To do it again

Pigeon Point's question this week asked how many houses we have remodeled. It looks like most of us are on our first. I also noticed a few comments on HiP about the subject. Jeannie saying resoundingly, "not" in terms of taking on another house down the road. I know what she means, not because I can't wait for all this remodeling to be over so I can focus on other areas of my life (although to some extent that is true). But actually, it's more like this. There is so much that we want to do with this place, I can't imagine being finished for years to come.

Take the front and back yard for example. We've done quite a bit of work on them over the past few years, mainly digging beds and planting alot of perennials and a few trees .
I am happy with both the yards, but we have BIG plans for them. Really, we have barely scratched the surface with what we want to do.

Take the front yard, pictured above. There will be no grass when I'm finished. There will be evergreen shrubs and a hydrangea. The sidewalk along the right side will be jackhammered out and the bed that is up against the building will be gone. There will be a wrought iron fence and a new stone retaining wall in front. I won't even mention our idea to add French Doors to the 2nd floor. We believe originally there were French doors there.

For the backyard, we are still deciding, but the two things we need more of are shade and privacy screen. We have a 6 foot fence on both sides, but we need a higher screen to block out the alley. Therefore we are planning a pergola and some arbor vitaes that will only grow so big for our modest city lot. I think for next summer, we will get one of those triangular screens that you can attach to the building and they use for shading landscapes. Again, the elimination of all grass is on the agenda as is a new patio. Our current one, which you can't see in this photo is a concrete pad.

All these things cost money even if you do the work yourselves. Good sized trees, stone retaining walls, and patios don't come cheap! Therefore, it will take us a while to get to our dream yard. But the vision is there. And that my friends, is why I don't think we'll be leaving here anytime soon.