You guys, whose bright idea was it to attempt to do an OUTDOOR space in the SPRING in a short time frame?? Seriously, what was I thinking? It has been raining so much. I can’t believe it. So, I’ve had a few setbacks in the courtyard. In addition to the rain, one of my crepe myrtles is not blooming. I’m not sure what happened to it, but it just isn’t coming back. And it was in a prime location for the photos to turn out like I wanted. And, I’m still stumped on what to do with my weird porch. AND the dirt and rock took so much longer to get into place than I was planning for. So, this last week is going to be BUSY. But, fingers crossed, there is no more rain in the forecast.

So, in case you missed it I am participating in the One Room Challenge from Calling it Home and we are making over our courtyard. Take a look at where we started here.

We did manage to get a few things done, thankfully.

First up, we managed to get the dirt and river rock placed.

We saved a ton of money getting the dirt and rocks ourselves, but shoveling that stuff was a workout and took some time. Overall, we got a ton of dirt and river rock and I think we only spent about $160. I think we need a little more rock, but we are going to give it some time to see how it settles down.

We wanted rock in the courtyard because it is so easy. We just can’t keep up with plants, as nice as they are. It was so overgrown out here, the ticks and mosquitos made it hard to hang out here. So, we decided to go super minimal with a few hearty evergreens and nothing else.

I also got the table almost finished up and then built some planters from the scraps. Planters are so expensive!!! I was going to buy a couple, but couldn’t believe I couldn’t find a couple of big ones I liked for under $200 a piece! So, I made 3 big ones of mostly scraps. And I love them, so I’m counting that was a win.

Okay, make sure to come back next week for the big courtyard reveal! I can’t wait for it to be done so we can start using it. A huge thanks so my sponsors for this round of the ORC. I couldn’t do it without them, and I am really happy with the products. Click over and check them out.