House and Yard Projects

Well, now that Spring is here, we've come back to talking about all of the projects we'd like to do around here.

For those of you that don't know, we got an estimate on having the basement finished (and turned into a walkout) about a year ago. But, we really wanted to buy the minivan and the minivan won. The other project we've talked about a lot for inside the house is tearing out the wet bar (dry bar.....plumbing was never installed by the previous owners) that is in the living room. We'd either replace it with built in book shelves, or something along those lines.

As far as yard projects go, we have drainage issues that we need to fix. When it rains, it takes days for the front yard to dry out. So, Dad & Rick have some ideas of how to fix that and we are hoping to get that done soon.

Our side yard is pretty level, but there is only an upstairs window that overlooks it, so it's not a good play area for little kids. The backyard has lots of windows overlooking it and it's fenced in. But, it is pretty sloped. We can't use it for a swing set or patio furniture or anything. It's sort of wasted space. If we were going to do the basement project, they would be leveling out the yard in order to make the walkout. Now we are considering other options.

Ultimately, I want to dig out the yard to level it off (and have it ready for a walkout when the time comes). But, we are also considering putting a 2nd, lower deck at the bottom of the stairs from the existing deck. That will give us a lot of level space.

And, we were talking yesterday about just leveling off a portion of the yard to have a good space for a play area. Since it would be such a small area, we should be able to do that ourselves. Then we can get a swing set for little miss. I know she'd love it. It would be great to get that part of the project done before Leah's arrival. We'll see how it goes.