More Outdoor Projects

I thought I would mention some of our other outdoor projects.  I've been trying to be diligent at taking "before" and "after" pictures because I hope to put together a whole album of our house projects someday.  I was going through some old pictures and even though I've been very close to these projects, it still amazes me at the changes we've done so far.  We have a long, long way to go however, so we're not brushing off our hands and relaxing with a cocktail just yet.  But here are some recent projects.  (Quick note that when I say "we" with these projects, I must admit that Dave does about 90% of the work on these things, he is truly amazing when it comes to totally renovating something.  Dave, your work ethic and talent in this area is amazing).

The Barn: 
Now, to be fair, we've been working on the barn from about day 1.  So some of these changes are not as recent as others.  As you can see below, it was very run down when we bought the house (inside and out).  I'm sure our neighbors will gladly say that it's come a long way.  Also take note that there was not one speck of grass in our backyard when we moved in.  Last fall we scraped and painted it as well as a lot of inside structural help.  We poured a cement floor (it was literally a dirt floor with stalls for horses when we began) and Dave's been slowly making the inside his work shop.  This summer Dave has been putting in windows as you will see below.

When we first moved in:

Can't imagine why we'd want to make any changes!

Say goodbye to the horse stencils.

And here are some pictures of the recent window installation.  He wanted me to wait to post these pictures because he still has one more middle window to install.  But if I waited to post about any of these things until they were completely done, I'd be waiting about 20 years.

We have windows!  (and weeds...like I said, work in process for all of these things).

Front Walk (or lack there-of for a bit):
We had a landscape architect come to our house about a year and a half ago and give us a total layout of what we should put where for the entire perimeter of our house.  One of the areas we needed to totally renovate is our front walk area.  This spring and summer we started to do a few of those changes.  For one, we completely moved the front walk out about 12 feet.  Someday this new walk will be brick, but for now it will remain stone.  When we moved the walk, we had to change the landscaping along the front of the house as well as the steps to our front door.  I think there were a few months where you couldn't reach our front at all.  Good thing our house is situated such that we don't really use it much (if at all). 

Here you can see how the walk looked when we bought the house.  Very close to the front of the house and curvy. No landscaping.

Ripping up the old walk and laying out the new one.
 

Putting in the sprinkling.

Ready for sod.

Putting in the new steps.

A functional front door!

Island Landscaping:

We have also been working on the landscaping for our driveway island.  Planting lots of bushes and ground cover as well as adding about 5 yards of rocks.  I thought shoveling mulch was hard until we tackled these rocks. 

Creating the mound on the island:

Outlining the different areas.

And now!

We're taking a minor break but we have lots more to tackle this fall and winter!

Play Area Project

We completed a few projects outside this summer but by far the most exciting for the kids was the play area project.  We enclosed the area with a wood border so that we could have mulch and sand areas.  As it turns out, mulch and sand are much better landing surfaces for kids than hard clay and weeds. 

First we put down some landscaping fabric.

Then the dump truck brought in 20 yards of mulch (luckily he was able to dump it right in the area).

Carter was incredibly interested in the whole process (until the dumping was finished and we were left to distribute the mulch).

Lots of mulch.

And the finished mulch area.

We also had sand delivered about a week later for the second, smaller enclosed area.  We call this area the gigantic sand box or mini-beach.  Unfortunately, the sand trucks (it took two trucks) could not drive around and dump directly in the sand box like the mulch truck.  So we had to cart the 8 yards of sand from a distance.  But we had some help from our neighbor and his front loader tractor.  I unfortunately did not take any pictures of the hauling (must have been more traumatic).  But here is the finished version.

The kids are definitely enjoying the play area now that it's finished!

Lego Man

Over the past few months, Carter has become more and more obsessed with legos.  He’s always loved legos, but it was hit or miss if he actually sat down for more than a few minutes to work on something.  He also used to want Dave to help him with everything, he just wanted to play with the final project when it was finished.

Now days, he is hard at work in the play room constructing away without any help.  His projects are hardly ever free form, he’s more of a plan man.  He looks over the books and books of lego possibilities (Dave and I both had quite a stock of legos from our childhoods) and he creates strictly by the directions.  Hmmm, I wonder where he got that from?  And I have to stick in a proud mom statement and say that these projects and directions are all for at least ages 8 and up!

 

This motorcycle is his latest creation.  He was a little upset with me for taking this picture because he wanted me to wait until he finished the truck and trailer that goes with it.  But I promised to put more pictures of his creations on the blog in the future. 

Happy Fourth!

If I had to sum up our 4^th of July weekend in two words, I would say - gorgeous weather.  We had absolutely perfect weather.   Blue skies and hot temperatures all weekend. 

We worked outside in the yard for the majority of the weekend and the kids did a lot of biking, wading in their pool, and digging in the dirt. 

The morning of the 4^th we went to the Cascade parade.  Carter and Mia both rode their jeep in the kid section of the parade, a fun tradition we’ve had Carter take part in over the last few years.  Mia was so excited to join him this year.  She was a very good flag waver while Carter drove.

Later that afternoon we headed to Silver Lake where Meredith’s parents host a 4^th of July party.  The kids had a blast playing in the lake.  We had to drag them out, teeth chattering and all, when we finally wanted to eat dinner. 

Carter also helped decorate the boat for the boat parade and they even stayed up for the fireworks that night!  Mia was very tired by the start of the show but she was a trouper.   

(Dave is the one in the tall red, white, and blue hat, and Carter is hiding behind him).

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July!

Father’s Day

The kids and I spent a wonderful Father’s Day afternoon with Grandpa and Grandma Jernstadt.  Dave was on his fishing and golfing weekend up north with some of his friends until Sunday evening, so the kids and I headed over to Muskegon to spend some time on Grandpa’s boat. 

It was a gorgeous day to be outside.  Carter and Grandpa even took the Walker Bay boat out for a spin. 

We also had a fabulous lunch at a neat little restaurant that you can see from their boat slip.  The kids enjoyed the restaurant’s fun nautical motif, including JAWS.   Mia had to touch him a few times before she was convinced he was okay and Carter thought he was “awesome!”

After Grandpa’s boat adventure we headed home to see Dave.  The kids really missed their dad while he was away. 

We feel so lucky to have such wonderful Dads and Grandpas!  We miss you Grandpa Baldwin!