Dirt Won't Hurt

My entire backyard is a sandbox but I couldn't be more thrilled! We are finally taking the first steps in our home remodel. The interior is going to have to wait a leeeetle bit longer. Right now, we're focusing on the backyard.

We live in a cozy (read: tiny) house that was built more than 100 years ago. The floor plan is odd, there is a fold-out ironing board in the kitchen, it has a charming baywindow, a retro built-in in the "dining room," a horror-film-worthy basement, and an unfinished attic. The four of us (and a circus-tent volume of baby items) are currently living in 2 small bedrooms and 1 tiny bathroom, all within the 950 square-foot floor plan. TINY. But it has character!

After we moved in 5 years ago, after being forewarned that a good amount of rain would likely crash the roof in, we wasted no time replacing the roof. This IS Seattle, you know. Can't take any chances. Then we painted over the salmon-pink exterior with a neutral but cheerful light grey. We've almost repainted all the interior walls as well. The booger green in our bedroom is no more, the tooth-stained yellow in Jacob's room is now a pale blue, and MOST importantly, the fake 'n bake orange in the kitchen is now a subdued, pale greyish-green.

In the future, we are going to remodel the front entrance and fix up the attic to provide about 500 more square feet of space (masterbedroom! and second bath! and TV room/office!). But right now? We are turning our red-neck, trailer park backyard into an outdoor sactuary.

So...I'm going to show you some pictures which will probably make you say, "WTF?! Is there an archaeological dig in your backyard? Are you digging up zombie bodies?" Well, all I ask if for a little "vision." Put on your rose-colored glasses and just remember...."baby steps."

Before:

 

Very lumpy and uneven

 

During:

I set the kids free to "help" out. Please notice that Jake is in his underwear.....

Now:

Ok...not SO impressive...yet...

Jacob loves the new sandbox.

Bonus: in addition to heaping piles of buried garbage, my husband found some vintage glass bottles from at lest the 50's. The milk bottle is from an old local creamery from "back in the day." Maybe the others contained Moonshine? It would only be fitting.