May 06th, 2025

I believe I've mentioned before, (but perhaps I did not) that when Tim and I bought this house, which needed a LOT of work, that we decided to break it up into bite sized pieces.  We decided that every year we would do one and only one project.  Any sort of reno is not only very expensive but also very stressful, it's just the nature of the beast.  Our thought was that if we focused on doing only one project a year, it would feel a lot more manageable in a myriad of ways.

Some projects were very large, some were relatively small.  Several projects were the sorts of things nobody sees like electrical work or plumbing stuff. The end result is never visible but it's still of terrific importance.  There were projects that we were able to do completely ourselves, some that we had to hire out and others that were kind of a mixed bag:  us and them.

Then came that last huge project, the family room. That one was a bear. We knew it was going to be big, we knew it was going to be expensive and would take quite awhile to be completed, but of course we never could have predicted that the contractor would bail (with the $$ of course) partway through, that we would need to figure out how to finish it ourselves or that it would take so much longer and be so much more expensive than we ever anticipated.  Whew!  What a mess that was.  But somehow we muddled through, we came out the other side even  though I at some point I said something along the lines of never ever wanting to do another project again. Ever!  And I meant it when I said it.

Well that was then and this is now and this year's project has been a much smaller one. This year, we (I say we, it's been 99% Tim) tackled the courtyard.  It's not 100% finished yet but I'm so excited about what Tim already did that I'm going to go ahead and write this up as if it were.  He deserves all of the credit.  He is my hero!  I adore every single bit of it and I'm sure you will too.

The photo above says it best I suppose. This is our house.  Well the exterior of it.  It's an older photo and some of the greenery no longer exists. Lost to time due to various storms/woodpecker damage and the capricious nature of life.  But the house is still the house.  As you can see, it's basically just your basic circa 1962 light green crackerbox of a house.  The only thing that differentiates it from other houses of that era is the courtyard in front of the house.  

When we bought the house the courtyard consisted of some wobbly, faded, old adirondack chairs and a shade umbrella that was anchored by a very heavy metal base.  It worked ok right up until an unexpected gust of wind carried it off to parts unknown.  well dang!  We replaced the umbrella only for it to happen again. Rather than continue to replace the umbrella, Tim put up a sail shade.  It worked wonderfully though it only covered a small section of the courtyard.  The answer, obviously, was to get a second sailshade.  Two triangles, opposite one another makes a rectangle y'see!  Perfect.  It just needed a big post to anchor one corner. Tim took care of that!

It's so much cooler under the sailshades.  The plants and the humans are both big fans!

Next up was lights.

Our first Christmas in this house, we put up those exterior grade Command Strip hooks and boy oh boy, those things have lasted really well. It was a snap to put up and taken down the lights each year. The lights only ran along the roof line, so no big deal.  Until the first sail shade went up. Then it became a bigger dealio to take the shade down to put the lights up and then vice versa after the holidays.  I guess I got lazy because after the first time I just didn't take the lights down.  Yup, we became Those People with Christmas lights up year 'round.  Didn't bother me a bit.  Until the Christmas lights, after being up far too long, just gave out. Dang.  When we had to take the sail shades down for the next hurricane, we took down the lights too and out they went, right in the trash.

I decided that since you really cannot see the roofline with the sailshades up, I would forego Christmas lights from now on.  I would miss them, but I'd get over it.  Tim to the rescue.  He got lights :)  This time, no Christmas lights, but so called "partylights" Love it~!  AND for bonus points, he also got some dragonfly lights for my whimsical heart :)  Like I said, this guy is my hero.  They look Fabulous!
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 The next addition, to my great surprise, was a wind chime that is so perfect.  Yet more dragonflies ( my favourite) with a sweet tinkly sound that's loud enough for me to hear, yet not a gongish sort of sound.  I can see it from the kitchen windows and if the windows are open, I can hear it to. Love it!!!  I hung it by the front door :)

Soooo the project isn't quite done because there is also the other side of the courtyard which we refer to as the Future Garden.  When we moved in it had a narrow strip of over grown ornamental grasses, anemic hostas and two palm trees on life support.  We had the palm trees cut down and I tore out the rest, digging up roots endlessly or so it seemed. But now it's ready. Or almost ready.  I learned that even though we thought the "soil" had been sufficiently amended, not true.  It needs more and more and more.  What passes for soil here is actually sand which makes perfect sense. It's good for drainage but not for plants.

But we found (on sale!) some mulch and some garden soil, Tim put in a watering line and we've been visiting nurseries, making notes and coming up with a plan.  Eventually it will be ready for fragrant, colourful, butterfly, dragonfly and bee attractive shrubs and plants and then the transformation will (mostly) be complete. I am very excited about it!

Eventually this area will be a thing of beautiful but to be fair, there are already some pretty things in the courtyard, I just want more, more, more!  So Greedy! This is what's here :

See!  Isn't that a great start!

The Courtyard Project is well on its' way. We are so pleased with the results so far and I look forward to sharing the finished or nearly finished results at some point in the future :)Small Projects are the best projects!  That's my new mantra

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