What I really like about landscaping is that it makes a significant difference to the appeal and feel of the home and most of it comes from sweat equity.

Let my wife and I know how we can help. Before winter is tough, but there are always days in the winter that stuff can get done to.

I agree about the impact. There isn't much to do this year for landscape I'm mainly working on clean up. Next year we will be starting with reworking the sprinkler system so we are mainly on drip with a small patch of grass in the front yard and grass in the lower back yard. Once that is set up, we can get flower beds laid out, mulched, and also plant sod.

Redoing the retaining wall in the back yard is going to be the hard yard project. I will also need to replace all the fencing at some point. In the future, we would like to add a nice deck in the back yard.

You've been a busy bee Chris. Looks great!

thanks tut.

Two more aspen trees have come down. There is one more aspen in the front yard and three elm trees in the back that still need to come down. The aspen in the front yard is leaning really bad over the neighbors fence so so they want to bring their larger come-a-long to keep it from falling that way. They plan to come back in a few weeks of so.

Making progress.
All the aspen trees are removed. They want to wait till the leaves have dropped on the elm trees before the cut them down. I still need to haul all the small branches away but they are in piles. I may do that this weekend.

The garage is almost done for now. I'm able to get my car in the garage again but not the wife's yet. We have some trim and furniture that various people have to pick up. I've finished all the plaster work for now as well as install the cabinets. The cabinets are mostly filled up so most of the boxes are cleaned up. I still need to build a workbench. Electrical is mostly done for now as well. One circuit is done and I just need to install the outlets in the other.

The inside of the house is getting there. I fixed the fan in my daughter's bathroom. I still need to swap out the outlets in my daughter's room to safety outlets (I'm going to install the old ones in the garage). I also still need to fix the ceiling fan in the master. I think that is about it for now. I would like to start remodeling the powder room/laundry in January.

Sounds like great progress. I know its hard to think about, but now would be the time for getting fall bulbs and even some trees of your choice in. If not, you miss an entire year of maturation. Plants and trees are the expensive part of landscaping (to me).

Very true. I'm hoping to get some of that done but I'm not sure yet if it is in the budget. We have a tree farm near us that we went to and picked out what type of trees we would like to replace the aspens.

I bought a can of marking spray paint so we could plan out where we want to flower beds. I just need to get the wife to help me lay things out.

I removed the lower branches of the two apple trees we have in the back yard. There were branches that almost touched the ground so now the lowest branches are at about 3' or so.
I also removed all the dead branches from the rose bushes. I'm going to do an initial trimming in the coming weeks to help them through the winter than do a little more trimming in the spring.

Hopefully the garage will be cleared in the next couple of weeks. I have a set of bedroom furniture that we've been storing for friends and trim that we've storing for my brother. We will be able to get two cars in the garage once that is done.

Trying to be more like you, so we removed about 6-8 Aspen trunks from the front of our yard. Some were connected to the same root ball, so I am not sure if I can count them as separate trees.

Shadowden wrote:Trying to be more like you, so we removed about 6-8 Aspen trunks from the front of our yard. Some were connected to the same root ball, so I am not sure if I can count them as separate trees.

Sounds like aspen trees. That is the main reason for us removing them, I'm sick of new trees sprouting. Did you remove them yourself or did you have someone do it? Did you yank them or grind them?

I still have the trunks to remove. The people that cut the trees down cut them flush to the ground so they look okay for now. I haven't decided the best route for trunk removal.

I ripped them out with the exception of one. That one will get drilled and I'll dump some of that stump remover stuff on it.

Shadowden wrote:I ripped them out with the exception of one. That one will get drilled and I'll dump some of that stump remover stuff on it.

Mine are all too big to just rip out. I picked up some stump remover that I'm probably get around to putting in tomorrow. I do need to have the largest tree stump (12"+ dia) removed because we want to put a new tree in its place.

I still need to finish yard cleanup. I have my truck loaded but weather has prevented me from getting it to the wood chipper place.

Wife's car is still not in the garage because my brother hasn't picked up his trim (long story). I did get the ceiling fan in the master bedroom rewired so it now works great. I've also been planning for the installation of can lights in the kitchen and upstairs hall.

Can lights? What are those, the lights that are recessed into the ceiling?

I've gotten a small bug since Mom's been here. Swapped the master bathroom toilet for an American Standard Champion 4 that doesn't run consistently and is more comfortable for my multiple-hour dooks while playing Walking Dead on my phone, and I picked up a new faucet (Delta Savile) for the kitchen sink so it no longer shuts itself off right after I turn it on. Am I on your level yet? LOL jk I need your input when I design my future container home to make sure I get all the cool features I'll never think of myself.

are you doing LED recessed/can lighting? I'm extremely happy with the switch to LED. Working on changing out all of the switches to rocker switches as opposed to toggles. I have most of the first floor done (miscounted and left two).

The number of 3 pole switches we have in our house is ridiculous.