A Good Man is Hard to Find!

...so I married an excellent one! ;)

In April of 2009 Mike and I were in Wichita for Easter. My dad had been wanting to tear down some lattice work above the patio that was falling apart and Mike was just the man to help him! Mike was so excited about doing some real "Man Work" that he even bought a new tool: the Fubar. After tearing it all down Mike asked if he could keep the larger pieces of lumber that were in good shape. Dad stored the pieces Mike wanted and we hauled them home that Christmas.

And they sat in our back yard for over a year.

As the weather has warmed up this Spring, I've been inspired to do some planting. We have a small garden in the backyard, but it doesn't get much sun. I asked Mike if he thought he could build a raised planter. He said "Of course!" What a perfect use for the outdoor wood!

We were coming up on a free weekend so Mike spent evenings drawing up plans. An "L" shaped planter with a bench? Fantastic! We only have enough wood for and "I" shaped planter with a bench? That's ok, too! :)

At 7am on Saturday morning, Mike and I went to Lowe's for screws. That's right, we were going to build a 2'x7' raised planter box with a bench attached and all we needed at Lowe's was a box of exterior screws! We're so resourceful! Mike went to work as soon as we got back and I went and did fun things like go to the farmer's market and get potted herbs. By lunchtime we had this:

We went to the nursery together after lunch and bought some pepper, cilantro, tomatoes and cauliflower plants. After that we went to GardenVille and got 1/2 cu. yard of potting soil (it pretty much filled the bed of the truck). We wheeled the soil into the backyard using our recycling bin (seemed appropriate). After we filled the planter and planted all our plants, the sun was going down so it was time to quit for the day.

On Sunday we met some friends at Boerne Lake for a birthday party and a cookout. Afterwards it was time to finish up the planter/bench! I took a brief (ok, 2.5 hour) nap and when I awoke the bench was finished!! My amazing husband put together a planter/bench in just one weekend! I'm so lucky!