Remember last Fall when Bob and I purchased The Mid-Century Modern Beauty (a.k.a. Miss Money Pitt).?  Well, we're back to work on the renovations and I've decided to also go back to posting some Before & After photos of our progress.

One of the things that attracted us to Miss Money Pitt was the lot - it sits on a wooded hillside that backs up to a protected 90 acre land preserve.  Our only neighbors in the back are deer, raccoons, turkeys, squirrels, and other wildlife.

Here is a glimpse of the back yard when we bought the house:

Here's the back yard today:

 You probably gasped, "What were they thinking?!"

1)  It's still technically Winter, the trees and shrubs haven't budded out so, yes, it does look drab;

2)  We knew that there was an ancient rock garden (boulder garden?!) under all of the ivy and we wanted to uncover it.

We received several bids from contractors for clearing out the back yard.  After recovering from the $hock of the amount$ we decided we'd do it ourselves.  Hello, Aleve and heating pad!

I promise that it will be beautiful (keep telling Bob that) and you'll see regular photos of our progress.  Prayers are appreciated!

In the meantime here is a portrait of Miss Money Pitt:

Actually, this is an oil portrait of an unknown lady from the West Palm Beach area.  It was painted in 1978 by Georgia Warren Waidlich. 

I found her in a thrift shop several years ago in south Florida, long before we purchased our Forever Home.

I don't know why I had to have her but it seems

appropriate that she's hanging over our mantel.