The Privacy Fence continued

In my new obsession with picking the back fence (the fact that it needs to get built pretty quickly helps top of mind) I have mocked up a few different options to get an idea of how things would look.  I am leaning towards the top horizontal fence, but I do realize that the lattice ideas below would look much nicer than my photoshopped images show.

What do you think?  I do kind of like the square lattice, maybe I could even do some horizontal bands on the bottom for more privacy?  Although that might end up looking like a hockey rink...

The holes for the poles were dug yesterday and are all ready for the guys to get started, if I could only pick a design!

Don't fence me in

I am pretty sure my back yard is cursed - first the fence fell over in a wind storm, and we ended up replacing all 3 sides.  Then the neighbour's tree fell smack into our yard, narrowly missing our then-2-year-old and smashing down the back fence.  This past weekend, our glass patio table, which we have had for years, spontaneously combusted.  As in, I was standing just inside the screen door when I heard SMASH (tinkle tinkle tinkle) and looked out to see this:

Nothing fell on it, there was no big wind, the cars were not too heavy, nothing.  Thank heavens the boys had finished playing with their cars and had gone inside!  It was quite a mess, and took two of us to shopvac up over a few days (it was raining a lot!).  But that makes three backyard catastrophes, and I am hoping now the catastrophe gremlins will take off for good.

We now have to get a new table, which is not as easy as it sounds, as most patio tables are sold in sets and our chairs are fine (one may be a bit splattered with spray paint from one of my DIY projects, but whatever...)  We wanted to get a table slightly bigger than the one we had, which was great for the four of us, but pretty crowded when we had visitors - and we like our visitors!  Having done the online search-and-compare, I think it will be this one from Home Depot:

Not terribly exciting, but pretty much the only thing I could find, and it fits in our non-existent budget (It's $65).  It does not fit, however on our existing (teeny tiny) patio.  So we have reluctantly begun to talk about how to make it bigger - a full wooden deck?  Just continue with the interlock we have and extend it?  Take it out and put in bigger tiles?  No decisions yet.  You can see how it looks below.

I am sad to remove any grass but we do have a lot more at the back now that the tree is gone and we get some light.  

The other thing is that the house next to us (that shares the driveway) is being fully gutted and renovated, and they are building a back deck and repaving the whole driveway.  So with the advent of new neighbours (our last neighbour was an elderly woman who rarely came out back), we are thinking about putting in a privacy screen.  And it just so happens that the contractor is going to be digging posts for a privacy screen on the other side and offered to do some for us if we want - and he is going to repave the whole thing.  So idle discussions about a fence some day have ramped up pretty quickly!

I know, I know, those are some pretty fancy photoshop skills, eh?  This is more or less what we agreed on for the position of the fence and the size of the patio (still not sure what it will be made of).  I had been tempted to push it over to include what used to be our back porch, but this keeps all of the pavement area for the kids and their various plastic monstrosities, and makes it possible to tuck them up against the fence out of sight from the street.

Did I mention the plastic monstrosities?  Yikes.  And every single one of them acquired on the side of the road.  You can see the neighbours fence on the one side, so having one on the other will make it feel much more secluded.  

But the BIG questions is: What kind of fence?  

Below are some options I like, although they don't match the rest of our fencing - do you think that matters?  Which do you like?

Of course there is the regular lattice option as well, which would probably be the cheapest and easiest, but I want to take advantage of an opportunity for a little style!  What do you think?  Any advice or opinions?

The dark side of home ownership

After all the searching, all the open houses, all the paperwork and signatures, you hear those magic words: "It's Yours."  You can hardly believe it, but there it is - in all it's lovely glory - your very own new house.  Gosh it's exciting.  You drive by it approximately 287 times in a slow, creepy way before you get possession, imagining paint colours and fixtures and landscaping.  You pour over the teeny weeny floor plan that was in the marketing kit, envisioning renos and furniture placement.  When you get the keys, you hold your breath as you push open the door for the first time, and maybe celebrate with a little bubbly sitting on the bare floor, your euphoric giggles echoing through the empty rooms. It is a mortgage commercial come to life.

