Home Improvement Projects

Everyone is always giving me grief because I have started many home improvement projects, but I haven't finished all of them. Sometimes I get motivated and I'll start a project and then half-way through I'll lose that motivation, or I'll run out of material, or I'll find that I need help, and the project is left to be finished at another time. Unfortunately a few of those projects have been waiting to be completed for a year or more. What can I say? I'm not the best at asking for help. I like to be independent and prove to myself that I am capable of doing things on my own. I also find it hard to go back to a project that was started when I have decided there is a more "fun" project that needs to be done! :) It's never ending.

Well, during Labor Day weekend I decided to complete a project that I started about a month ago. The sidewalk in my backyard ends just past the garage door and beyond that is 10' or so of dirt covered in weeds, leading to the back gate (leading out to the alley). When I moved into my house that area was a jungle of bushes and trees, which I had removed the year after. I decided it would be nice to have a rock path to the back gate so when Pacen or I take the trash out we don't have to trudge through nasty weeds or mud. So, about a month ago I started digging the area out (about 10'x3' or so). I dug down 4" and tried to make it as level as possible. Luckily as I was digging I found many flat rocks. Apparently there was a path there before the trees and bushes took over. When I was done digging I laid some landscaping fabric down (so the weeds wouldn't come back) and covered it in sand (2-3" deep). I then beat the bejesus out of the sand with the flat side of a snow shovel, trying to pack it down (while relieving some stress). After I made sure it was packed down pretty well I laid the flat rocks out the way I liked. I then spread red rock
(five 5-gallon buckets full) around and swept it into the areas between the big rocks.

That's it! I finished a project! Yahoo! Maybe now I should finish a project that is half-way done. I think I'll finish the guest room so my sister can sleep there when she comes twice a week to work at the hospital! :)

Do you see how I screwed up here? I forgot to lay the landscaping fabric down first! *big sigh*

I fixed that problem! :)

"Little by little does the trick." ~ Aesop