My only outside project this year it to have the steps from the deck replaced. My contractor friend will do the work for me.

The first day of spring here it snowed all day. Outside project was shoveling!

If I had an unlimited budget - greenhouse, deck, screened outdoor room, rebuild the steps and walkway, build a front porch big enough for chairs, and so much more!

(Taking a deep breath...) paint the siding and trim, remove the shutters and beef up the trim, mud jack the front porch (and likely adjust the gutter above it), mmudjack the front walks, replace the driveway, replace the garage door (wait, is that in or out? For that mattere, how about replacing all the windows? In or out?),

take out the ash-borer-stricken ashes in the wooded area, resod the back yard, landscape the side yard (replacing the DIY walkway), replace the glass porch windows, add a pergola or something over the garage door (it's probably over the build line so need something non-permanent),

repair the carriage light, add flush overhead lights on the porch and change the wall-mounts to something more subtle, nicer light over the garage door,

patio off the dining room to connect to the porch, put in a small vegetable garden along the side, pull out the old evergreen bushes that a so old they are just tufts of green atop sticks and put in, oh, boxwood or the like.

To be continued...

Unlimited cash for outdoors - I'd do a real lighting plan with pretty lights. While I don't want to light up the entire garden at night (night is, after all, meant to be dark outside) it would be nice to have the seating area lit up - at least enough to look in your companions' eyes. Candles are lovely, but the wind & candles don't mix well outdoors. Plus, lighting over my new(!) sink window & over the new(!) sliding door. I'm planning on doing inexpensive double floods over both, which is fine, but it would be nice to go better.

Unlimited cash? I'd replace my driveway and I'd make it curve so I had two entrances. I'd add the paver patio in from that I've been wanting. I'd replace the lawn and fix the sprinkler system. I'd pull out 74% of the shrubbery. I'd extend the pool deck and add a pool enclosure. I'd add an outdoor kitchen and I'd add lighting. I'd paint the outside of the house. Finally I'd add some flowering and fruit trees. Oh and comfy outdoor furniture!

Right now though I need muscle. I can't get the drain out of the tub so I can't get the tub out. I'm so frustrated right now I want to cry. I'm going to have to pay someone hundreds of dollars just because I'm not physically strong enough to do something that I know how to do.

Unlimited budget? For starters I wouldn't have spent tree days digging a 400lb loquat stump out of the ground where someone planted the thing RIGHT against the house, then today digging out half a dozen holly bush stumps. All of this wonderfulness was planted sometime in the late 1970s so they were all very much in the ground.

First is something on my treat yo self list... we're getting a pool! And of course a patio, new fence around the back yard, and bushes/lighting all around. And the best part is that I wouldn't be the person stuck putting it all in (not that I would DIY a pool anyway).

Next up is the other big thing: our house is from the 1950s and too ranchy/not enough midcentury looking when it comes to the roof. It's also been added on to twice so the roof is an overly complicated mess. What we'd do is take the roof - rafters and all from the original footprint of the house and give it a nice, flatter or butterfly roof with sweet clerestory windows.

Smaller stuff... driveways are outdoors and ours is in lousy shape thanks to a tree that must have been cut down decades ago rotting out and causing part of it to subside about 3/4". Also the fence looks like junk and I've been hard at work for about the last week and a half on redoing the landscaping in the front+side yard that hasn't been given much attention since the Carter administration. That stuff... yeah, someone else would get to do that while I do something I like to call not getting eaten up by bugs!

Unlimited?

I'd have the exterior re-adobe'd! I would get all the windows to open.

I would finish the patio

And I'd buy a TON of plants

Unlimited, eh? I'd start by having both front and back yards dug up, leveled and sod laid so everything is level, and grassy. I'd also put in a better/bigger patio in the back. Better awnings in the front, raise the front stairs to level so they aren't on a slight slope, new shed in the back. There's more, but I can't be too greedy. The lawns would be enough for me. :)

Does unlimited space go along with that? If so I would build a screened house with a fireplace and a small greenhouse, expand my gardens, plant about 10 more dwarf fruit trees, a patch of native fruits like plum, another quince, have a little outdoor kitchen to play around with making syrups ( Maybe the unlimited funds should go toward a move to a more rural area).

For reals, I would replace the chain link fence with something more attractive and deer-discouraging; have built or buy a couple of attractive large trellises, replace the blacktop driveway that I have been nursing along for 22 years; have a pro re-do the paver patio that I put in by myself 15 years ago that is now uneven and undermined by the tombs of the ant pharaohs; pay my neighbor to take down his honey locust that drops four or five 36 gallon trash cans worth of pods on said patio, borders and yard every fall; have a pro put in better drainage in the back yard; maybe cover the plain concrete front porch, steps and walk with something more decorative like colored/patterned cement or pavers; replace my tattered wicker on the front porch (with cushions this time); build a bigger brick enclosure for my compost pile (and buy the bricks instead of scavenging for them); buy mulch instead of scavenging for it; and replace my dented aluminum siding instead of painting it again; fix the garage up into an organized, clean and car-park-able space (which likely means building a shallow shed across the back of it to store all the stuff now in the garage) and replace the rusty garage window. And a new front door (current one is perfectly serviceable but just plain).

