Step 1: Make Space

Oh cluttered backyard, how I love thee not.  But I have a plan for you.  A big plan.  It's going to take a lot of work so I've decided to break it down into steps.  I figure I could take about a week per step and I will have a beautiful, wine-sipping, relaxing yard by the time my Bestie gets here. 

It's going to be about an 8 Step/Week plan and then I'll be all done.  This is a great plan.  In fact I'm on Week 6 and haven't started Step 2 yet.  Awesome plan.  I just didn't account for summer vacation and the endless hours I've lost playing on the iPad.  Seriously that thing needs to go on the top shelf of my closet and come out on weekends only.  Oh, but I air stream Pandora through the house during the week, and then play Plants vs. Zombies.

Even blogging about it hasn't helped speed up the time line.  It would probably help if I blogged regularly. HA! 

It's pretty cluttered back there so the first thing I did was get rid of the Ugly Kid Chair.  You remember it, right there by the satellite dish.  It's hiding in the corner.  It's now gone, God knows where it is now.  You know I always wonder if God really knows where it is.  Like if when I said that in the back of God's mind he's thinking, "El Cajon, CA at the Waste Management Facility Dump Lot 8C."  I'm just sayin'.

Getting rid of the ugly chair has completely opened up the back yard.  You're not seeing how this can open up a ton of space on the patio.  Here let me show you a current status picture with the other crap fun toys out of the way.

Step 1: Make Space by Clearing and Rearranging the Kid's Toys.

There is a lot more space on the patio now that I've moved things around, which may be why my progress has slowed down.  Instant gratification isn't very motivating. 

The quick and easy part was finding a new home for the movable kid toys. I decided to make good use out of the empty flower beds the run along the perimeter of the yard.  Cause heaven knows that I'm never going to put plants in there. What's God thinking now? The gardeners seem to care less if they stick the toys on the patio or over here so it's a good spot for the toys.

Moving the playhouse took a lot more work.  I wanted to move it into the dirt area by the fruit trees.  I never did this before because I don't want my kids playing in the dirt then coming into the house.

The area that I wanted to put the house had this funny plastic flower bed border that the owners had left over there.  I was a little worried about this since I didn't know how deep it was.  I started to dig it out and when I saw that it wasn't too deep I tried to "pull it out."  Maybe I should say that I "picked it up," because that is about how much effort it took. That is when I realized that the owners had just tossed it over there and weather buried it a little.  I had left it because I was worried it was something important. I don't know, some sort of weird tomato bed or something.  There is a reason I don't plant flowers.

After I picked up the piece of trash that had been sitting there for months, I leveled the ground and put new rocks around the water drain.

Next we took a trip to the Home Depot to buy some supplies to build a platform to place the playhouse on top of.  If you ever want men to come running from all corners of the world to help you go to the Home Depot, be a pretty lady with two kids, and buy a 4'x8' piece of plywood.  It was hilarious.  Next time I think that I am going to wear high heels.

It's a simple design and plenty strong enough for the kids to run and jump on.  We gave it a coat of primer followed by a coat of the Peacock Blue paint leftover from when I build the picnic table.  This is to give it a little water protection and to make it pretty.  Then we tossed it in the dirt and threw the playhouse on top.

We are decorating the front yard of the playhouse and it's turning out pretty cute.  There are a few flower pots the BG planted earlier this Spring and the the big pot has some sunflowers growing in it, thank you Abby for the seeds.  The other pot is still empty.

You can see the water drain in the bottom left corner, which is why the house is not right up next to the grass.  I had to find a spot not in the trees, but with enough space between the houses and not blocking that drain.  The girls and I thought it would be fun to make stepping stones so that they don't have to step in the dirt to get in and out.  This isn't a good idea because our test stone broke the second it was stepped on.  I knew it was a possibility but we tried it anyways.  I'm going to have to go to the Home Depot to get something else to put there and maybe a plant or two. 

Step 2: ?
As far as step two goes, it is being put on delay.  We are in the middle of Birthday Week (three of my family's birthdays are this week and LG's is in 2 weeks) and my Bestie shows up on Friday for a 10 day visit.  There is also something else that I want to work on that will delay the backyard progress a little longer.  It's okay, my yard isn't going anywhere.

California Dreamin'

Oh how I dream of a beautiful California backyard.  Even better, I dream of a Southern California backyard where the weather is nice almost all the time and the rain comes in seasons instead of daily.  I would have to say that the only downsides to a California backyard are the spiders and that is because they terrify me.

Oh but to have a beautiful backyard.  What would be in my dream backyard?

1. A super comfy sectional sofa with extra deep cushions.  Like this one.

 photo Crate & Barrel

You can't see the entire setup, but it looks great in the catalog.  You need a lot of space for something like this and I don't have space.

mmm.... here's a low profile one.

 photo Pottery Barn

Then there is the one that could probably fit in my backyard.

photo West Elm

Ana-White.com has a plan to build your own and since I keep telling myself that I like to build stuff this is a less expensive option.  But it's not one that I want to do right now.  I thought I could do a couple to fit our patio and when we buy, build more to fit that yard.  But then things might not match when it comes to fabric dye lots and running out of stain/paint.  That would drive me batty.  So I wait for a sectional.

