Fixing The Back Yard Of A Historical House

The other day I showed you
the front of the 
 a wonderful old house we bought

in the historical district

in Astor Park, Green Bay, WI

several years ago (here).

The big old houses were built

close together with long ,deep yards.

The house to the left of 

the one we bought

was an eyesore as far as

the yard was concerned.

The fix?

A fence!

What's the old saying?......

Good fences screen ugly things

make good neighbors.

SOOO TRUE.

Here is one of the 

highlights when we were done.

When we moved in 

this is what I saw looking out our

breakfast nook window.

Now how cute is THAT? NOT!!!!

Look what a difference a fence makes.

This is from the back looking towards 

the back of the house.

Before:

After:

This was before any landscaping was done.

We divided the back yard into

two "rooms"...and put a picket fence

across the back yard to divide it.

First we had to dig up the yard to 

trench utilities out to the back.

I stuck an arbor there so they

would know where I wanted

to place the fence across

The fence went up to make the division.

The problem was that the neighbor's 

old garage was built on the property line.

It looked like what you see above.

The neighbor allowed me to paint it

and hang a door and two windows on it.

I painted the back of the windows black

so that they looked like the real deal.

They are basically "decorations" 
hung on the side of the garage.
I eventually painted the shutters
white-sadly, no pictures of that.

Want to see what is behind the gate now?

Come on in!

Hard to believe it's the same place, isn't it?
New Dawn roses eventually grew up the 
arbors and scrambled right up over
the side of the garage.

sigh- Have I told you I really loved this place?

I did-oh yes-I did!
If I run away from home you might want
to look for me under the arbor
in my old 'secret garden'!
Shhhh-don't tell MyHero where I am
he might show up and want me to cook!