Oh, and buy all of those plants in those lovely catalogues!

Just a small list, I don't want for much...

we'd actually move forward with creating a back patio space to tie into our new back entrance and wrap around to meet the side steps up to our porch. in our fantasy back patio we'd have a built in grill and DH really wants an outdoor fireplace with seating area. we did a ton of landscaping last year, but it could use some sprucing b/c some of it go destroyed this year when we ripped apart the yard for our interior reno.

i'd also knock down and rebuild our garage to be a clean, well lit space that fits our cars and some outdoor stuff, but does not house every spider in the state of new jersey.

Spring is here, almost! The snow drops are up and only remnants of snow in the area.

I am in for a pergola for my deck. I also want real deck furniture. Last year, we put a retractable awning over half and want the pergola for the other half

Our small lot has quite a bit of shade, so I think I need to give up on grass and turn part into a new shade garden.

My little veggie garden could use some enhancements. I want to fence it to keep Bambi at bay as well as the ground hogs. Then, raise the beds and build a hoop house to extend the growing season.

So waiting to win the lottery, but guess you have to buy a ticket first!

Forgot - a fence and doggy door so the dog can go out on her own!

When it comes time to paint, hiring it out. Replace a window in our bedroom with a door to our patio. Partially cover our patio with a roofed pergola plus an outdoor kitchen, heating and better lighting. Small combo greenhouse with potting shed and tool storage. More and nicer outdoor lighting. Nicer raised beds with hoops.

Limited cash is pretty much how we do everything, which is why anything we can DIY we do. Our outdoor project was supposed to be tearing down the old, rotting wooden shed and build a new one. Because, of course, our winter project of remodeling our bathroom would be all done by now and we would be looking for the next project ............how naïve I was! ( We haven't even gotten around to putting tile around the tub yet! Spent all our time shoveling snow, chopping, ice, fun stuff) So, I guess the shed will have to wait until fall. Other outdoor projects - repaint our garage door, replace weed barrier fabric and mulch around the house, cut up a tree that fell in the yard over the winter........

Unlimited cash? Paver driveway and walkway with hot water piping underneath, replace remaining chainlink fencing with solid vinyl so my dogs don't fence-fight with the neighbor dogs, trex back deck, inground pool, outdoor stone fireplace, outdoor kitchen, garden, swingset, hydrangeas and other shrubs, privacy trees along fence, appropriate lighting for all this, and a professional outdoor "architect" to help us fit all that onto our tiny lot.

What will actually happen this year? Besides maintenance, maybe the fence and maybe a wood deck. But, probably not.

Unlimited cash for the yard would mean: replace brick patio with pavers, swap out fire pit with built in fireplace and pizza oven, change out semi open patio overhang for huge balcony off master bedroom that acts as solid overhang with ceiling fan, redo the railroad tie steps up our hill with flagstone, new pool decking, change to salt water pool with textured bottom, new lighting,new driveway, new garage doors, new paint... Oh, and a putting green on the upper yard. That's it! Lol We are good in the plant/tree department since my dad owned a large retail nursery for 35 years:)

Build a big arbor in the garden and grow Concord grapes! Big enough to put a large, rustic table with at least six chairs underneath...with lots of shade from the grape leaves and purple grapes hanging down in the fall.

Then finish the garden space so it's fenced all the way around, have raspberries, blueberries, blackberries and asparagus beds along the inside of the fence...and roses, lavender and catmint in the corners. Add big beds for large, sprawling veggies and smaller beds along the paths for small veggies and flowers. Then grow perennials and shrubs along the outside...to bring in beneficial bugs.

And since I would have unlimited cash...I would hire someone to weed all this for me :)

Hire someone to remove snow :). This is from Tuesday, and it's actually snowing right now (2 inches). Sigh...

Impressive!

Basketball games over there look like loads of fun!

Christine, rather depressing actually,. Think snow on the ground for 3-4 months :(. No crocuses and March is almost over. Very glad to have the greenhouse with a few green things coming up!

Schicksal - good eye!

I'm getting caught up on my reading after being away for a while. If I had "unlimited funds" I would give a lot away, I suppose, but for myself I would buy a large piece of property with a creek somewhere near where I grew up and live a simple life in the middle of it, maybe in a yurt :) Grow some trees and cut wood, and have family and friends over in the summer to swim and hike and cook outdoors and then live the rest of the year quietly puttering around the property.

CEF - So sorry to hear about your situation. I hope you find a way forward from it, turning it into an opportunity. You will always have support here.