It is Finished.....

The Drayer Backyard Project 2013 is finally finished.

It took from August 12 until October 18.  [Dare I remind you, they told us THREE weeks when they presented the plan to us.  Ummmmm, close but.....]  There were many a day when I felt like Shelly Long playing the role of Anna in the Money Pit.  You remember the scene, she stumbles out of bed, groggy and bleary eyed.  Sidles up to the sink, picks up her toothbrush and opens the medicine cabinet and one of the workers hands her toothpaste from inside the mirror.

Ok, it wasn't that bad.  But it's kinda bad when the crew knows your weekly conference call schedule.

Nevertheless, we are thrilled with the final results.  And we are looking forward to enjoying and sharing it for many years to come.

The Drayer Update

It's starting to come together, Pepper. It's starting to come together. 

I have been out of town since Sunday night, traveling for work. Needless to say it's been hard to be away while all of the fun progress is taking place. Nevertheless, Sweet Sarah has faithfully sent picture updates each evening.   

And because I'm blogging from my phone there will only be pictures, no commentary. (I know. I know, TOTALLY  disappointing. But be patient dear reader, I'll make room for more snarky parenthetical comments in the days to come. )

These pictures are from Monday thru yesterday. Pretty impressive. 

The Drayer: We have a porch!

This is TWO days work.  They finished roofing this morning (all but the ridge vent).  I'm pretty sure our neighbors were thrilled with the sound of a compressor starting at 8:15 AM on a crisp, fall Saturday morn.  Nothing makes you want to stay snuggled in your cozy bed than the sound of an air gun going through shingles!  [yeah, scoring no points for The Drayer]

The infrastructure is finished.  And the landscaping and hardscaping work is on hold until the porch is finished.  The space is just too small for two crews to be working.  Once they get a few more things done on the porch, they'll lay the patio, install the table and build the steps to the porch.  

It's getting VERY exciting!

So here they are:

The view from inside the family room

The driveway side.
The day they got this much done we were both thinking,
"wow!  Looks good!  Nice work.  [la, la, la la.  Go into the house, resume other duties. etc.  etc.]

This morning it occurred to me I hadn't looked at it from down by the garage.  I called Sarah out, once I realized the view.  Exact quote, "Holy sh$#!!!! What have we done?!"
Ummm, yeah.  It looks BIG from here.  The interesting part about this entire project is we will actually GAIN grassy knoll [again, not sure it'll be a knoll, but it sounds good.  Don't judge.]
IKEA would be proud.  We are eeking out EVERY inch of usable space in this city land locked yard.

I like this view.  Very zen like.
It makes you want to wander in and see what else is back there.

Looks cabin like, no?

The Drayer Backyard Update

More and more progress every day.

Fence down the driveway is done!

All we need is a gate.  And they set the posts for the screen porch today.
[Is it screen porch or screened porch?  I never know]

What a DIFFERENCE the fence makes.  

Future home of water feature to the left....to be completed by the Spanncrafts next spring.
A quote from Sweet Sarah, "If everything is done, what the HECK are you going to do?  You'll drive me crazy!"  
She meant that in a loving way.

You can see the re-used barnstone that is the wall to the patio

Slow but sure!

The Drayer.....Our Backyard Renovation

The Drayer.

The house that found us before we found it.  Or, more accurately, the house that conspired with Sweet Sarah unbeknownst to moi.

Rewind our story to 2010, December to be exact.  We are house hunting in Northeast, Ohio preparing for my work relocation.  A cold Saturday with snow on the ground and we had eight houses on the schedule for the day.  [This after narrowing down from no less than 2,218 houses online].

After touring the sixth house, I called mercy and told the realtor we NEEDEDTOEAT!!!!!!  Goodness!  Didn't she know I needed to eat in regular intervals because my Uncle is a diabetic? sheesh!

Anywho, after a tasty lunch in this amazingly cute, quaint, fall-in-love and think you've been transported to New England town, we headed to the next house.  This house, mind you, was only on the list because Sweet Sarah insisted.  I had absolutely zero, I repeat, ZERO interest in this house.  ZERO.  I mean, come on!!!!  NO CURB APPEAL.  To say nothing of the fact that it was built in 1873!!!!!  [have I mentioned Sweet Sarah had no interest in home improvement or knew what a phillips head screwdriver was???  Ummm, yeah.]

Seriously!  No curb appeal.

"I'm callin' my shot right now.  THIS is our house." confidently declared Sweet Sarah as we pull in the driveway.

Sigh.

Shoot.  She was right.  [don't tell her, but she usually is on things like these....]

And the rest is history.

The Drayer and I have a love/hate relationship.  The ol' gal has good bones.  And when you walk in her doors there's a zen like quality to her.  But dear Lord, there should be a Medicare program for the ol' dame.  At least a co-pay option or a prescription drug plan.  You know, I'm pretty sure there's some statistic that like 80% of hip replacements are subsidized through government help.  Maybe I could get The Drayer signed up.  She doesn't have a hipped roof.  But she does have a crown that we just replaced, a few major joints need repair, and the creaking arthritis sure is catching up to her.

PEOPLE!!! Need I remind you, her hallway floor fell in a month ago????

But I digress.......

After much planning and hem-hawing we decided to embark on a backyard renovation.  The planning started back in April.  Born out of my constant desire to be outside, to dine al fresco, to myrtle in the yard and Sweet Sarah's natural ability to attract every.single.biting.stinging.flying.thing the MINUTE she steps outside, we decided to put on a screened porch.

That, of course, grew in to a full fledged P.R.O.J.E.C.T.

That involves one of these!

I look great up there don't I?  I know.  I'm a natural.  Pretty much I was born to haul rock.  It's what I do.

But alas, I didn't haul ANY of rock [even though I was born to haul rock].  Nor did I move any dirt.  Nope, this is a job for professionals.  

Ok, anyway, I''ll post pictures of the projects as it progresses.

As a side note, when we signed on the dotted line they told us "Three weeks, give or take."  On the second day of the project they told us, "At least a month and a half."  Yeah, that's close....oh, well.

So here are the pics.

The patio will be bigger and will have a fire table

The turnaround will be replaced with a level grassy knoll [ok, I don't think it'll be a knoll.  Actually, I don't really know what constitutes a knoll.  Come to think of it, I don't think a knoll is level.  It sounded good though.]

The screen porch will be added where the current deck is

Turn around, deck and patio will all be changed!

This is after one week of work.

We learned from the next door neighbors this rock was excavated when the basement was built for the family room in 1984.  It will be a part of the garden once finished. 

Some poor little college kid moved every last one of those suckers BY HAND!!!!  Wowza.  [One summer in high school I worked for a landscaper.  I'm pretty sure I never had to move barn stone by hand!]

                                           

No more deck.  Look closely at the screen door.
You'll see the duct tape where Jack "Ferris Bueller" the cat escaped last week.

                                           

More to come!!!!  Stay tuned.  

Gotta run, I'm sure there's a pipe leaking somewhere.