we decided to start an organic vegetable garden late into the season. this was a simple project to do. the hardest part was actually removing the sod and then tilling the soil. since the area was only about 4 feet by 8 feet we went ahead and did it all by hand once again. the raised bed frame was built with six 8 foot "cherry timbers" from Home Depot along with some twelve inch spikes to hold it all together. the soil consisted of a few bags of top soil, peat moss, cedar grove organic compost, and a bag of steer manure. the soil was so rich that the plants started to "burn" when they were first put it. once they were use to the soil they started to grow like a child. i swear you were able to see a difference in size every day. ha ha.
peppers for salsa. we also have a jalapeno somewhere but it doesn't seem grow. good news is it wont die either.
cherry tomatoes...............yummy! jessica will really like these
cucumbers for pickles? i dont know why i bought these either
zucchinis yummy! these are great on the grille with a little bit of johnny's seasoning, lemon juice, and some olive oil.

here is stitch keeping me company. i dont think he likes the heat too much.

well this picture shows our retaining wall project about two weeks in. unfortunately before shots of the yard are all lost somewhere in the digital world. anyways this is another project that we saved a ton of money on. all the dirt was dug and moved by hand since we were not able to bring any kind of heavy equipment to the back yard.
the yard slopes up away from the patio. by leveling out the area directly in front of the patio we were able to add a lot more space for chairs and tables for those big family get-togethers. all the old sod sat on the patio for a few weeks while the dirt was used to backfill behind the retaining wall. to this date we are still throwing away sod in our yard waste bin a little at a time.
tadda! well here is the finished product with the new sod and a new set of solar lights. it took at whole month of moving digging, moving dirt, and setting up the wall blocks but in the end all that hard work was worth it. we now have the extra space we wanted and something nice to look at out our kitchen window. the curved steps were a last minute idea but i think the outcome is beautiful and definitely adds character

this is our master bedroom. the original paint was a faux finish. jessica and i thought it looked more like dirt and dust on the walls. you can also see the hideous chandelier in the top left hand corner.

here is the new paint color as well as the cheap Home Depot light we installed. we definitely like the brighter color much better. this is still with the old carpet and no moldings.