DIY
We moved earlier this year. In many, many ways, it was a big step up from the old house. However, one decidedly step down was going from a house with a 2 car garage to a house with a very narrow carport. Besides the obvious differences, there was a major annoyance. The carport didn’t have any lights.
I finally had a weekend with good weather, some free time and a clear idea of what needed to be done with the pit. Unfortunately I had no idea how to do it or what stuff I needed. After this weekend, the truck can probably find Home Depot without me now.
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Do you have any idea what a sewage ejector pump is? Chances are, unless you live on a steep hill, or have a bathroom in your basement, or are a plumber, you don’t. And just a few months ago, I was also blissfully ignorant of such a contraption as well. However, buying a house on a steep hill with a bathroom in the basement gave me a chance to expand my knowledge.
The whole saga began about 4 months ago. In the midst of one of the hottest and driest summers on record, in the throes of a multi-year drought, most of our yard look brown and crispy. There was, however, an oasis of green in this desert wasteland. Strangely enough, it was surrounding a PVC pipe that was sticking out of the ground. Upon further inspection, there were also some wires that came out of the ground as well and plugged into an outdoor outlet. With a bunch of other household stuff, not to mention Ironman training, to occupy my attention, I actively ignored the oddity of it all… until…
I’m not a big fan of grass.
Don’t like to cut it. Don’t like to water it. In most cases, I find it horribly boring, visually and aesthetically. About the only time that I do like it is when it is used as a small break between more interesting landscape elements. Unfortunately, nearly all of the slice of suburbia where we live is heavily watered and heavily fertilized lawn.
We definitely don’t have the desire or discipline to water and fertilize to get a yard that looks like all the other yards. But we also don’t want to have that one house on the block that looks abandoned due to the yard. With the severe drought this year, we are currently stuck with this mess:
A sad looking lawn
Our yard ends a bit past the tree, right about where the green (and over-watered, in my opinion) grass starts. So, to that end, we are looking at re-inventing our yard with a bit more structure, a bit more personality, and a lot less grass.
Ivonne really wants to hire a landscape designer to put together a plan for us. I can’t believe that I, Mr. Do-it-all-your-damn-self-no-matter-what, am tending toward agreeing with her. I’m still not budging on doing the actual work ourselves, but having a blueprint may help things go quicker, smoother, and ultimately cheaper than my typical trial and error.