Home Improvements

We have added two exciting changes to our home this last month. I thought I would share them here.

By the way, this post could also be titled "it pays to know someone." S has made some great friendships with some very talented people.

S and his friend (who owns this cabinet business) spent the last couple of months designing and building us a new custom entertainment center. When we first moved into our home we had the problem of our townhome-appropriate furniture not being big enough.

Here is the before (just prior to the install. No, we do not keep our tv behind the couch:)


And the after!

It's beautiful and exactly what we had in mind. It's fun to have a piece of furniture that was built exactly to our needs. The doors, which were installed a day after this picture, are missing here. If I remember, I'll upload a current picture later. As you can see, though, it's perfect for storing all of Bean's toys.

The next change has been adding the terraced walls in our backyard. I mentioned earlier how we had some big plans for our backyard and this is, perhaps, the biggest step of all: building the structure. Another one of S's friends does landscaping. He does great work!

Here are some before shots.

Here he is making the first few cuts.

And here is how it looks now! The land between the walls is going to be our garden beds. The far left corner (below the walls) will be the shed/chicken coop (yes, we are going to have chickens...I'm still warming up to the idea.)

Middle.

And far right. The area without stone is going to be garden access and a waterfall will be to the right of that, falling into our...

...sunken patio! (Perhaps what I am most excited about!)

It is hard to tell in these pictures how deep it is, but it takes several steps to get down to.

A view of the whole thing.

And a better view of the steps.

We chose a pretty sandstone and we are anxious for the spring rains to wash off all of the mud so we can see it!

S and I sat by the window the other night, looking out over our yard like kids on Christmas morning. We are excited to continue going with this project. And Hello, dear tomato plant! I am coming for you! Stay tuned!