My sister Stacey bought her first house last summer - and was one of the recipients of the first-time home buyers credit. She has been busy planning improvements to her backyard - she is the gardener in the family while I am not! As you can see from the picture above, there was some work to be done to the fence between her yard and the neighbor's.
So the work began...tearing out the old fence, removing the grapevines, researching garden shed designs. Her neighbor contributed not only sweat equity (have you ever tried to remove grapevines...I hear that it is not an easy project!) but gave Stacey the windows for her shed. He had replaced the windows in his house and had kept his old windows, thinking there might be a use for them.
Finally, the construction work is done...new fence...
new shed...
Now the fun begins...decorating the inside, planting the vegetable garden along the back, getting ready for summer relaxing!
And the best part of all of this - the President's idea of spurring on the economy worked; Stacey bought a new house, several local businesses (including Miller Barns of Yakima) benefited from her home improvements - and the added bonus - old materials were re-used and given a second life. I can't wait to see the shed and the backyard when I visit in July- there'll be more pictures then!
Update 6-12:
Stacey sent me this picture of the iron patio set she picked up today at a yard sale - 4 chairs, table and umbrella - all for $40! and they delivered it to her house free of charge! That backyard is really shaping up!
