... bugs, sweat and tears ...

So, whilst on vacation this week, Gregg agreed to fix up the front yard. We have been wanting to do it for 3 years now but there never seems to be enough time. We decided to start on Thursday. We put a game plan together, set our goals and suited up for the task at hand. Let me just say this - had we known it would take us 3 days to actually get it done I think we would have declined and chose to spend those days doing something we enjoyed. Sure, we wouldn't have then had the satisfaction of the beauty for years (or at the very least - months) to come but there would have been a LOT less complainin'. Ohhhh the horror. The BUGS. The sweating. The aches and pains. The sunburn. The BUGS. The blisters. The filth and dirt and grossness. THE BUGS. I started off by having mini panic attacks as each spider crawled by, each slithery thing slithered, each daddy-long-leg stilted around, each fat, nasty worm wormed and each "bug" crossed my path. By day two I had calmed down slightly - still shrieking at the sight of each insect. And by day three I was slinging worms across the yard on sticks. It was magical. 

Our mission: 

Front yard foundation clean-up: Rip out 2 shrubs/bushes, 2 trees and stumps, rake out gravel and shovel it away, rip out all roots and make nice nice with the soil - even out, edge the beds and line with stones, blanket the beds with weed prevention roll thing, plant beautiful goodness and top with mulch.

Sounds easy enough right? We were thinking a day ... maybe a day and a half. HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ignorance was bliss. 

Day one: Trees and bushes ripped out, cut down and bagged up, beds full of gravel and nonsense... in need of a good raking

Note for future: always buy way more mulch than you think you'll need

 The creature on the foundation was just one of my many foes...

Such a big help... watching from the window all day

All cleaned and lined... guess who's in the window...

Well doesn't this look like crap?

Much better...

After two very long and very tiring days of hard work we finally reached "the fun part"- or so I thought. We headed out to buy some grasses & flowers with a list of a few must-haves but mostly we were wingin' it. We clearly had no idea what we were up against...

oVeRwHeLmEd...

There were just so many adorable choices it was very hard to settle on anything - we chose a few favorites along with our list-makers and got out of there in just over an hour

Now comes the placement... it's just like page layout!!

We agreed on our layouts and started diggin'. 

It's hilarious that I thought it would be fun to plant the flowers. I guess if our bodies weren't broken from the 2 prior days we would have enjoyed it much much more.

I think we did a decent job considering we have no clue how to garden. We read the care instructions and all that but I'm sure we did a few things wrong ... and who really cares? It's only a few flowers and if they die we'll rip them out and put a friggin pot in their place. Hahaha just kidding (not really) - but it definitely looks more inviting and home-sweet-homey - which is what I have wanted all along. Trial and error, kids, trial and ERROR.

I hate the dirt. I hate bugs. I hate being dirty and I hate sweating. But I did torch a ton of calories and manage to get a base tan so I guess those are two pluses. Blisters and aches and pains will go away but the satisfaction of completing this project will last ... well at least for another day or two I'm thinkin'.

Here is the humble, little transformation:

BeFoRe...

AfTeR...

Motrin. Motrin. Motrin.