Yard Crew Day 3

The pictures for Yard Crew Day 3 were actually taken today, since it rained yesterday and I worked late. We'll start the tour around the back right corner, looking towards the street.

I knew Tree Man was going to clean up, but I didn't know he really meant 'clean up'. As in cutting back ALL the foliage, weed-eating, and raking. The yard around the house has never been this clean, not since I've owned the house. It's very inspiring. Pay no attention to the overgrown stuff on my neighbors' side because that will be trimmed by me and possibly 'accidentally' killed by Round-Up over spray.

At the front right corner of the house, looking back. See how clean, almost manicured? See how crappy the neighbors' overgrown weeds/trees/plants/shrubs make my house look? It's a triplex and they're all renters. They nor their landlord care what it looks like. But I can take care of that. Maybe fixing up my house and yard will encourage them to fix up theirs... If not, Round Up!


So this picture is back off the left hand front corner of the lot. I'm actually standing under my neighbor's tree. But note how much different my lot looks. Tree Man cut all this back, too, and raked the front yard. Unfortunately, it draws more attention to my sub-par foundation. But that is first on the to-do list.

A few steps closer, looking down the left side of the house--- you can see the whole length of the house and INTO the back yard. Amazing. I still can't get over it. I'll have to find the pictures of this side of the house from when I bought it...

Here we're at the front right corner of the lot, on the sidewalk, looking back at the house. My triplex neighbors' fence is in sad, sad shape. But look at the steps! Hopefully they can be repaired good as new eventually. I would like to build the retaining wall up a few feet so I can have a square front lawn, maybe with a place to put my garbage bin, to the right of the steps.

Across the street, front view of the house. I ride by the house 3 or 4 times a day, now. It just looks so different. You really can see the house, now. It was lost before, but the Tree Man and his crew made SUCH a difference... I think other people are now seeing what I saw when I bought it. A question for you, here: What kind of porch railings should I put back up?

Looking right down the left hand side of the house. Note the brick pile and the lack of bamboo. Note the makeshift foundation. Note all the trash spilling out from under the house. That's the next thing that will be done, cleaning out underneath the house so the foundation work/jacking up and leveling the house, can begin.

Opposite view of the picture above. So clean and clear. I don't have a fabulous view of anything, but at least I can see something now, rather than the house being choked by greenery.

Today when I met with the Tree Man and concluded business, he told me that sometimes he and his crew nickname their projects. And guess what they called my house? The Jungle. Well, it was a jungle, but it's certainly not anymore. This is peeking around the left rear edge of the house.

This is looking, from the same spot at the edge of the house, straight back. Now my lot does not go to the greenery in the back. That's part of a neighbor's lot who let the Tree Man and Yard Crew through his yard to get to mine. Can you see the bent, leaning fence post on the left hand side?

It's kind of hard to see, you might have to click the picture and make it bigger. That's where the fence was, and is what I'm assuming is my property line. Before I put up a fence, I guess I'll have to get the lot professionally surveyed. See my tree? This back yard has so much potential, now. It's just a blank slate, begging to be used.

Here's at the back corner on the right hand (if standing in front of the house) side, at the corner fence post. I think the tree is in a pretty good location, and hopefully now it won't have to compete as much for nutrients and will branch out and shade the yard more.

This is from a guessed vantage point of about the center of my back yard. I roughly measured it out the other day when contemplating a privacy fence, but with tools at hand. I think it's about 28 feet wide and 54 feet long. Or about 1500 square feet, which is larger than my house.

This is from the other corner of the lot, at the crooked fence post. I just can't get over being able to walk back here, move around, and look at the house. It's unreal. But let's focus on some of the not-so-great findings:


The back porch. The poor, abandoned, cut-off, under used, sad, lonely back porch. The floor at some point rotted, and someone before me built another one on top of it. And the siding is falling off, which I anticipated. Actually I knew pretty much that the whole porch, minus the roof, will have to be rebuilt. But, uhmm, look closer. At the underneath part. I believe that's the sill? Doesn't look too great.

Oh, and this is looking at the base of the back porch, at the part that was closed in and turned into a bathroom for Apartment A. The shower is right behind here. It looks like there might be a water issue (ha). If you remember correctly, there was an old, decrepit stove that sat here, hiding this mess. The sill here is BAD. Like, let's-hope-the-rest-of-the-house-doesn't-look-like-this bad. Looks like termite city to me, but I didn't see one. I really don't think the wood should just be sitting on the ground, either...

BUT let's look at the tree again. The tree makes me happy. The tree makes me forget about the scary sill:

So there's my tree, with a little photo-fenangling. See yet another neighbor's house that ends at the side of mine? Yeah. I SO need a privacy fence, pronto.

That's my new yard and lot. I am having a hard time wrapping my head around how different it looks, how good it looks. I can imagine interior changes in a house, and how moving a wall would make a space flow, but there's no way I could have imagined how the yard would look, once cleared. This completely reaffirms my initial attraction to the house, and makes me ten times more excited and encouraged about redoing the house, bad sill and great tree, in all.