Sunday, April 17, 2011

Sledgehammer!

Dylan brings the Hammer down on some pesky concrete!

Jared, the Happy Vermonter.

Curb Appeal?

Believe it or not - this amount of progress has taken a year+ to achieve! Now we're breaking ground, buying trees, sawing timbers, and surveying our land! Huzzah!

The Goal:

1. Take out our mini-rockeries that dissolved into weedy sidewalks.

2. Replace them with a feature that will extend our landscape-able front yard and create a little distance and privacy from the sidewalk.

3. Plant some handsome trees to soften the corners of our house and screen our view of the sidewalk.


We feel SO GOOD about even getting this far. We've been joking lately about what an HGtv show starring us would look like - and this would be the bulk of the 2010 season of The Dupe:

J&D&J&C: Let's do something about the front yard! All in Favor say Aye! The Ayes have it!

J&D&J&C: Whaddowedo?

J&C: We like stone walls because we're from New England.

J&D: A friend of our made metal boxes to frame their front yard - they are really simple and modern.

C: .....metal? like, rusty metal? .......

J&D: Yeah, like in these cool pictures (indicating cool pictures)

J&C: ok... that could be cool. How much will it cost?

DUN DUN DUUUUUNNNN!


OK, I started writing this out, and I think it might be better summarized. Essentially we ALL got very much on board with metal boxes, and then got startled by the material cost, and then (with much debate) worked our way back to being on board with the cost, only to be startled AGAIN by the additional cost if installation. We went back to entertaining more economical ideas like landscaping timbers and "Home Depot" stone walls. J&C were rooting for stone, J&D were rooting for timbers. D&C swapped perspectives after a trip to Lowes and eventually we all landed on timbers thanks to the desire to just MAKE A DECISION!

Don't get me started on the tree buying decision, just know that we are the proud owners of 2 matching Japanese Maples - Acer Palmatum Osakazuki to be precise!

High Fives for Springtime progress!