Blast from the Past: Sideyard Renovation, 2007

The Dog Walker has put this particular story into an open post for me several times now, so his passive aggressive insistence has paid off  I should have made him write it for me though because I'm not really sure what he wanted me to say. 

This probably came up because Sport just received notification that he has been approved as an Eagle Scout and this Sideyard Renovation was one of the things that the Dog Walker did for a merit badge. 

We had been in our home since 1994, but this sideyard was one of the few places that had hardly been touched and as you can see, the weeds ruled. I'm pretty sure this was for the Landscape Architecture badge and we didn't have to do anything quite this drastic, but since the Dog Walker wanted to and we were generally all in favor of free labor, we let him make his designs and then begin.

He started by removing weeds and just generally flattening the area. He also scrubbed down all the walls on both sides. It was hard, back-breaking work as you can see by the sweat running down his face, but as in pretty much everything he takes on, the Dog Walker was determined. Since I know you are all trying to do the math, the Dog Walker was born in 1993, so that would make him about 14.

After he got rid of the leaves, he put down weed killer and spread black fabric. The final step was covering the entire area with bark. Then it was time to do the fun stuff.

He (with a little help from my sweetie) put together this playhouse (which still stands today), and then he put together this little birdbath and added some whimsical birds and fish.

He wanted an outdoor area for the kids to sit so he also built these little benches. Then he put down stepping stones so the kids would be able to run through with their bare feet.

The entire area was amazing! Now, last, but certainly not least, can you guess the names? Starting from the left, we have Sport, Crafty (a small table) then Scout and Prima Donna.

Thanks for the fun walk down memory lane, Dog Walker. I keep forgetting that our blog friends only knew us from 2011 and on, so they had no idea how amazing you were when you were 14.