The Bungalow Pit

The trim is going up and the old wallpaper is coming off in the living room. We’ve discovered the living room was originally bright green!

Before:

It seems there’s always something preventing us from doing what we want to do next. Take the front yard: we wanted to redesign the front yard to make it more inviting and inspirational. When we bought the house, it was too formal for our tastes and had some issues: the boxwood hedge guided you to the front door, but prohibited you from entering the yard (it was also home to an insane army of snails), the creeping rose was never trimmed and had been trained to block the light from entering the living room windows, the sweet gum tree had never been trimmed, the soil had never been treated or leveled, the sprinklers were poorly installed, leaked everywhere and were causing damage all over the property (including the foundation), the shrubs on the right blocked passage into the alley, the list goes on and on—but it looked nice on the surface:

Add to that the damage caused from other work. The Sinai Construction crew sawed through the roots of the trees in the front yard (killing one tree and damaging another), the Fireplace Freddie crew piled bricks and debris on the grass (killing it) and the dirt had to be dug up twice to put new plumbing in (a new drain pipe and new water main.)

We decided we might as well go clean slate. We’ve removed the grass, the hedges, one tree, several roses, the broken concrete, the poorly installed path lighting, and tonnes of soil. We trimmed the sweet gum tree and dug steps into the yard to create levels and deal with the drainage issues. We’ve installed a new drip irrigation system and have started our landscaping plans. Meanwhile, this is what we’re coming home to.

We have two palm trees in our backyard, a male and a female. The previous owner never groomed them (of course) and they needed some TLC…bad. They provide shade and a home for two easily aggitated squirrels. Rachel has named the female “Hilda.” Hilda got a haircut today.