Or eat, grill, hang out, have workshops, read books and grow a community … this place needed to exist.

We inherited quite the project of a yard when we bought this house – not that things were run down, just over run. It was over grown, poison ivy had taken over parts of it and things were large and in charge.

The home we owned before this one had a HUGE yard and it seems that wide open spaces aren’t my forte. I can’t really think in terms of “sections” unless given sections. Basically, I don’t have enough testosterone. When given a map or blue print of a building, I don’t automatically scale it and see it 3-d. But I digress … so our yard.

I’ve done a lot to the little shed out back (because it is my happy place, soon to be office and art studio and it’s MINE. It’s where magic and poetry and words are born. I love it so much.) but the property next to the shed was a mess:

And that’s after I took the mower to it and tamed the ground cover and bush.

At the beginning of last summer we had our Grandpa come over with his chain-saw to help us take the trees down and really clear things up:

Another view (the lean to):

And then late last summer we went to a house in North Port, Mi and the patio (actually the entire house) inspired some major changes for our little house.

We pinned and dreamed and waited til spring to do anything and then we called Pete Gomez (Local’s: highly recommend him! Call 616-218-8447, Pete is retired and works only on referrals. He also only works 4 hours a day.) and boom.

Then we enclosed the lean-to and I jumped for joy:

And today, this is what it looks like:

Twinkly lights are ordered and we’re hunting for a grill (like this one know where to find it?). I have paper lanterns for the inaugural dinner party so we can all let them go after dusk. Because, we have to. Because, yes.

This house and all it’s possibility is so much fun. We should hang out.