by the way, here's a bit of before and after on the front yard.
Here's the day we saw the house for the first time in October 2007
^ somehow I fell in love with this place. this entire front yard was hard packed stone and weeds and endless overgrowth.
Here's a picture from about the same spot taken the other day (forgive the angled buildings - its a side effect of seaming 2 pic together for the panorama)
I've recently defined and built the driveway (which has yet to be filled with stone) Also in the foreground is a new garden we're working on. from the opposite view...
that corner of the drive will have a step down and connect over to a deck (which I'm putting in the cleared area next to the fence) for a picnic table.