We have had some construction done

When we purchased this house, we knew that we would put a new deck on the back.  We also found out -- pretty quickly -- that a new fence was needed.  We had a company come and do the snow removal last year and they were very, very good so we didn't think twice about hiring them for the work we needed done.  Unfortunately Mother Nature in her wisdom decided to inundate us with rain day after day after day which set everything back for everyone.
Let's do some before and after photos of our new backyard, which isn't quite finished yet.  Flowers and shrubs to come when the grading is done and decisions are made.

First of all we bought a new shed.  I really believe Karl always wanted one of these sheds so why not now!  It is just the perfect little place to store what we need to store.  Yes, those are geraniums in the boxes, but I had just clipped the flowers off so they will grow and grow.  We had a great crew install this for us.  They arrived on time and were gone by noon.  They just never stopped!  We are so happy with it and yes we highly recommend this company.  I will tell you we tried Home Depot, we tried Lowes, we tried another company and no one seemed interested.  We drove over to Brantford and the young chap that owns the company walked out the door and that was it.  We love great customer service.

http://www.grandriversheds.com

Now for the old and the beautiful new...the platform was falling apart and full of ants.

 The original steps from the construction were still here and they were terrible to climb in and out the doors.  The little white picket fence was falling apart, cute, but in need of a lot of repair.

 and this bit of paving stone work was sinking!

So we hired this company to design and rebuild our backyard.  They are awesome!!!  I don't have a perfect word to describe the customer service we received from Fiona, Jim, Brodie, Justin, Ayden and Conner.  

https://www.hirethegardener.com/burlington

Here you go.  We still have some planting to do and decisions to be made, but that too will come.  Believe me when I say, this fence is level!!  The grading still has to be done.

This is our neighbour's view.  Pretty darn awesome.

 The inspector was on the job.

and here it is.  By law we have to have the railing so we chose aluminum which requires no maintenance.  It surrounds the deck on two sides with that beautiful wide stairway to the grass below.

There are railings on both sides of the stairs with a bit of railing coming from the house to meet up with it.  It will protect Karl's tomato plants and hold people back from stepping down.  Everyone loves short cuts!

That's it for now.  More flowers and shrubs to come, but they will all be perennials.  A few from, here a few from there.  I plan on splitting the hosta plants in the front and moving some bushes that -- well, just need to be moved.  If you are going to have pretty, you may as well be able to see it!

I have to tell you, when we designed this deck it wasn't like this, but things change and with change, you need to make decisions.

Neither Jim or Brodie hesitated to help us out with the decisions.  They do this work every day and know the ins and outs, so after tossing and turning ideas we always went with what their thoughts.  The placement of the stairs was Jim's idea and it is perfect!  

Our morning coffee has never tasted so good

which reminds me

I think it's time for another one!