Almost

V has been hard at work and OH, MY! What a difference!  He's not quite finished. He still has some siding and trim bits to put up and the interior still need drywall.  But a few before and after photos...

Before.  Of course, it's a different season.   This is a photo taken before we closed on the house.  You can see the backdoor and the little porch where the north door was.

After!  Slightly different angle as well.  I'll have to try to replicate the angle sometime.  But the deck definitely changes the look.
And another before photo:

Before:  The northwest corner of the house where the addition connects onto the main house.  This is the door we replaced.  We had already repaired water damage along the roof line but there was still lots of water damage here.

After!  Along the house (between the existing pavers and the big window) is the space where we will be planting the shade garden.  Even though it is on the west side of the house the big hackberry tree provides so much shade that there is moss growing back here.  From the end of the pavers back toward where the barrels are sitting will be a patio.  To the north of this (left of the photo and out of sight) is the  rose arbor leading to the goth garden.    But I'm loving how this space is coming together.  I love the way the secondary retaining wall turned out under the stairs. We used left over retaining wall blocks and finished it off with concrete rubble 'blocks'.

And this afternoon we had a few visitors:

A little toad almost blends in with the dusty, dry dirt.

And an Indigo Bunting rests on the line.