Before and After

My backyard renovation is finally finished! It was such a mess that I don't have any before pictures, but it looked a lot like this:

It was basically a weed jungle (In my naiveté, I did not realize that doing a Google image search for 'weed jungle' would yield a bunch of pictures of pot farms.) I never went back there because it was pretty awful and un-hang-out-able. I wanted a low maintenance, chill space that people would actually want to inhabit.

Thanks to Zaretsky & Associates, it now it looks like this:

Usually I want things to stay looking new, as if no one has ever used them. But I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how this space grows out (hopefully not into a crazy jungle, though I wouldn't mind if some monkeys stopped by). I like my house to be clutter-free and just shy of obsessively ordered. I don't like having "stuff" around, unless is it very functional or something I absolutely loveLoveLOVE. But I also think it's good to invite in a little chaos, a little life. It keeps things interesting. Fortunately, Mozzie is very good at bringing in the chaos. There is already an indent on the back of my couch from where he climbs on it to look out the window. At first I was a little bummed about that. I mean the couch is only a few months old and it already looks used. But I'm starting to appreciate the lived-in look. After all, I have the only couch in the world with a Mozzie shaped indent. When I look at it that way, all I can do is laugh. And I suppose that's how life goes: the more you use it, the better it gets.

Lyric of the moment: "This is how it works. You're young until you're not. You love until you don't. You try until you can't. You laugh until you cry. You cry until you laugh. And everyone must breathe until their dying breath..."