so today is a holiday......

So today is a holiday, at least that's what the rumor is.

I know, I know some of you do stuff with families and other.....stuff. Well not so much around here. Everyone is home. That means everyone has time to put in on a project or two or three.

Since it was so nice today, we are tackling a long awaited improvement. No more teetering on the hillside. No more walking in mud. Using up some of the bargain stockpile of pavers we were lucky enough to get this winter.

As quite frankly I am too damn tired to go look for before pics, use your imaginations instead.

This is how we began a week ago. Exhibit A: The back of the house. 

Not sure you can tell it, but from this point, it's all downhill. At the far end, the back steps to the deck. We used every single brick. Don't ask how many there are. I will say I got a great deal on them ALL.

We still need to spread some more dirt along the edge but for now this will have to do. I'm tired. I realize it may not look perfect. I'm okay with that. At some point, the plan is to fill up the empty spots under the edge of the house. Anyone got extra shade-loving plants to spare??

Exhibit B: Rocks. 

We were running out of pavers quickly. But it works. The walkway has a bit of a jog in it. Since this lovely new sidewalk was going to leave an empty hole, and we were clued in to a field full of rocks, a plan was composed. Silage bag plastic + truck load of rocks = nice landscape problem disguise. Totally recycling, we laid down the plastic and then unloaded rocks. No mowing makes everyone happy and later I will move a few rocks around and add some sedums. Problem solved. VERY FEW of these rocks did not come from this field expedition Friday afternoon. Part of the fun is filling it all in, then taking the hose to them and seeing what the rocks actually look like!!

Exhibit C: We'll work on the gutter a bit more later. 

Exhibit D: A landing. The biggest challenge.

At least it seemed to be, but in reality we had just what we needed. The big idea was to meet the walkway with a landing to the arbor gateway. Simple right? We really wanted more of the old stone window sills but wasn't having much luck.....until we realized we had a stash of broken ones. Perfect. We laid them out, matched everything up, leveled and away we went with laying even more bricks inside to make the transition just a bit easier to navigate.

The front of the house is now officially connected to the back of the house. :)