Lawn and Decks projects

050810 - Well, we started two big projects last fall.

About half of our 1/2 acre property has always been natural brush. The first project is to clean that off and get it planted, to include mapping out a garden spot, and keeping it killed/tilled this year so we can have a garden next year. The main clearing happened last year, just before winter. The addition of some fruit trees, which my neighbor was throwing away, and the final grading are in process now.

The second project is to tear out our existing (terrible) porches, and to create an open deck in the front, and a screened-porch in the back, with an eye toward usability and eventual wheel-chair access. We've received a good deal of help from Mom and the church on this project, and we thank them bunches! It could not have happened without them.

These first pics are of the nearly finished front deck - all the contractor has left to do here is to paint the railings, and get a pad poured under the small stairs.
What a great porch! It makes it infinitely easier for me to get in and out of the house... My mobility has increased to a very great degree.

While Trent had his excavator here, I had him take a swipe along the edge of the driveway too, eliminating a rather awkward "step-up" off of the driveway.
The finish raking, seeding, and planting were provided by me - Oof. What would have taken about a half an hour back in my brilliantly mispent yoot, took most of an afternoon and evening.
As that great sage Toby Keith has uttered: I aint as good as I once was, but I'm as good once, as I ever was...

The front deck, side view - This is the staircase I would imagine we will use the most. It is also the one which can be removed, to allow for a ramp, if a wheelchair becomes an inevitability.

The back door, where the screened porch will eventually go - Right now, the stairs are gone and the piers are poured... This porch is a flipped-over exact duplicate of the front deck, except it will be built a little lower (to allow for ceiling height), will have a roof and half-walls instead of railings, and a plywood floor (for now). The full finish will include screens and storms, but that's a ways off. The roof is going to be that opaque green corrugated fiberglass stuff, which makes for a comfortable light level, while still providing shade... Can't you just see it???

The back yard from the northwest corner of the house. This whole area used to be scrub brush. What a difference!

The fruit trees we picked up from Larry (that's his yard you're looking into)...

From the creek, looking toward the back of the house: