And it's never quite finished.
The house we currently live in belonged to Mr. KK's grandmother. We bought the ranch in 2010 and gutted and renovated it for almost a year before moving in. During that time we concentrated on the inside of the house, tearing down walls, putting in my dream kitchen, and discovering about a zillion termites (good times).
The house was built in the 1960s on a double lot. This means the we have one house and twice the yard – all ours. When Mr. KK was growing up, his dad would use the second lot as his 'wood lot' for his small wood business. During that time that yard contained mostly a log splitter, enough wood to fill the Redwood Forest, and all of the junk stuff my father-in-law had collected over the years.
My father-in-law – God love him – is a collector. And not only does he collect his own stuff, but he collects stuff that other people are going to get rid of. Old windows? Put them in the wood lot! Doors with broken knobs? You never know when you might need them! Boards from a ripped up deck? Sure!
And all of this stuff accumulated in one spot: our soon-to-be yard.
When we were renovating the inside of the house – and even after we moved in – I would drive down the long driveway whistling the theme song to Sanford and Son. It was that bad.
But over the last few years, my father-in-law and my husband have turned our yard around. Gone are the 27 drain pipes that we might need one day. No longer will you find plastic containers in varying sizes, shapes and colors. All those windows? Gone!
We're by no means done, but we've come a long way baby.
Here's a photo tour of our yard(s):
the backyard
the "wood lot"
the bocce court
(regulation size, thank you very much)
the garden!
(see all those planters? built from wood scraps!)
See that fence?
Built from the wood planks of someone's torn up deck.
The cucumber trellis?
That used to be a french door.
the hops arbor
Our antique tractor.
I've been known to ride around on this bad boy once or twice.
the tractor pulls double duty:
1. easy yard travel 2. quick ride to the beer fridge
our wild raspberry bushes
the herb garden
The next post: All About My Crazy Neighbor
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