Extreme Makeover, Home Edition

After much deliberation, we decided to do some landscaping to our corner lot. It was in need of some TLC - the existing euonymus plants were dying, and our porch was rotting. It was time to do something a little more extreme.

BEFORE

We put in the flowerbed between the porch and the fence, and along the front of the fence our first summer in our house. 

Notice the walkway...

Ben tore out the porch, and Brad came and took all the garbage away and delivered our new cedar posts. Ben's and cousin came and replaced our existing posts which we then sanded and oiled. I had gotten excited and tore out all the euonymus, and Ben and Dave had hacked out our maple bush-thing. Our neighbours asked us to take theirs down too :) They wanted to plant a "Christmas tree" in honour of Rowyn, and share the cost. We thought it was a great idea!!

DURING

Ben worked EXTREMELY hard taking up our old walkway. He then, single-handedly, dug about 8 inches down over a large area, prepping our side yard for our new walkway. Note the very full Rhino bag.... Dave and Jack came over to help right near the end. Jack was ready for some hard work! He even brought his tractor and wagon!

AFTER

Our walkway. Ben and Dave did an amazing job! They worked SUPER hard one weekend and got it done. Not the easiest feat, considering the grade from the steps the sidewalk. We're thrilled with how it turned out. The posts turned out awesome, and Ben's dad made some beautiful trim for the tops and bottoms. We just got that on last weekend. 

Corner view. You can see that we planted the "big" items - boxwoods, euonymous, crabapple, pine tree (Ro's tree we share with our neighbour), holly, corkscrew hazel, annabelle hydrangea, and climbing hydrangea. We can take our time and fill in the other perennials as they go on sale. :) All in all, we LOVE the finished product and look forward to enjoying it for years to come.