Oh no. Not again!

Chris and I have a running joke -- if we ever make a decision about something big, we usually wait for a while to see if we want to change our minds. And we usually do.

So with the California real estate market continuing to tumble, we think our houses' value will land somewhere around 75% of what we paid for it. Like financially responsible folks, we decided to hold off on some of the more expensive projects until we can be less "upside down" than we are now. Just in case.

We've scaled everything back a little -- we aren't going to push out the fence this year, but we will put in a couple more raised beds for more space on the side. We will be working on our pile o' dirt in the backyard, and possibly do a little more in the front. Sweat equity requires far less funds than large, grandiose projects!

We want to create a sense of privacy in the front yard; it is slightly flat half way to the street, and then slopes towards the curb. We hope to take advantage of this by mounding some dirt right where it starts to slope, and planting some shrubs/trees with height.


At least, that's the plan for this week.