I think finishing the stairs will be last as we want to wait until the flagstone is more compressed before that happens. So it looks like we’ll be working on the 2, four foot counters that will flank either side of the barbeque.

The compliments on the yard are really pouring in from the neighbours walking by and seeing all the work that’s been done. It would be nice if it all sparked some work for our carpenter/handyman Vince.

Right now it doesn’t look like we’ll have sun until Sunday which is disappointing as we’re so close to tying up all these almost finished projects. Guess i’ll just take natures lead and rest up for the remainder of the work. Moving 2000 lbs of flagstone has tired me out anyway.

First there was the condensation problem in the little ones bedroom that turned into completely gutting the room and starting from scratch that finished about a month ago.

Since about then, I’ve been working away giving Sylvi a hand on her online re-publication of “The Rose & The Railway: of Yeats & Nõ Being & Blooming on Line” which will be released on April 21st. Also with the purchase of our new home in July it would seem that we were neck deep in it. Literally.

With all the rain that we’ve had here in Vancouver we had some water problems and the yard was more like a swamp. Discovering that less than a foot underground we’d hit water on a dry day and the yards around us all drained into our poor little side yard we thought “So much for continuing the great barbeques we had last year”. Well Jayde would have none of that, so we did some digging to come up with a solution. And that’s exactly what we did. I wish I’d taken pictures of the full yard excavation that went on. Our charming little side yard..err swamp…was now nothing but dirt with half of a fence and a lonely plum tree. We brought in the gravel for the back of the yard and ordered the new sod and it was greeted to our new home with a torrential downpour.

A week and a half of trudging through knee deep mud, hoping that the new sod would last just a little…bit…longer we prepped the yard for it and started on our new deck. Yes we have a gigantic sun deck off of our kitchen I know, but with Jayde and her barbeques, one is just not good enough. No really we needed to come up with a solution to our water problems downstairs and the gravel was a good one. The new deck was just to cover up that unsightly gravel. Honest.

So that’s pretty much where we are today. The new and improved fence is up, the deck is done, and the bench we’ve added instead of a railing for the deck is semi-done. The stairs are 90% complete as we’re waiting on our order of silver mica flagstone. The sod has been laid, and the pathway through our yard is almost finished being dug out. Things will come together really quick over the next week and then it will be time to get some rest. Just in time for the weather to warm up and to start painting.

*sigh* Being a homeowner is fun! As a teaser I’ll post some before pictures of our little side yard.

House Front (Before)

Side Yard (Before)

Side Yard - Back (Before)