A day in the garden.

As you can see, the last few warm days have really brought out the green at the 1790 House. Today was a pretty big day for us. We finalized our kitchen design and ordered cabinets. This was a pretty big deal, since we've spent the equivalent of a couple of days time working with a great kitchen designer at the Home Depot in Salem. After we finished that we headed out to the house to do some transplanting. When we start digging we're going to lose some amazing lilacs and some other trees. In the photo above the small (maybe 15 year old) Maple to the right will have to go because that is where the water line enters the building. The Rhododendron right behind Riley in the photo will have to be moved to another spot when we scrape down the little hill and re-grade the front lawn.

We have to re-grade to get the soil away from the sills (one of the access points for termites!) So we're taking the soil around the house down one foot.

In the above photo you are looking at the left side of the house where the new main entrance will eventually be. As I was taking the photo I was actually standing where the new septic system will be installed. Because of this the large group of bushes and trees on the left side of the photo will have to be moved or re-moved. It appears to be white lilac, sumac and a cherry tree -- along with a bunch of small maples. Today we moved 15 lilacs to the back fence (see below) in hopes that thew will grow and provide a screen.

Above is another photo of the trees that will have to be removed.

Here you can see an old dog house and the transplanted lilacs. Cross your fingers. We read that lilacs are supposed to be the easiest plants to transplant. We'll see! Tomorrow is more transplanting in preparation for the foundation digging (hopefully this week.)