Showing posts with label Hammock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hammock. Show all posts

11.22.2011

Fall


At the request of my brother, I tried to take some shots to track the progress of fall taking over Kingston Road. It seemed to get off to a late start here in the Boston area. We had unseasonably warm weather over Columbus Day weekend, which I am enjoying in the above photo. You can see just a hint of color on one of the trees in our back yard in the background. 

A week later, here's how things were looking...



This is the same tree you can see behind the hammock. There's a bit more red, and definitely some leaves on the ground.


But, the maples in the front showed absolutely no signs of color. 



Not much color on the side by the patio either, but apparently leaves were falling from somewhere.


On the other side of the patio, this rose bush has grown in an unsightly and uncontrolled manner. I actually got cut on one of the thorns. Those things mean business! Next year, I will have to learn how to deal better with this. I'll admit, I didn't pay any attention to it at all this year, so it sort of snuck up on me with it's size. It may go away altogether next year however, as this location is a prime option for the stairs of the deck we want build.


There was some great color in the form of the crazy vine that winds itself all over our side yard. It gives a lot of privacy when it grows on the fence. I'm not so sure it's great for the azalea here, but it was hard to tell it was even there until it turned red!


The lilacs (oh my poor lilacs...we lost so many branches in the storm...) started to turn a bit yellow.


This is a closer shot of our one colorful tree in the back.

Another week later, on 10/23, here's what was left.


It's too bad more trees hadn't dropped this much by then. The big storm that knocked down so many branches was the following weekend. 

By November 10th, the trees in the front were full blown yellow...


Three days later, most of the leaves had dropped. Seriously, it was like I blinked, and the leaves had turned, blinked again and they were gone. 



There were now all sitting in our front yard. 


By this past weekend, the azalea, seen above still green, with the red vine, had now turned completely gold. Funny. I don't remember this at all from last year. (this picture kind of sucks, due to the bright, low november sun!)


We spent a lot of time raking and cleaning up the storm damage this past weekend. I'll tell you more about that in my next post. No, it's not the most glamorous home improvement project I could share, but it is a fact of life of home ownership, and it's progress made that interferes with the fun stuff. And plus, I want you to be amazed at the size of our leaf pile!

8.10.2011

One Year


One year ago today, Greg and I walked out of a lawyers office with the keys to my very first home (his second). What a whirlwind year it has been! We could use a little more time like in the above photo.

In the past year we (mostly Greg to be honest!) have:
  1. refinished the wood floors
  2. replaced the bathroom fan
  3. built a storage platform in the attic
  4. added insulation to the attic and the eaves storage off our bedroom
  5. revamped Greg’s closet to allow access to the attic by adding steps, and handles, and repositioning the clothes rods
  6. replaced the faucet in the tub
  7. re tiled around the tub faucet, and more of the wall, and the ceiling
  8. assembled a storage cabinet in the bathroom
  9. painted the living room
  10. painted the dining room and the kitchen
  11. added a window treatment to our enormous living room window
  12. ripped down ridiculous amounts of soffit in the basement that was inhabited by mice
  13. caught a lot of mice
  14. trapped a squirrel in the basement
  15. assembled a full wall of storage for all of our books in the basement
  16. added pull out drawers to most of the cabinets in the kitchen
  17. added a chimney cap
  18. converted from oil hear to gas heat which involved bringing in a gas line from the street, getting a new gas boiler and water heater, removing the old oil tank, coring through our concrete foundation, and more
  19. tried to tame the forsythia in our yard
  20. dug up grass in the front corner to mulch it over
  21. planted some violets from my mom, a bleeding heart from leah, and some other flowers
  22. dug up grass around our patio to mulch over instead
  23. dug up weeds around the patio pavers, and reset some
  24. cleared away years worth of dead leaves and brush
  25. filled about 4 dozen bags of yard waste
  26. purchased a new washer and drier that actually fit in our laundry room
  27. killed and removed a huge stretch of poison ivy
  28. finally added lights to our bar and glass cabinet that we’ve had for four years
  29. installed our new media component shelf on the living room wall
  30. mounted the flat screen TV above the fire place
  31. installed kitty doors in three doors to allow the cats full access to the house
  32. bought an outdoor dining table, chairs, fire pit and hammock stand
  33. and probably a heck of a lot more that I can’t even remember!

We still have a lot of items on our to do list, so we’ll be busy for quite awhile yet. I promise to try to post some more photos of this summer’s projects in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, my work project has taken priority for most of the summer. I’m also looking in to moving the location of his blog, due to some changes that apple is making to their services. I will keep you posted!

Comments transferred from the old blog:
VP
Your list is impressive. I hope you are congratulating yourselves. You two are amazing!
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 11:13 PM