Renter's Dilemma

Renting a house has some nice benefits. The lack of a large mortgage payment probably being the nicest, at least at this point in our lives. (And yes, I've heard renting is throwing money away...but that's a whole other story)

But, The main benefit is the fact that we don't have to worry about doing the home or yard maintenance. The landlord takes care of the maintenance. And he hires a landscaping guy to cut the grass.

However, I still can't keep myself from wanting to work on little improvements here and there. But, besides making sure the landlord doesn't object, I also have to decide whether the time and money I might spend on the project is worth it. Since we'll only get to enjoy the fruits of that labor for the time we are renting here. So for the most part I've only fixed things around the house that we're pretty easy (and cheap).

But, when it comes to the yard, I think we could go kind of crazy, especially as the weather turns nice. As mentioned, we have a guy who cuts the grass, but other than that the yard is pretty much left alone.

As spring time emerges the flowerbeds are beginning to sprout with all types of green buds and leaves. The trick is trying to figure out what is a weed and what is meant to be there. I'd feel kind of bad if I started ripping out plants that are supposed to be there. As a result, we haven't done much with the flower beds, yet.

We did splurge and plant a bunch of tulip bulbs, last fall. They are now starting to emerge...

Tulips, I like. They're nice and low maintenance. "Set it and forget it"

And last week I finally broke down and bought some grass seed to patch a mysterious crop circle that has been in our backyard since we moved in. The squirrels and I have stared at it long enough. Plus, I think the neighbors cat was using it as a public toilet. None of us need that.

Bye, bye crop circle. Hopefully, it wasn't an intergalactic stop sign.

So, that's the current sum of our yard improvement projects right now. The joys of renting. Actually, we just received security clearance from the landlord to do what we want with the flowerbeds. So, we're gonna spend a nice little Saturday at Home depot and pick up some flowers, as the yard needs a little more color. Maybe, I'll even post some pictures on this here blog.

Don't worry, I've got some better blogging topics on the horizon. I know I keep saying that...but I really do. Can a blog go through a slump?