Changes to the Outside of our Home

Even though I have been laid up all summer with my left knee work has been done on the grounds around the house.  Richard has picked up the slack (even though he hates gardening) and pulled out plants, dug gardens, planted new plants etc.  So here are a few pictures of before and after of the outside of our home.

 

The front of the house on the left side had these ceders growing they are now gone.  The window well had been updated and we have added two dogwood shrubs with the wood that turns red in the winter either side of the window well.  The picture of the front of the house partially in the shade but hopefully you can see where these changes have been made.

 This is the north side of the house where there once was a very large spruce tree which we had removed.  Richard is slowly removing as many of the surface roots from that tree as possible in the mean time we have added 18 ground covers; 3 ivy, 4 creeping jenny, 3 black bugle and 4 rainbow bugle, and 4 periwinkle.  We have been told that all these plants like shade and do well in the acidic soil that the spruce trees make.  We still have 3 very large spruce trees on this side so no changing of the soil anytime in the future.

 



This is from last year early in the summer and Richard clearing the over grown white lilac.












 This is the same area in the spring this year.







This is how it looks at the moment.  Michelle and I removed the majority of the stones from around the pond.  Richard dug the whole area and placed ground fabric down ready for the rocks to be placed back around the pond, redesign the waterfall (next years project I would think).  We planted two virginia creepers and will make holes in the fabric so they can spread and cover the area as the years go by.  We also want to place some kind of structure for the virginia creepers to climb to have a height feature here. 

The ornamental cherry that has be designed to weep, I took time to prune the branches that were beginning to grow upwards.  This tree now has about a foot or more of the branches spreading out on the ground so I'll probably cut those back.

Richard plans to make some sort of seat out of this so using the old radiator as a garden feature.  This was the radiator we purchased but found out it leaked so is not usable.  We think it will make a great feature on the back patio.






I was hoping to do before and after pictures but it didn't work out so well.  Things have been done outside even though Richard hates doing this type of work.  Many thanks to him though because I was getting very frustrated with not being allowed to do the work myself.  I have lots of plans as we move ahead with the garden but it will take many years to do all the work.

Richard took the time to clean out all the eaves-trough so hopefully the water will run down the drain pipes now instead of overflowing as it has want to do in the past.  Obviously this is a yearly task because there are a lot of trees in this area besides all the ones in our garden.

Saying good bye to our motor home

The decision has been made to sell our current motor home.  I will be sad to see it go as it has meant freedom to travel and take our two cats with us.  We will be purchasing a new unit, but probably not a Class A, although we both love these units we just can not afford to buy a new enough model to cut down on the costs of repairs.  We have decided to begin looking for a fifth wheel unit and truck, this will mean that we will always have a vehicle with us to go and see the sites where ever we are parked and not have to move a big motor home in the process.  It does make far more sense but I love having a mini home on wheels that I can get up and use the bathroom, go to the fridge for a cold drink or something to eat, without having to stop in our travels to do so.  We can still take our two cats with us not sure about the logistics, whether they will be in the truck with us or in the fifth wheel unit.

Of course it will mean we can't afford a new unit so it will have to be older but they are a fraction of the price of a large Class A motor home, the truck will be the costly part, but this will give us a second vehicle, no more having to decide who gets the car on which days.  It is a shame because it means an additional outlay of funds when we really wanted to use any extra money to start renovations on our lovely home.

So this is what we are selling:

If only everything was working correctly we would keep this vehicle.  Neither of us can justify paying out anymore funds to fix the problems that are now in need of repair.  The layout of this unit has been ideal for me when I don't have my prosthetic leg on I can get to the bathroom and then to the kitchen area by just holding onto items, which has meant no having to put my leg on in the middle of the night.  I love this rig and it has served us well for almost ten years.  It is a shame the previous (original) owners did so many cheap repairs to the point of making it difficult for Richard to be able to fix things.  We put a lot of money into the unit but there comes a time when we have to say no more.

We have been offered the opportunity to purchase another unit in this class but he is asking more than we are willing to pay and would mean yet another loan.  We haven't gone to see the unit because chances are we would fall in love with it and buy it anyway.  Not sure we will have anything to use for next year so we may just stay home and work on the yard and get the things done to finish at least tidying up the gardens and flower beds until I can decide what I want in the way of landscaping... but that is a whole new blog.