Before and After!

Last week was another busy one here at the Squash House! The fence was finally finished! - stain and all! You might say this is the final big hurrah around here! So I thought I would take you through a little of the progress. We all love "before and after's", don't we!

The photo below was taken in October of 2009, right after the new maple trees (Red Sunset) were planted. Pretty dismal, huh! The little bit of greenery on the right that is laying on the ground was a huge, old stand of cedar shrubs that had fallen over and gotten pretty messed up in the windstorm that took down the Blue Spruce's, so they have since been removed. You can see the old fence, which was probably installed sometime in the 60's.

Below is one of the new arbors being constructed. Our "crack" team of Ted and Justin, neigbors and builders extraordinaire, designed and built the fence.
This picture is out of order, but did you ever wonder how a fence is painted or stained when there are mature shrubs right next to it? This is how! Oh - and for several days after the stain was applied, the yard smelled like fresh donuts - talk about aroma-therapy!
Here is the finished back portion of the fence before stain was applied. We had to wait quite a few weeks for it to stop raining before the guys could get to work!
And here is is stained and finished at last! I have taken quite a lot of pictures in different light and this is about the best I could do - taken in the early morning with the sun out of the east. Pictures taken later in the day made the fence look really dark! We planted a red and a white eating grape on either side of this arbor - hopefully by next summer both sides will be over the top and producing sweet, yummy fruit!

Now look below and then scroll back to the first photo - what a difference! We love this fence - it really sets off the yard, and when the trees are a bit more mature and we've planted more perennials, who knows - maybe we'll be on the local garden tour ;>)
Here is a view looking toward the west side of the yard - you can see the Asian-inspired top trim a little better.
And here is a current look at our little menagerie of flowers and herbs on the patio! We've had a lot of fun with these - using pots we brought from the old house, some that came with the house and lots and lots of "pony" packs of flowers from the farm store and the farmer's market!!

Mr. Squash and I have had a lot of fun sharing our move to the Squash House as well as updates to the house and yard! We both wanted to thank you for all your encouragement and kind words on all of this! Now on to more fun - quilting, fly fishing, and who knows what else - there is always something interesting happening at the Squash House!