finally finishing the backyard to-do's

"Finally" is the word of the day today. I'm "finally" catching up on a bunch of blog posts I've been meaning to write for weeks. And they are mostly about things I'm "finally" getting around to doing after recovering from the end of my sabbatical and adjusting to only two days of free time again.

Since I have a house with big backyard, I always have something "to do" back there. Here's the stuff that's finally happening this week!

I am finally -- after 4.5 years of having paint chips rain down on my patio (because I'm 99.9999% sure the previous owners just threw whatever paint they had up there to make it pretty so the house would sell) -- having the paint on my verdana stripped and redone. My friend Lisa's handy hubby Vince (who does all sorts of remodel/construction/home improvement stuff) worked (and sweated in the 90-100 degree SFV heat this past week) to strip and repaint the main structure (with exterior paint this time. Woot!). And now he's painting new boards to put across the top to create more shade. This shows the two spacing options he gave me for the new boards... single width (left) or double width (right):

Seven of seven people surveyed yesterday chose the single width spacing for more shade, which means Vince needs to paint more boards this week. (Sorry Vince.) But it's looking super awesome and I can't wait to spend the summer out there under the new shade... when it's not 115 degrees outside.

Also in the finally department, my gardener brought me little pieces of bermuda sod (which is really hard to find since most people buying sod get marathon sod, which is green year-round) to fill in the dead spaces in the very back of my bermuda grass-filled backyard (aka: the area previously occupied by the "pony shed"). When it was placed, it looked like this:

But after watering it by hand every single night for the last two weeks, it's starting to blend in with its surrounding grass (since bermuda grass grows outward, not just upward and is good at spreading) and now looks like this in some spots. Others still need some more time/water to meld.









In the veggie/herb garden department, I "finally" have numerous peppers popping out of my jalapeno and habanero plants because, unlike my basil and sad sage, they LOVE the heat!

The jalapenos will make their debut on top of a taco dip on the 4th of July -- because what's more American than taco dip with jalapenos on top? ;)














And "finally," I "finally" gave in and bought the bright blue Adirondack chairs I've been looking at for two summers at Le Target and wanting to place in the shade of my giant orange tree. Here they are in their new home: