Should they stay or should they go now?

Name that song!  Dominic and I were listening to some classic rock this morning.  I love how it brightens my day.  I even did some Zumba this morning.  Fun!  I'll definitely do it again.  When?  That's the question. :)

Anywho... The weather last week was gorgeous.  It definitely wasn't mid-March Ohio weather but more like early June.  Beautiful!  High 70's, sunny, no humidity.  That's my perfect day.  Even though we have so much to do inside the house, we couldn't resist getting outside.  And while we were there, we thought we might as well do some work.  By we, I mean me and Brett.  Dominic chose to play the whole time.  Geesh... 18 month olds just don't realize the importance of hard work.  Only kidding, only kidding!

Note the messy hair and the food on his face.  He was too excited to get outside to do any grooming.

We started by removing the bench under the pine trees in the back corner of our yard.  We inherited it from the previous home owner.  It was in rough shape then, but it stayed after I spruced it up with a bit of red paint to match our front door.  But up close, it still looked shabby.  We never sat on it either.  So I decided it should go. 

Brett broke it apart and put it in the trash.  We have a lot of trash-pickers in our area, so one lucky person picked up the heavy metal frame.  Don't judge... sometimes I'm one of those people!

With the bench gone, the area is now clear.  There used to be a lot of ivy in that corner, but the dogs now use it as their neighborhood watch area.  We're thinking of getting rid of the trees because they create such a mess of needles and we're afraid they may fall and hit our house or one of our neighbor's garages.  We're not afraid of them hitting our garage.  That would mean we get a new one, one without holes in the walls and one we could park in and actually open the car door to get out.  What do you think?  Should they stay or should they go?  We think we would replace the trees with a magnolia.  And a swingset.

I also pulled up the brick pathway to nowhere.  See how it just stops?  Bee- yooo- ti- ful.  I created a small garden along the side of the garage with the bricks I pulled up.  Now I've got to figure out what to plant there.  Right now it's almost always shady because of the pines.  But if we remove them and plant something else, I'm not sure how much sun it would get.  I would love to plant my veggies there.  But that's only if they could ever get any sun.  I'm not raising any vampire veggies here!

It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but there is a little patio right under the windows of the house.  We pulled up the pavers and sold them on Craigslist to make room for a new patio.  They just had to go so I would be forced to take the next step.  We're not sure of the plan yet... concrete or stone.  We do know we want a built-in firepit.  Taking up the pavers is as far as we got on this project.  I am trying to avoid looking at the new mud pit I created.  Gotta figure something out soon!  Just have to find some room in the budget too.

To round out the post, I'll move to the front of the house.  I didn't do much out here (yet).  I did spray paint the urn on the front porch.  My grandma gave it to me.  I just sprayed it a dark metallic.  It now looks much better than the light beige color it was. 

Brett's parents gave us the rocker.  I just sprayed it a neutral green.  Hmmm... that reminds me; I actually need to give it another coat. 

We painted the door red last year after we had the house painted.  (The house also used to be an ugly beige).  The color now is Sherwin Williams Black Fox.  I still smile every time I pull into the driveway and see our house.   Our house number is on the red plaque (which does actually match the door).  I just blurred it out for this post.

A view of the flowers in our front yard.  I couldn't resist a few pictures!  I think I may actually frame a few of these and hang them above our new picture rail in the dining room.

Pretty flowers!  I have lots of seeds that I'm going to plant.  We'll see how that goes... I haven't worked from seeds in a long time.  I'll let you know if they are a success.

So... should the tress stay or should they go?  Do you have any experiences (good or bad) removing trees?  Any words of advice?  I'll take it all!