Turning plans into reality.

 Last week I shared the epiphany I had regarding not purchasing a new house and our decision to make changes to this home in order for it to be better for my parents. We jumped in and got started on things that only need a little financial outlay in order to make them work and the first one was creating a garden for my dad. I got out last week and reworked the stone walls in our garden, removed a stone pathway (a HUGE job), and dug up and replanted the small flowering plants, primarily azaleas, and lantanas. Over the weekend, while Rick was home, we moved the two big plants that we didn't want to end up sacrificing, a bridal wreath and a Rose of Sharon, and Rick dug up grass from the yard area we are converting and used it to fill in areas with dead grass in both the front and backyard. 

While Rick was working in the yard on Sunday he let my dad help a bit with some raking but he was very unsteady on his feet and stumbled a few times. On Monday he felt terrible, complaining of muscle weakness and feeling bad. My hope is that once the actual garden is in and all this heavy work is done my dad will be able to enjoy having a garden but I'm not feeling terribly optimistic right now. He seems to be declining, growing progressively weaker and more fragile all the time. 

Today I took out a long section of an iron border that was buried pretty deep but I couldn't get all of it out today. Later Rick and I will be removing the BIG crepe myrtle tree so his garden gets plenty of sunshine. I've posted a few pics of the work in progress. I wish I had one of them from before I started. I did these part way through.

You can see where I took rocks out of the old border and joined the two gardens. What you cannot see is the big rock path that I completely removed. The crepe myrtle in the foreground is going to come out.

                                            The same day, different angle.

                                            Close-up of the iron border I removed this morning.

                                            The area I have used the roto-tiller on so far.

                                        My bridal wreath hardly shows signs of being transplanted.

                                                   The Rose of Sharon is a bit more droopy.

                                            It is covered with buds, I sure hope they bloom!

These are all the stones I removed. The pathway I took out from the garden looked a bit like the one in the foreground of this photo.

The second thing we did was order blackout shades for the living room. I don't think they will look as nice as the shades we have now but they will make the room significantly darker. The goal is that my parents will spend less time in their bedroom and create a place where they can watch TV and relax. It will unclutter their bedroom and hopefully, they won't be so fall-prone. Once we get these basic things done for their comfort we will start focusing on changes upstairs where Rick, Paul and I spend most of our free time.