There were a couple of things I really disliked about my house when I first saw it.  One was the bright gold light fixtures, door knobs, old fans, and such.  Well, I’ve spraypainted one fixture and I’m really pretty happy with it - the one over the kitchen table - but I’ve since lost motivation with the others.  I’ve been able to look past the reflective gold.  The second eye sore was the landscaping.  Instead of any sort of mulch were small, smooth, white stones.  Some may like that look, but I am not a fan.  I’ve waited a year and a half to take it out and during the wait, just haven’t quite known what to do with the multitude of weeds and disagreeable bushes. 

My vision of a yard finally came true last weekend.  My parents (master gardeners themselves) came to help Tony and me.  We moved countless wheelbarrows of stones to an alternate location (now used for draining rainwater in a ditch) and probably a hundreds of pounds of large rocks to my dad’s truck to transport to the lake.  We removed rotted black weed prevention fabric and pulled up wild onions, snails, spiders, bushes, weeds, and the biggest worms I’ve ever seen in my life!  I’ve included a picture of the end result of our biggest flower bed below.  Tony said (while he was thinking during his many trips to Lowe’s for mulch and supplies) that he now feels mature.  Mature and grown up not only because of the amount of yard work he was doing for his own house, but actually caring about it, and paying attention to all the yards in the neighborhood.  I have to say that I agree… we’re definitely on our way to being grown ups.