Chuck Hagenbuch

This is what my back yard looked like when we bought the house a bit over a year ago:

Okay, to be fair the old car parts did leave (eventually) with the prior owner.

This is what it looks like now:

I'm especially happy with the extra space we got by removing the raised bed around the hydrangea tree. The gravel area you see in the first "after" picture will be a patio at some point in the spring, with a table, four chairs, and a bench. We were going to use some sort of generic-ish paver for it, but J found us 22 24"x24"x2" bluestone slabs on Craigslist, free for the pickup.

It's a lovely space, and the patio will match our front driveway walk nicely. We can no longer park seven cars, though.