I Ain't Sayin' He a Hole Digga

Now that we had removed the concrete driveway from our yard, it was time to rent a post hole digger to start on our big fence project.

With our supervisors on hand, we were ready to start digging the holes.

Because we spend so much time with our neighbors, it didn't make sense to fence in our yard on all four sides. Instead, we came up with a plan that fenced in both houses just enough to keep the kids and dogs contained.

The plan included keeping the kids out of the driveway, since it runs right next to the alley.

Because I like to go big or go home when dreaming up projects, I came up with an even bigger plan for laying a brick path from the driveway to the deck. This meant that Jason had to cut the driveway a bit to give me a straight line. He did such a nice job, considering it was all free hand! I am the master of having several projects going on at once, but I love it when they all come together all at the same time!

It was really fun to see Jason operating the post hole digger. It looked like a big arcade game, and he really had fun working with it.

It rained most of the time Jason was digging the holes, but that didn't stop the whole neighborhood (The Village, as my dad calls us) from stopping by to admire his work.

Because it would.not.stop.raining, we had to wait a few days before we could put any of the fence posts in the ground. I thought we'd never get the project done!

Ch-Ch-Changes

When we bought our house, the inside was liveable. The guys who owned it before us flipped the house, so we didn't have to do much to it. Our furniture matched the dull beige walls (boring!), the trim was all painted white (including the windows, which were painted shut), the carpet was new (and white...seriously, who installs white carpet on purpose?), and the laminate flooring was okay for now. Man, given that list, it makes me think about how much I need to shampoo my carpets (again) and give my windows a workout so they might actually open this summer.

Because the inside was okay (or just plain overwhelming), we decided to start making our house a home from the outside in. Because we moved in with crazy, high-strung, neurotic Holly, we knew that the side street next to the house could be trouble. We also knew that Ellen would be drawn to the street, along with the neighbor kids.

Our first major decision was to put up a fence. This was a big decision because the starting point didn't have anything to do with a fence. We needed to start with the second (coal) "driveway" that went right into our kitchen window. While a drive-thru might sound appealing to some, we decided against it.



Since we no longer depend on coal for those cold winter nights, the need for a path leading to the house had to go.




We couldn't believe the amount of concrete that we needed to haul out of there. To save money, we used my dad's trailer, which involved many trips down the highway.

It was such a great accomplishment to get this done. We ordered a bunch of dirt to fill in our concrete holes, and thanks to Chad next door, aka "The Grass Whisperer," we had new grass coming up right away.

With that project behind us, it was time to put up a fence!