Fenced in

Finally, we have a fence. It took 6 weeks to arrange! We are members of  a HOA * and it took them 3 weeks to approve our fence proposal. We also needed a city zoning certificate and building permit which was another 2 weeks of waiting. Luckily I managed to schedule the installation within one week, so here we are surrounded by cedar.

before and after

 

before and after

We have also made big mulch beds around our trees, so we are ready for winter.

TIP: if you want to change a large grass area into a flower bed etc. and avoid digging out the grass, before you spread the mulch on it, cover the area with many sheets of newspaper or even better with cardboard as we did. That way you can be sure that the grass is not coming back - it will decompose and at the same time feed your plants during the process.

So, the Phase I of our landscaping project has been completed, Phase II is planed for the next year :-)

 

 

* HOA - Homeowner Association

"In the United States, a homeowner association is a corporation formed by a real estate developer for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling of homes and lots in a residential subdivision.

It grants the developer privileged voting rights in governing the association, while allowing the developer to exit financial and legal responsibility of the organization, typically by transferring ownership of the association to the homeowners after selling off a predetermined number of lots. Membership in the homeowners association by a residential buyer is typically a condition of purchase; a buyer isn't given an option to reject it. Most homeowner associations are incorporated, and are subject to state statutes that govern non-profit corporations and homeowner associations. State oversight of homeowner associations is minimal, and mainly takes the form of laws which are inconsistent from state to state. Some states, such as Florida and California, have a large body of homeowner association law, and some states, such as Massachusetts, have virtually no homeowner association law.

Homeowners associations first emerged in the United States in the mid-19th century. Their growth was limited, however, until the 1960s, when several factors led to a period of rapid national growth, including, a push towards large scale residential development by the Federal Housing Authority and the Urban Land Institute; an increasing cultural preference for architectural uniformity; a decline of readily available land; rising construction costs; and a modification of federal mortgage insurance rules to include cooperatives and condominiums.

A HOA provides people with shared neighborhood values, an opportunity to enforce regulations, consistent with overarching statutory constraints, to achieve a community representative of such values. In doing so, an HOA inherently restricts the rights that would otherwise exist for its members based on municipal codes. For instance, a degree of conformity is often required in exterior appearance of single family homes and there are often time limits and/or restrictions to activities generating noise........" - Wikipedia