Backyard Renovation Final Reveal
We moved into our house 10 years ago, and our backyard and garage have mostly been unusable. The previous owner had large dogs and put gravel down in the backyard,…
2023
Christmas 2023
For several years now, we have taken scrambled to complete major renovation projects in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Christmas seems to be a hard and fast deadline that…
Backyard Renovation: Walkway and Pavers (Phase 5)
Our backyard was not going according to plan and all of my original timelines were thrown out the window thanks to delays from our contractor. We expected the garage to…
Backyard Renovations: Final Touches
Our backyard renovation was so painful, right from the start. Thanks to a terrible contractor, everything was really delayed and I ended up doing a lot of it in pieces,…
Backyard Renovation: Garage Canopy + Deck (Phase 4)
Since our garage is at the back of our property and faces the house, we wanted the garage to mimic the back of the house with a door, window and…
Backyard Renovation: New Garage (Phase 2)
Our existing garage has been in bad shape for many years now. Wood rot and a collapsing roof has made the garage completely unusable. And with some property line issues…
Backyard Swing
When I was looking for backyard inspiration, I really loved the look of cedar post archways, especially contrasting against a black fence. I then saw a few examples where these…
Backyard Renovation: Floating Deck (Phase 6)
Phase 6 was supposed to be the final step in our backyard renovation plan. Our garage was supposed to be done in early May and I’d have all summer to…
Planter Box Revisited
Two years ago, I built a planter box for our backyard out of pressure treated 2x10s and some leftover cedar from our deck. Over the years, a combination of sun…
Backyard Renovation: South Fence (Phase 3)
With all of our garage drama, I pushed the neighbour to have the south fence posts installed earlier than we originally planned. The original plan was to install the fence…
Backyard Renovation: North Fence and Gate (Phase 1)
Once we had our backyard design locked down, I started to plan how the work would be done over the summer. Knowing that I would be doing much of the…
Backyard Renovation: Design
Our backyard fence was probably installed 25 to 30 years ago. The wood is weathered, the posts are loose and it doesn’t follow the property line. Our backyard has basically…
Basement Bathroom Renovation: Final Touches
Once the tile work was completely done, it was time to do all the finicky finishing touches. Painting Every wall in our house is Chantilly Lace white and I’ve rarely…
Mexico
After my trip to Europe, I felt pretty guilty that I had gone on a trip without Alex, so I decided to surprise everyone for Christmas and book a trip…