Bumps in the road!

From the moment we bought our current home (7 years ago!) I've had a vision for our front courtyard.  (Well, actually a vision for the entire house, but hey, let's start small!)

Last week, I photographed THIS gorgeous spanish home for Kaizen Interiors and walking through this beautiful home, I admired the Spanish detailing in the courtyard and the bug bit me again!

 Over the weekend, we decided it was time to tackle a little bit of the vision I'd had for so long for the courtyard.  Even Michael loved seeing the images!  This intermediary plan involved simply removing two planters, a little soil amendment and replanting.  

The weather was gorgeous and I'd been itching to get away from my computer for a bit (where photographers spend most of their time!) and out in our neglected garden.  (Luckily, the garden doesn't look too terrible if it gets neglected for a bit!)

However, our simple plans took a more complex turn (as it happens when you are working on a not so new home!) when we discovered a few um...structural deficiencies.  The footings for our entryway roof overhang supports where made with a mess of bricks, old wood bits and mud.  As we cleared away the planter, it became more than apparent we were going to need to address the mess with new footings.  Bleh.

So we did.  And suddenly, we enlarged our plan to include taking out the front walkway of red cement tile (try as it might, never looked like saltillo tile!) and lay down the flagstone walkway that I've been dreaming about.  The new footings and caps will be clad in flagstone and quite possibly decorated with those gorgeous spanish glazed tiles like the ones I photographed.

And as we worked, my planting plan changed a bit too.  I often looked up to see butterflies floating through the courtyard and even stopping to lay eggs on my citrus.  And I decided to make sure my courtyard plantings had lots of plants to draw MORE butterflies!

 A little bump in the road, but I'm looking forward to seeing the new courtyard materialize!  I don't have an after photo yet, but am looking forward to showing you!   Stay tuned!