It's a little smaller than you remembered from the open house and that one other time you walked through it... and the kitchen is much worse than you remembered (are those mouse droppings??)...but think of the equity!  The decorating potential!  Replace the roof?  No big deal, you knew that going in - but what colour should it be?

Sound familiar?  Who's with me?

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE my house, I really and truly do.  The renos, the paint, the landscaping - it was hard work for sure, but the satisfaction of knowing it was my own cozy haven, my very own home made it more than worthwhile.  Even the essential-but-not-pretty things like plumbing, electrical, and chimney cleaning are all worth it.

It's the surprises that kill me.  Surprises are usually expensive, usually no fun, and decidedly UN-SEXY.  Here are a few of the visits to the dark side of home ownership that I have taken in the last three years of being here:

Sewage black flow in the basement Worse than walking down to a sight and smell that brought tears to my eyes was sitting in my dining room listening to them rip out the carpet, cut through the drywall, and yes, saw into my beloved built-in cabinets.  The sounds of destruction - not construction.  Expensive destruction.  I have not lost perspective - just weeks ago people lost their entire homes and all their possessions to Sandy - but it breaks my heart none-the-less.  Not our tree, but our problem. Surprise!

Fence toppled by high winds I can't remember exactly when this happened, but we awoke one morning to find the fence between our house and our neighbours' ripped and twisted, and lying flat on the ground.  The garden, to be exact.  OUR garden, to be completely precise.  We did split the cost of a new fence, and actually split it with almost all of our neighbours to build around on all three sides, but my poor, sad, smushed plants all needed to be replaced as well. Surprise!

Tree toppled by high winds You know this one - tree fell down.  Not part-way into our yard, nor into our and our neighbours' yard, nor any other of the 360 directions it could have gone, but smack into our property, taking the new fence, the garage eaves troughs, our garden furniture, many plants, and almost our 2 year old with it.  Not our tree, but our problem. Surprise!

Raccoon walking through our upstairs hallway At night.  While my husband was skiing in BC.  While I was at work until 11pm.  While my babysitter cowered with my then 1-year-old in his room, calling 911.  Surprise! When I got home, Will was asleep and the cops had come and gone, barricading the raccoon in my bedroom with a chair under the door handle.  I slept on the sofa in the next room in my work clothes (a dress) listening to the critter tear apart my closet all night, after calling every 24 hour wildlife removal number on the internet.  Oh and I was preggo (not really relevant, but it makes any story better, right?)  Critter-removal and re-entry prevention = not cheap.

masonry pointing repairs We haven't done this yet, and it isn't nearly as good a story, but there are several holes in the mortar between our exterior brick that need to be filled, and we need to replace the parging over our stone foundation almost all the way around the house.  We haven't done this because we could take the family to Europe for the amount we were quoted.  Who budgets for PARGING and POINTING? Surprise! Argh.

So it's not all sunshine and roses in my wicked and weird world (the raccoon thing definitely qualifies as weird though).  Amidst the the craig's list cabinet victories, the Value Village scores, and the crafty afternoon are loads upon loads of laundry, sink scouring, and potty training.  But who would want to read about all that? ;p  I would say my home and I are out of the honeymoon stage, but there are definitely more days that not that I look around fondly. I do love this house, flaws and all.

But seriously, enough sappy, misery loves company. I know you must have your own house surprises - please share!!

In My Garden: It's Peony Time

One of my favourite flowers in my garden are my peonies.  I am not sure when I crossed over to the peony side - I used to think of them as "Old Lady" flowers.  I guess maybe it coincides with when I became an old lady?  Regardless, I now love them and their showy petal power.

My peonies are much smaller in number this summer - when the tree fell it missed Cam but made a direct hit on my peony plants (a trade I am happy to make).  The rain this weekend had them all face-planting on the ground so I decided to harvest them for indoor admiration.

 They are such a photogenic flower, don't you think?

If a tree falls in your back yard...

Sigh.  Just look at this lovely photo of my backyard last summer.  Lush and green, with all that gorgeous dappled sunlight through the leaves, and the perfect shady spot to sit with a drink and watch the kids play.  I really, really love our back yard.

