Yard Crew Day 2

Of course I went by the house today, it was Day 2 of the Tree Man and his crew. There wasn't a whole lot different in the front yard.

I did notice that he ground up the two stumps from the trees in the front yard that he removed yesterday. I didn't realize he was going to do that. The other two stumps he didn't grind because of their proximity to the old retaining wall along the left hand side of the house. Digging out the bamboo already caused a lot of damage and he didn't want to add any more to it.


He's going to come back and spray all this green overgrown stuff tomorrow with something similar to Round Up. He might cut it back some, too. Along this side is where the retaining wall is. I'll have to rebuild it at some point, which is fine because I want the wall higher in the front, anyway.


He cut down the tree along the side of the house too, the one I left when I cut back the bamboo the first time. It was just not in a good location. But what's this I see at the corner of the house? I can SEE into the back yard! It looks like I can WALK into the back yard!


Here's a closer view, at the corner edge there, right by the screened in porch.


And turning a little to the right, we have full walking access into the back yard from the left hand side, all across the back and INTO the back yard lot.


It turns out my lot is a little askew, meaning not exactly a rectangle. At least, that's where the fence posts were. And let me tell you, they are OLD fence posts.


Here's looking down the right hand side of the house. He didn't do any work over here, besides clearing the access into the back yard (there was already a gate here) because most of this just needs to be sprayed and killed. Not too bad.


Here's the view around the right hand corner side of the house.


And closer in, you see what a difference a day has made. It's all taken down to the dirt, with just a little debris left over. There was nothing to save, really. He cleared up to the fence on one side, and took down the fence on the other side, but cleared over my property line by about three feet. I asked him to, so it would be easier to put a privacy fence back up.


Here's the cleared view from the back property line to the back of the house. It looks SO much better and I'm excited about having this usable space, especially since the inside of the house is so small. But the back porch doesn't look too good, does it?


Back here there was ONE thing to be saved, or rather, cleared around. A tree! I actually had a tree in my back yard that I didn't know about. It was hard to tell which trees were on who's property before, but this one is actually mine. It was covered in vines, he said.


And here is today's final view of the back yard. Because that's what this yard project was all about; reclaiming the back yard. I already went today and started pricing putting back up a privacy fence. I'm not sure where on the time line that will fall, but it will probably need to be sooner rather than later, for privacy, security, and just to keep the yard clear until I can really transform it.

I've been thinking lately about paint colors, too. The house on my immediate right is yellow, the house on my left is brick, the house across the street is blue, and the house caddy-corner to me is light green. I was leaning towards a gray, but now I'm thinking... how about plain white? It's historic and clean, and I can punch it up with accent colors... a haint blue porch ceiling, black porch floors, a vivid front door color, and maybe even an accent on the windows themselves (the sashes not the trim).

We'll see. One project at the time, I know.

Tomorrow is mostly clean up and a few things I asked him to do in regards to the yard and lot today when I walked around with him. These guys have been working hard in the heat and dealing with all that mess. Money well earned.