The back yard is not nearly so tidy or neat as these yummy stripes - over the past three or four years the weeds took absolute hold out there and all the piles of construction material compacted the ground like nobody's business. I have had a very hard time imagining an actual garden out there. Even imagining a deck was a challenge, and as a result Ray and I had to design it pretty much on the fly. It did come out beautifully however and here is proof in case you forgot (or rather, in case I forgot to show you before):
We haven't 'finished' it with furniture or a barbeque or anything, yet. Apart from being preoccupied with weed removal, we are absolutely overwhelmed with indecision about what to do next, which is not like me. I guess the answer to the question of, "What consitutes such a black hole of yuck as to destroy all creative vision?" is, "A yard full of sandy rocky dirt and stacked plastic planters, scattered casually with bricks."
(this is the after picture. you don't want to know how bad the 'before' was.)
Thankfully my incredibly talented friend Claire is rescuing me on the What To Do Next front. Claire loves gardens and has done a ton of work in them, plus she has a fabulous aesthetic for flowers and design generally. So, on with the hardscaping by me, to make room for the soft by her.
On the weekend I was setting down more patio slabs in the far corner of the yard near a mystery shrubtree thing that has looked like it's dying since we moved in 22 years ago but still persists, and I remembered suddenly taking photos to share with you here of some gloves I'd knit and perched artistically on its gnarled branches.
Remember when I used to take pictures of knitting around our house and post them here??? Ah, the good old days. This has been a long journey just to get to attractive new vantage points for photos.
However, the house continues to be a hit with one and all and feels more like our old home every day (just less cramped, and with more cosy seating space.)
Sometime I should do a post about what I've learned about home building but every time I think of it, there is just SO MUCH! how can I condense it into one post or even a trio? Plus, not all of it is positive and who needs that.
I will say that everybody who works on a house should specialize, yet know how to play nice with others, because even the tiniest things like lightswitch placement impact the function of a home. The lightswitch box has to attach to a stud somewhere - so does plumbing, for that matter (or rather the reverse, since a stud and pipes can't occupy the same exact space) - and the studs aren't always where you want the switch or outlet to be. But an electrician knows wires, not design. And a plumber knows pipes in the same way. And neither of them will know what size sink exists that will leave enough room for taps to all fit in the space that remains once the bathroom door opening has been framed in per the building specs, and the walls have their drywall. Which is why we have a wall mounted tap in our powder room that isn't centred on the wall light above. And also, why the vanity there stands about an inch off the side wall - so the vanity could be centred on the taps that are off centre from the lights. Luckily, Pete and I found a cute framed mirror with textural details that ALSO are not centred top to bottom.
Good thing I don't obsess about symmetry, right?
Okay, obviously, I totally do and I am getting my chance in the back yard to indulge that quirk. There are no lightswitches to consider there, after all. But... there are patio slabs which are of fixed dimensions and attractively fixed costs (as in, $0 because they were here when we bought the house.) And you know what? that turns out to be just as restrictive as wall studs! So, even though Claire and I are working hard to design a parterre-style garden with boxy, brick-bordered flower beds and weathered brick paths laid down by moi,
nothing really lines up out there either.
But there is going to be a knitting bench. And cooler weather is coming... so I might just be able to treat myself to a nice long knit and natter outside under the leaves before too much longer. Wouldn't that be lovely?
Mostly though I am looking forward to moving on from all this work to recapture some of my old favourite things, like writing in this blog more than once a month or two, yeesh. I do feel we're getting closer to that magical day though, and I am so glad you were able to stop in and spend this bit of time with me. Hope you've been well and enjoying life, and that we meet again very soon!
