projects

since the warmer weather has arrived, we've been busy again with lots of home improvement projects. here's a quick rundown of recent changes.

perhaps you remember that this is what our house looked like when we bought it a year ago:

now it looks like this:
the biggest difference is the finished porch. aaron and his dad worked on this project, which included a new deck, new front pieces with cedar shingles and new railings.

here's grandpa working on the bones.

and getting some help from noah.

we also landscaped the bed to the left of the porch, with lots of help from colin and nicole. it used to be a weed-bed set off by an old railroad tie. now it's a fancy planter with a fancy border.

so much dirt to shovel!

aaron handled the measuring.

nic and i picked out all these plants, which are all still alive! hooray! i don't necessarily love where i put things, but i think in the fall i'll move some things around.

i love the lupine, which is just beginning to bloom.

we also made a planting bed under the holly tree, which is full of squash and beans. and holly leaves.

and a little bed by the north fence for blueberries and strawberries.

and a long bed along the south side of the house, where i'm growing sunflowers, peas, beans...

tomatoes, basil and marigolds.

and one strawberry is nearing ripeness!

the past two weekends have been busy with raising a tall cedar fence on the south side of our yard. we shared the cost and labor with our neighbor, who was eager for the privacy as well. good fences make good neighbors! (although noah is saddened by the new barrier. he loves to hang over the porch wall and grill our neighbor about her every activity. aaron has joked about making him a peephole.)

the nearly-finished fence.

and lastly, but mostly, we are occupied with thoughts and plans for raising a garage/shop in the backyard. here is kevin biggs chopping down a cherry tree where the garage will go.

and here is the garage, before aaron and his dad helped dismantle it and trucked it to our backyard in pieces. we found out about this garage through the restore, a great used building materials store in bellingham. it cost much, much less than a new garage would, and we like the idea of resurrecting old materials. aaron is working on drafting plans and applying for permits with the city. we're thinking that we'll begin working on the foundation in the next month or so.

noah was very excited about the big flatbed/dump truck aaron rented to move the garage.

maneuvering under electric wires was tricky with the tall trusses on the back of the truck, but grandpa is a professional.

aaron and our friend jesse working on unloading all the pieces, which are now piled under tarps in our backyard (aka "no-man's-land"). i'll do another post soon with plan pictures. aaron is of course very excited to have another big project to work on, and especially one that will yield a place for him to work on many more projects!