However, when I was at Oprah on Monday (or probably waiting in line for Oprah), this happened:

Yup, the whole tree came tumbling down - smack into our yard.  The terrifying thing is that our 2-year-old was playing at the back of the garden with his trucks all afternoon.  He got up and walked towards the house for a trip down the slide, and as he landed at the bottom, so did the tree.  It scratched his face, it came so close.  If he hadn't decided to walk to the slide, or had walked just 5 seconds later... I actually refuse to let my mind go there.  The Arbourist who came to assess the tree was convinced that Cam knew it was coming - he said dogs and young kids often have a sense of these things just before they happen and get out of the way.  Either way, when I got home from Oprah at 11pm, I sat in his room and watched him sleep for a long, long time.

That is a mighty big tree.  I don't know if you noticed in the first image, but it was also on our neighbour's side of the fence.  No matter, if it falls in your yard, it's your problem (read: your insurance).   Many phone calls, many questions, many site assessments. Eventually, three huge trucks pulled up in front of our house.  Anyone with 2 young boys knows that's better than Christmas.

They had a crew of almost eight guys and got through that tree in record time, while I/we watched from inside and tried not to cringe every time they trampled through the peonies.

I caught a glimpse of Cam's trucks under the debris and once again thanked every deity I could name, and made up a few more for good measure.

 Our umbrella was a little smushed...

Now my yard looks like this:

It is a completely different place.  I feel like I am in a subdivision.  My poor shade-loving hostas and astilbe are shrivelling in the sun.  But see that little guy in the plaid shirt?  As long as he is in the picture, it is a beautiful, perfect view.

Butterfly Bush

Last year at the end of the summer, we dug out most of the Rose of Sharon trees in our garden (they are nothing but a big weed if you ask me)*, and I replaced the one at the front of the yard with this deep purple Butterfly Bush.  I had seen them in a light lilac colour, but this darker colour was so beautiful I couldn't resist.  When we planted it, it was a tiny shrub, maybe 2 feet high and 2 feet wide.  It has almost tripled in size, and the more I dead-head it, the more it blooms.  And does it ever live up to its name!  There are almost always at least 2 or 3 butterflies on it whenever I look, and my favourite are the big Monarchs that swoop in like birds, and seem to dance around the flowers.  I can't help to take a million photos!

These are all taken with my zoom lens, but I could almost do it with my prime lens - they don't seem to be afraid of us at all (which is nice, as the kids get a good look at them).  I'm happy to have this to look forward to now at the end of the summer, it helps alleviate some of the gloom that always hits me in the fall.  Ah summer, why must you always pass so quickly?

*My amazing mother-in-law helped a huge amount, and it was no easy task - they are more like trees than shrubs.  The roots were enormous!  I think in all we pulled out 3 huge bushes, which left more than enough room for this bush, plus all our vegetables and some lavender.

A bountiful harvest

 

Our wee garden has produced quite a bit of food for us in the last few weeks!  The cherry tomatoes are like candy and the boys just love taking a break from playing out back to have an impromptu snack.  We also got several cucumbers (although I have not yet tested them for bitterness), jalapeno peppers, tons of herbs, and beautiful Swiss chard in red and yellow.  I used some yesterday in a pizza and I must say - it was delicious!

We don't have a lot of cutting flowers to bring indoors, but in trimming one of the hydrangeas out front I got enough branches for a mantel bouquet.  I think this is the Oak Leaf variety?  Our big Annabelle puff balls have stayed green all summer and didn't turn white at all - anyone have any idea why? Ah, the mysteries of gardening...

Endless Spring

You may have figured out by now that I am a bit of a flower nut (I am only just realizing the extent of it myself).  Although the weather has not been great in the Maritimes so far this summer, it has worked out beautifully for me, as I get to experience all the gorgeous blooms of spring all over again!  In particular, my parents have two varieties of peonies that are just spectacular.  I have no idea what their names are, but the first is a creamy colour, with just a hint of yellow and an incredible scent.  The second is this glorious pink and yellow number that has no scent but it one of the most striking flowers I have seen.  The fronds inside look like they belong deep in the ocean on a reef with clown fish poking their heads out of them.  I do hope you are not sick of my endless flower photos, because here are a few more:

 I wish you could smell the first one - just gorgeous...