Home Improvement Season: Part 2

We have almost conquered our yard. Almost.

This is the side of our yard next to our garage; we actually got this done before the boys' birthday party. It was overrun with a rhododendron that was as tall as our house, along with some prickly, half-dead giant bushes.

This is the side of the house when we closed on the house 2.5 years ago. We ripped out the two big green bushes and cleaned everything up. The people who previously owned this house had A) a lot of time to garden and B) enough money to pay a landscaping service to trim everything. AJ and I do not have either of those things, so the 'after' pictures above work much better for us. 

We also have started working on the front of the house; we have one side done. We are thinking the other side is going to be a patio, so that is taking some more planning. We pulled out a gigantic holly bush (not to fear - there are 25 more still around the yard...only a slight exaggeration), and a few other crazy things that got trampled a few winters ago during a big snow. 

Below is the before. I actually didn't mind how it looked, but once the snow destroyed some of the plants, we decided to condense to a cleaner look. The big treeish shrub on the corner of the steps is still there. But not for long...it, too, has a date with a chainsaw.

With all of the foliage carnage, we have gathered quite an impressive brush pile in our yard; seriously - half of our backyard has been covered in dead trees and bushes, awaiting a good burning. AJ finally decided that it was time to build a fire pit of our own. He finished it tonight:

 Baldy lighting the inaugural fire:

 Success!

 Everyone was fascinated.

 Ethan didn't want to stop burning. This could be a problem...

So, that is that. Next week, my project is going to be repainting Ethan's room. He is going to be so excited. I just can't bring myself to want to paint again...