Vintage Wrapping Paper

I did some attic crawling recently and found some interesting vintage wrapping paper.

There was the classic, "ho, ho, ho" situation

And the Santa by a Christmas tree, with a list, down the chimney look

There was some more recent Team USA Olympic wrapping paper

With Olympic rings and snow flakes

But maybe the most interest vintage wrapping paper was the 'Twas the Night Before Christmas wrapping paper, with the full story on the paper

It's interesting how the old wrapping paper would dare to put an entire Christmas story on the wrapping paper, even if you didn't get to read it all before you ripped open your gift.

Done: Put in Sprinkler System

Part of redoing the entire backyard was making sure our atomic ranch had authentic mid-century landscaping with GRACE and the other, more practical, part is making sure that everything we do stays alive and looking good.

So before we lay down the new grass we put in a sprinkler system. Grass does pretty well in our yard because there's a good amount of shade, but this is Austin so you have to be sure every inch gets water in the summer or spots will die. So this sprinkler system ensures that.

And because there's always one problem on a big job like totally redoing a backyard, so we predictively ran into a bit of an issue. There was an old plumbing permit still active on the house and we had to get that permit inspected and closed before the city would inspect and approve the sprinkler system. That meant tracking down a plumber who worked on the house sometime in the '90s (when the old permit was from) or hiring a new plumber to look over the work, fix anything that might be wrong, open a new permit and then get both permits closed. Luckily, I was able to track down the original plumber and he was nice enough to come out with the city inspector and get the work signed off on and get the permit closed.

All in all, it only cost me a few hours on the phone, but it set the project back about a week – waiting a few days for the inspector to come out, waiting a day for the old permit to clear so the landscapers could their permit, waiting for the second city inspector to come out and approve the sprinkler system.

In the end, it could have been worse, and I suppose it was kind of a good thing. I know for sure that there are no more open/pending permits on the house and I know that the plumbing of the house still passes inspection.

Done: Remove Tree Stump

What once was a giant tree stump became a medium-sized divot in the ground, with flags in it so no one twisted an ankle. That divot was then filled with dirt so grass could soon grow.

Besides grinding down the stump, the crew cleared out the area behind and to the side of the carport, and then put down a weed barrier and river stones. This area was just a mess of mud, random weeds and accidental scrubs (aka weeds that grew to the size of bushes years ago).

Done: Remove Wood Walkway, Ground Lights and Stones

Once the professionals get involved, things really get moving. In a day, the old boardwalk has been completely torn up.

The ground lights that once spotted the yard and all the electrical have been removed.

And the stone that filled the yard has been hauled off. The two remaining plants will be transplanted to a different area so this section can become all grass.

They also smoothed out the bumps in the terrain and graded it for proper drainage. It's a bit odd that a dirt lot looks better than the old yard, but even in this condition, the yard is already improved.

Done: Remove Fence Around Hot Tub

This is what our backyard looked like when we moved in. 

Then the nandina on the left grew like the bamboo that it is, weeds started coming up through the stone, the hot tub in the back broke and the boardwalk started to show it's age. Plus, we wanted a place that our kid could run and play, and a boardwalk, hot tub and stones didn't really fit the bill. So we decided our next big project would be to totally redo the backyard. 

In the first weekend of work, I got this done.

The second weekend, the rest of the fence sections came down and I started to remove the boardwalk. 

That's when I realized that there were about 20 screws per board in the boardwalk and no easy way to pull out chunks at a time. Plus, we still had to figure out what to do with the hot tub. That's where craigslist came in.

I put up an ad for a free broken hot tub and four frat boys and a pickup truck showed up the next day and took it away. I'm sure it's living in the basement of some nearby frat house now. Next I put up an ad for free wood to whoever would remove it themselves. The next day, a guy, a dog and a pickup truck showed up and removed about 75% of it.

Then we called the professionals. We got a few bids and picked the company that best understood the aesthetic we were going for. Their crew was able to do this in a day.

I can't wait to see what they get done in the next week.