So we are done with the main work of refreshing the yard. It looks a lot better but there’s still some stuff to do. Plantings, pressure washing and building out The raised garden area.
All in all I’m glad we did it, maybe could have been cheaper if we had done more ourselves. but if I’m honest I don’t know how we could have done it and still had the use of our bodies afterwards. I don’t consider myself old yet but whenever I start moving cinder blocks or bags of soil around I’m quickly reminded I ain’t young no more 😛
Pretty sure this van wasn’t designed with this in mind. Fun fact about 250 of these garden stones would be the smart limit…Got these on offer up, will need to be pressure washed but half price and no need for the gym today 🙂
Story’s best told in pictures anyway…
There are actually bird of paradise in there… you can see them now
Our guys pulled out a number of plants that were choking this poor Bird O Paradise and tree…Previous owners had a very interesting method for landscaping pretty sure its called whatever pops up grows…
Bushes whacked ground being prepared for stoneMurder plant home under construction I had to remind the guys that weed barrier would be in here. Attention to detail is a funny thing not everybody gets it…Looks pretty rough with all the hedges whacked back…Future site of the veggie garden, Another attention to detail area, our guys didn’t make sure the grass they were removing was square to the house. Moises insures me he will straighten it out…
So that’s the areas roughed out. Over the next few Days our guys came back and slowly the yard takes shape
Former weed alley now nicely stoned immaculate with heavy duty weed barrier underneath…Future veggie production facilityMurder plant rowTree circle probably should be biggerComing together
Well that’s enough for now, next time I post on this the landscape refresh will be complete. Then I can get busy on the garage arrangement so I can finally put that big caddy under cover… 😛
Since I have been laid off from Universal, amongst other things We are trying to catch up on some of the things that need doing around the homestead. I posted earlier about our plan to build an additional Pool Lanai but at least for now thats on hold…
The current effort is to rearrange and organize our existing space for maximum benefit and fix any stuff we can to make this house look as good as possible in case we end up moving… For the last 5 years I have had my head down working for Uni and have let some things lapse here. Luckily the house itself is in good shape, our only problem areas being it needs an interior paint job and the carpets are in sore need of replacement. When we moved in the previous owner didn’t fix these things and took off money from the asking price to reflect that, We have done a good bit ourselves but to make it perfect these things need doing…
The First project is to get our landscaping under control, we had a bunch of hedges die off and Fanny and my attempts to fix and create growing areas have led to a sad state…
Thats a sweet potato vine growing out of a pot if you can believe it…Why did you die Mr Hedge?
And don’t forget Florida is weed heaven and while its great that things grow so lush its also a bear if it gets out of control…
Nice weeds ya got there…Weed Garden
To make a long story short we looked in local forums and neighborhood groups for recommendations ” by we I mean Fanny 😛 ” and eventually found 3 people that seemed up for the task. We scheduled for them to come to walk the property and get back to us with their estimates. All 3 were nice and seemed knowledgeable I am pretty sure any of them could do it. We have a large yard just under half acre with not much in the way of trees.
a lotta grass
To complicate that is our neighborhood is on the high end ” we are almost certainly the cheapest house in this place “. With that comes restrictions and theres nothing more nosey than a rich neighbor :P.
Why would anyone plant that here?
The main point is to clean up the hedges and beds and create a new stone bed to surround what I affectionately call the Murder plants… These things are Giant Prehistoric un-killable monsters and the previous owners just planted them in the yard which makes for some real fun when it comes time to cut the grass. I have impaled myself a number of times…
Murder Plant Row
another goal is to create a place where we can grow vegetables. I am thinking this will be a raised bed where we can control the soil as whats present in the yard is basically sand
Fannys Test Garden 🙂
While waiting I decided to make up a schematic plan of what needed doing , probably should have done this first but… I based it on the site plan I have been using to design our proposed pool area. Heres what I came up with…
The Best Plans
Heres the interesting part and I think it speaks to the necessity of always getting multiple bids on large projects. These three guys all looking at the same plan and having discussed pretty much the exact same design features came back with a crazy spread cost. Lowest was $2,500 highest $9,600. I can’t speak to the reasons for this although its possible the highest guy was looking at my neighbors houses and decided to pad his expectations. We decided to whittle it down to the two lower estimates and then revise the plan to make sure both were looking at the same thing. I actually felt the lowest price guy’s was low balling it… After going back and forth with them a few times we have decided to go with the mid range guy as I think he is capable and also more realistic about what things cost.
Our deposit paid we now look forward to seeing this project move forward next week. I am optimistic that it will go well and address the curb appeal issue we have been dealing with. After that we can move onto other facets of making the most out of our little castle… Like dare I say it an artist studio 😛
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