the back. Whenever the kids went out to play, they were taking their lives into their hands! Also in the picture you can see the dead patch of grass that I tried everything to save, but was beyond hope. Well, this is where it started.

 

First Post

So this is the obligatory first post in any blog, but to make it semi-informative I'll tell you why it's called Always Overwhelmed. Faith and I have four beautiful children that we're incredibly proud of, but as you might guess they can be quite draining. One of Faith's most common descriptions for herself is "overwhelmed", and even though she says it, I feel it too.

So the name is both the reason we post - we're so overwhelmed with things going on, just look - and the reason that the blog may be empty - we're so overwhelmed we don't have time to post. So here's hoping for more of the former, less of the latter, and hopefully a break once in a while!