a little do it yourself

in reality, the budget was $10,000 to do whatever we could to transform our rust and mushroom coloured palace. we painted, constructed pergolas for wisteria over my side of the garage and over the entire kitchen portion of the deck, built the multi level deck that wrapped around two sides of the house, built big stairs to deal with the goat hill up to the kitchen door, built the pea gravel beach off the kitchen deck, built big modern planters and lattice for the lovely garage entrance and landscaped a little around the new steps and path. this house had no front as it was situated to take in the view so when you approached the house you arrived at the garage. my favorite (not). but we could not pass up the view or the privacy even though the view was to the north and we sat on top of a big hill and the wind would blow so hard the big windows would hum and bow in. but in a snowstorm it was a wonderland with up close views of the bears, and the moose, and the pheasant, and the turkeys, and the deer, and the fox and our really big waddle-y porcupine who we think lives behind the barn. worth it.