2. A pretty dining area
Here are simple chairs, a bench on one side...

photo West Elm

My neighbors have this one on their patio that is easily twice the size of ours.

photo Pottery Barn

3. Some adirondack chairs - they can go almost anywhere
There are classic ones

photo Poly-Wood Inc

and modern ones

photo Andrew Jackson via mlive.com

and Ana-White makes one.

 photo Ana-White

4. A fire pit!
You have to have a fire pit for making s'mores and burning old tax documents.  Nothing fancy just something like this.

photo Home Depot

5. Outdoor movie Area - almost a must with kids
I found a fun how-to at Giver'slog and I wouldn't be ashamed of arranging the sectional around where the movie screen would be.

I can just imagine relaxing with the girls, a bowl of popcorn, pretzels and candies all in one and The Princess Bride playing on the big screen. 

6. Lounging area
Who wouldn't want to take a nap on this?

photo Pottery Barn

or how bad could a sunburn be when you got it laying on one of these?

photo Pottery Barn

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Alas, I am only dreaming because here is my renter's paradise.

It's not much but it's mine (kinda) and one day it'll be pretty.

You might think that I'm crazy, I don't honestly think that I will have all this and more in my backyard.  I have seen backyards with all of this and more and not just on TV.  There is one that I walk past when I walk the trail to and from school.  It's huge and has at least three seating areas and a fort.  You would never have to worry about having enough space for a movie night on your backyard movie screen.  Oh, California Dreamin'.

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You may have noticed that I said nothing of the ultimate outdoor, grilling kitchen.  That's because I have absolutely no idea what my husband would want, but we'll add it to list.
7. Outdoor grillin' kitchen.

Inspiration vs. Motivation

Inspiration
In the world of RSS Feeders, decorating magazines, home television channels, and furniture catalogs sent straight to my mailbox I seem to find inspiration everywhere I look.  Inspiration is a beautiful thing.  I have even discovered a new way to organize all that inspiration.  I mean, other than hoarding Pottery Barn catalogs in my closet.  I stumbled across a website called Pinterest.  Really, click the link and browse around, then put yourself on the invite list.  It only took a day before I was online.

I currently hoard magazines with ideas I like and now when I see an idea that I would like to one day put in my dream house (or any house that we one day own) I can go to the website and just pin it.  Then I have the picture there and everything. It also saves the link so that if I ever do get to the point that I will actually buy the item, I don't have to go searching again.

When I see something on a blog post I've starred it in my Google Reader and add a tag (ie. 4th of July, food, home).  In Pinterest I have different boards that I can categorizes the fun finds that I come across.  I will just have to go back and scan through stuff and pin the things I really love.  It would be a while before I move everything.

The only drawback is that I can't pin items while using the iPad.  Where I do most of my blog reading and internet browsing these days.  In fact, I spend very little time on the computer these days, hence the hiatus in blogging.  This may be the thing that gets me on the computer again, but I'm going to have to find a time that is best every week and that is hard to do during the summer.

Motivation
Having all these fun ideas is, well FUN.  But the follow through is very hard to come by.

I always seem to have an excuse:

• I hate spending money even when I'm saving money doing it myself.
• Shopping is a scary going out into the world experience.
• We're renting so why spend all the time and money on a house that isn't even mine.
• That is way too messy.
• And my most common excuse, I'm a lazy procrastinator. I really need to work on self-discipline.

Every now and then I find the motivation to actually get some project that I've been thinking about done.  A lot of the times it includes a deadline like an upcoming birthday or guest coming to town.

My latest inspiration and motivation involves my backyard.  My patio to be more specific.  Here is what it currently looks like:

Yeah, not that pretty.  It's incredibly cluttered looking and leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don't like looking at all this stuff when I sit in the backyard and try to relax.  Plus there is the added fact that our yard is visible from the nature trail that runs behind our house.  I'm waiting for someone to say, "Oh, that's your backyard."

I played a little on Photobucket to give you a more detailed idea of everything that is going on that you can't see in the picture.  Since there is so much stuff that there is stuff behind stuff. (Click to enlarge).

Our patio didn't always look like this.  It started with just the grill, the table and chairs, and the satellite dish.  The kid toys popped up over time, but the big clutterness came when the playhouse showed up.  The table and chairs were moved into the corner against one wall so that the playhouse could sit on the opposite corner as far from the satellite dish as possible.  We can't risk the kids losing readjusting our signal on accident.

Now I know you are thinking, why don't I move some stuff onto the grass?  Normally the picnic table, the slide and the water table get moved out onto the grass.  But this is a problem all in itself.  First, we rent and can't kill the grass so I'm constantly moving them around.  Second, when the gardeners come everything gets shoved back onto the patio.

This is not acceptable if I plan on sitting in my backyard in the evenings sipping wine with my best friend when she comes to visit me this summer.  HA!!  You knew there had to be some motivation in there somewhere since it can be assumed I've been living with this backyard since the playhouse showed up at Christmas time.

Yes, there are things going on in my backyard, though they are moving very slowly.  There are deadlines that must be met and space that must be made. 

I'm not going to share them with you just yet.  You are going to have to wait for my next post.  Stinky me but you see, this post isn't about what I am doing to my backyard, but that I'm finally motivated to do something with it.  Until next time...