We’ve dfinally decided to bite the bullet and have the house painted in three weeks’ time. Here in our Summer Meadows HOA you can’t just willy-nilly run out to Lowe’s or Home Depot, pick out a color of your fancy, and start painting away. You have fifteen combinations to choose from, and you better make damned sure it’s professionally painted or the HOA cops will be after you big-time. We’re replacing our long ago sun-faded tan / tan combination with a nice light olive that ought to freak the neighbors out - we’ll then have the only house on the street whose basic color is not tan.

Unfortunately, as part of this effort our east-facing yard will require a serious revamping: underneath the lemon and lime trees it’s all grass, and the sprinkler system running alongside the house proper and the opposite wall have been shooting water across at each other for the better part of 15+ years, which has taken quite a toll on the stucco. So, a bit of a revamping is long since in order. Here’s what it looks like at the present, looking north from the backyard to the street:

So now we have to have a bunch of stucco replaced and need to re-landscape the yard to keep the water (and in Arizona we’re talking hard, hard water) away from the house. In order to do that, I need to either get rid of the grass or reduce it’s footprint significantly. To keep cost down I’m choosing the later. Therefore, in the next week or so a bunch of grass is going to be coming up, and some serious rock will be put down, thereby ridding opurselves of this issue once and for all. Here’s how I envision the new arrangement:

Basically, we’re talking about rock alongside the house and wall, reducing the grass to a figure-eight or oval arrangement around the trees, and having the sprinklers brought out a foot or so to only spray away from the house. Expanding the rock area will also allow us to plant some decorative bushes near the house and walls to introduce some color into the mix. We’ll also be putting a bench on the remaining grass beneath and between the trees to add a sense of peace and tranquility to the area.

How will it look once it’s done? I’ll keep y’all posted.