As you all know, we are still working on our house....a never ending saga. Since the weather has been exceptionally gorgeous lately, we have been concentrating on the yard.....and none to soon. I have gone and done something no one else in our position would do. I have agreed to be on a neighborhood house tour this Spring. (Picture my face with as Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone). Our neighborhood community group asked, and well, I couldn't say no. So now we are in a race to get things done inside and out before the deadline. Notice the complete absence of any plants except the occasional dandelion weed.

As you can see....we are no where near presentable. These are the "before" pictures. I hope I can pull something together in time. The long term plan is to do a water wall on the existing concrete block wall to the left in the first photo, a fireplace at the back fence, and cover the concrete slab with blue stone. But with non-existent funds at the moment, we will have to do a little smoke and mirrors staging for the short term.

You may be asking, why is she posting this? Well...I was visiting The Adventures of Tartanscot blog this morning, admiring a line-up of beautiful outdoor living areas, one or two of which are giving me much needed inspiration.

Potted plants and patio furniture will do alot to dress things up. We will be leveling out all of the planting beds and covering with redwood mulch. We may even be able to afford a plant or two. And the table settings I have already...no dollars to spend there.

This photo is what we are ultimately going for: stone and raised planters, and a wall covered in vines.

I might just be able to pull something like this off...with a little luck.

Thanks Tartanscot for providing a bit of a vision for me! And for those of you not yet acquainted, do pop over and say hello to Tartanscot! He is a San Francisco designer and stylist with quite a wonderful flair!