Front Walk Facelift

The original path; functional but underwhelming.
The flagstones were all partially overgrown with grass.

The majority of the academy students, save the youngest group and the Nordies, have all headed off to November ski camp in CO. I'll be headed there next week, but for the time being, I have some time on my hands. Granted, it should be used to wrap up first quarter grades and comments, but really, I have until Monday at noon. Plenty of time!

So, with an hour or so to kill today while it has been lightly spitting snow, I figured I may as well finish up the front path. I gave you a little preview last week, and then picked up the sand and sorted out the flagstones earlier this week. You're in for a bit of a long post, but it's mostly pictures!

Let's rewind some, since the preview was missing a lot of the key work that had already been done. I have been planning to redo the walk for a while now. It isn't my favorite part of the yard, and while it functions perfectly well, I wanted to clean it up and feature the really nice flagstones more prominently.

This summer I acquired a big ol' pile of 1-inch gravel that I planned to use to surround the flagstone. Add in some free bricks from my sister-in-law's mother, and all I ended up paying for were the five 50-lb bags of sand I used to help settle the gravel. I love low cost projects! I finally got motivated last week to get started. We're well into stick season, which means it could snow any day, and the temps were cooling off. Motivation enough to get the path done.

Strawberry Bed: Revisited & Revised

Remember back in May, when I made this for the strawberry plants that my students had planted (then abandoned when school ended) in the spring of 2013?

little strawberry plants, all tucked in - they're practically lonely with all that space

New Shelves! The Backroom/Man(less)cave edition

The backroom/man(less)cave has become a catchall for storage bins, paint storage, recycling center, pet feeding zone, yard-sale pile, and general miscellany collection area. There is some semblance of organization, but nothing substantial. Basically, just zones where things that are kind of similar in theme are generally placed. The biggest issue has been the stacks of bins and tubs against the back wall. I've been stacking them a two or three high, but they've started to inch their way forward into the rest of the room. Add a bunch of stuff my sister has begun moving in ahead of her move and it was finally time to do something about the space.

this place is a little out of control. . . good thing I don't actually want to get
anything out of those tubs right now!