It's a Brick . . . House

You all will NOT believe the amount of work that one motivated Goodglass can get done in a single weekend . . . it boggles the mind!  About 3 weeks ago, our backyard was kinda sorta an asphalt wasteland.  Then commenced the beginning of the backyard overhaul - which all of you have seen in previous posts.  Since then we'd gotten inspired to line our flower beds with found brick - we thought it would be a fun idea to "hardscape" with materials that matched our (brick) house.  Well, the bricks we'd been finding throughout our excavations - plus additions from a few neighbors and some roadside adventures - were pretty darn cute lined up around the flower  beds.

And then Jesse got a little Craigs List Crazy.  And then the materials REALLY started rolling in - bricks AND stone, cheap/free!  After a bit of online research, Jesse quickly set to the task of placing a stepping stone path around the front of the house, winding through the new gate into backyard.  This was a project we'd been thinking about for a long time - pretty much ever since moving in - and we'd just been waiting to find the right kind of stone for the job (ie a Craigs List posting for what we had in mind might have read: Wanted: Stones that are cute and cheap).  In a flash, Jesse was done with that project and ON TO THE NEXT!  The next being . . .
Lining the newly mulched driveway bay with  . . . more brick!  We ended up having enough of a certain type of brick (another CL find) to line edge of the driveway, the new bed along the fence, and two little beds up against the house - AND a small "patio" as a level spot for the grill to live!  Damian had pointed out the potential grill location on a recent visit up to the Cuse and, once we realized we had enough brick, it made sense to make a permanent little spot for it.    
Mixed into the weekend there was a trip out to the Regional Market for some annuals, meeting Gemma's mom who had flown in from Seattle for SU's graduation (congrats Gemma!!), and purchasing a picnic table and umbrella to place the icing on the cake that has now become our backyard.  I have to give all the credit to Jesse for his motivation and execution of all the work this weekend.  I did a bit of digging and replanting on Saturday, but mostly came outside periodically to survey the progress.  I AM, however, project manager for the annuals this week, so I'll be putting those in bit by bit, getting a little color into things here and there . . .
We LOVE OUR BACKYARD! 

We had our first dinner out there just an hour or so ago - a little dark as we're still on the hunt for big fat candles to go in our lanterns, but delightful nonetheless :)
Yay for weekend productivity!!