Working Around the House

We have been working on a LOT of projects around the house.  Homeschooling has actually made it much easier to do things during the day.  The kids all play together and often help me cut, build and paint.  Most of the materials we used for outside were of little to no cost which is nice because that way we can do as many projects as we want!

 

 Try to ignore the pile of wood we're still working on using up and the wheelbarrow. 

 Last year we moved the tree next to the wishing well.  It was in a garden we were eliminating and we moved it to hide the telephone post.  We added the trees on either side of the driveway by the sidewalk, moved the lace-leaf maple down from the rental house, we completely restructured the garden, adding gardens on either side of the house and along the fence.  We reduced the size of the garden by the front porch and eliminated a garden that was initially on the front left.  We got a couple of wagon wheels and the arbor by happy accident.  We also recently beauty barked everything and painted the front door red, along with the porch swing that Daddy got me for my birthday. 

 This is one of the projects we've been using the reclaimed wood for.  We made two, one for each side of the garage. 

 This garden was COMPLETELY redone.  We did all of it and made the planter on the porch to make an area we can tuck the stroller, toys, bikes, anything that doesn't get put away in the garage that day!

 Another planter we made, along with the milk can, I LOVE those things!  Daddy got me that for something too!

 Like our "steps" the rocks were all present in the gardens already, all we did was move them around.  There's another planter we made as well.  I have to get the Jasmine and the climatis in the other planter taped up still.

 We used the reclaimed wood to build the little floating deck for the barbecue and the dog run fence.  Though we did end up buying 2x4's and 4x4's for that.  (notice we're ready for summer, we put up the hammock and pool last weekend).  The trampoline's been up for a month.

 This was another happy accident with the arbor and wagon wheels.  We had to rebuild the table in the middle and paint it all but we love it!

 And my picnic table!  We got it last year after it was too rainy to use it but I sanded it all down and painted it.  Can you tell what my favorite color is?

Here's our little garden!  You can see a blueberry bush, grapes and raspberries.  I still have to put some kind of trellis or something for them but I'll get there.  We have the stuff to finish the last of the fence we just have to get to it.  It will be quick to finish.  You can barely see the pallets in the ground but they're there.  We have to finish filling them up with dirt and then I can plant veggies!  We made the planters for the fruit also.  I still need to make some kind of hangers for some pots for the strawberries and maybe some lavender to encourage the bees to visit!  Gotta love wind storms that blow down sections of fence, a fence company that puts the stuff it takes down out for people who want to grab it and craigslist!  We also built a workbench in the garage and shelving along a whole wall, along with a shelf for some of the kids' toys, though I don't currently have a picture.  The garage is AMAZING now and we've almost entirely cleared out the "bonus" room so we can SLOWLY start working on finishing that space.  Our next project is probably to build a shed though I would LOVE to paint the outside of the house this summer.  There are still so many projects we want to do, it's something that Daddy and I really enjoy doing together.  We made a smaller workbench for the kids and filled a toolbox just for them.  They love to try to build with the scrap wood.