the slow exterior beautification continues.

we needed to remove the two trees on the side of the house, as seen above. the one further down, that is in its own little circle, was pretty diseased. the one closest to camera was doing just fine, but right next to the house and foundation, which made us rather uncomfortable. we were sad to remove the trees, especially since our back and side yard is basically all concrete otherwise, but we really felt like we had to.

with the trees gone, the side looked sad with its little dirt patches, so we decided to do a little bit of cleanup.

we started by just tackling the patch right up against the house. knocked out those brick liners, raked the dirt clean of roots and other big pieces of debris, and used a cement block to tamp it flat.

then we put down landscape barrier and covered the whole thing in red desert rock.

tada! much cleaner right?

we have big plans to deck over much of the concrete you see, plus put in some raised garden beds over the red rock. it's been awhile since we've really done any hands-on house projects of our own, and this really got our juices going! we've already finished up another project that i haven't gotten around to blogging yet, but look for that soon!