Gardens

Olbrich Gardens Spring Afternoon
Originally uploaded by WisDoc

Backyard gardens are so lovely to relax in.

Unfortunately, they're also a pain in the butt to build and maintain. My goal is to take the piece of crap that I was presented with when I moved in and transform it into something simple that looks clean, orderly, pleasant and requires pretty minimal work.

Of course, that means a lot of work.

The great outdoors: Chez moi

I know I said I wasn't working on my house anymore, but then my mom and dad came over to help finish up a few things. Oddly, it didn't seem like work. Of course, that's probably because they did most of the work while I rode around in their car and did errands like:

• Brought back empties
• Ordered foam for my window seat (which is much more expensive than I thought)
• Got propane for my BBQ
• Picked up colour swatches for the paint for my kitchen (from Ecopaints)
• Groceries
• Picked up my new dining chairs from G.U.F.F
• Bought pots for plants and the start of a blind idea at IKEA
• Bought patio stones and a laundry line from Home Depot (see below)
• Oh, and some weeding and pruning/tying up my roses

The inspiration... the reality

It started with Joe Fresh Style. This ad, in fact.

There is, of course, another page to the ad. With the wonderful grey-green wall colour, white-washed bird houses and the Joe Fresh Style bright orange logo (below).

An orange found in the colour of my couch. Perfect. Let's find that colour. And the search began.

I settled on Oyster Bay by CIL but got it colour-matched for Behr-brand paint. Last weekend and on Canada Day, me and my mom painted. Because I was sick of the plastic wrap over all my furniture and floors.

We painted and painted. I sweated a lot. And I grumbled because I really wanted to be outside, enjoying myself in the lovely weather. My mom was a machine. She always is. It took a whole lot less time than it could have. And it's done. And the plastic is gone.

The result?