So I’m going to tease you with a wedding picture of my beautiful new daughter-in-law at the end of this post that was taken in the area pictured below.

Funny how sometimes the areas you’ve worked so hard on are the very areas the experts tell you needs to be replaced.  The areas in question may have been beautiful at one time and even what was popular but today that are “outdated.”  One of the areas we got this advice on was our front porch area (okay – it’s not a true front porch) but it’s my front sitting area so I’m calling it a porch. 

Years ago my husband, Jeff, worked so hard placing tile in this area.  But it was time for it to go.  In order to save some money we decided to demo this area ourselves.  How hard could it be right?  It was pretty hard and we ended up renting a tool to help break it up.  Our thanks to Josh, our son-in-law, for helping Jeff with this project.

Here were a few things I learned during this process:

Lesson One – we often have to remove something to make way for something new and better. 

Lesson Two – we will be living in a mess for awhile and wonder more than once what did we just do?

Lesson Three – next time we might want to get a quote from the experts who have the tools and see if the money being saved was worth the effort we expended?i

Note – there is a bench in the corner of this picture – promise it will mean more later in the post.

Another block wall – ugg! – this wall also began to show it’s wear and I wasn’t sad when we decided to remove it entirely.

I took this picture because this was a project that was important to Jeff.  We had a yellow plant on the other side of the garage and he wanted it to match on both sides.  So he moved rock, found a way to get water to the area, brought dirt in and after several hours we had a yellow plant on this side of the garage also.  As you can see it was a bit of a wrestling match – Jeff won.

Our new front yard.

Photo – Aaron Kes Photography

Our daughter-in-law sitting on the bench but now with rustic bricks under her pretty toes.  This area was used in several of Evan and Rhiannon’s wedding photos.  

If you missed Part 1 of the Makeover Series (Getting Ready for the Wedding) you can find it HERE

Next week we’ll be returning to the back yard.

During the time the front was getting made over I felt a a bit like the the tile being broken up as I learned a new way to exercise consistently and provide daily nutrition that was a benefit to my body.  I remember how proud I was when I finished 42 days of the program and could see my own changes happening.  

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