Sooey! Beautifying a Post-Fire Eyesore

How I spent my COVID staycation

One of the scars resulting from our 2017 house fire stood out like a sore thumb, check that, a ”stinky” sore thumb. And it was smack dab in the middle of our front yard. 

Septic system installed in 2018

Arrow marks the spot

Rebuilding our home meant we were required to install a new septic system. Crews amazingly banged out the entire process in a mere three days but two manhole-sized, green covers along with a large white PVC-capped pipe jutted above the ground a mere eight feet off the front porch. Our challenge was to cover it up and make it look like it wasn’t there. Lori had the brilliant idea to use landscaping to put lipstick on that piggy. 

First, we drove high into the mountains above our house to gather some flattish rocks for this and for a flagstone walkway I’d put in later. We used the rocks to lay an outline for the flower bed, dug up a peonies plant (Lori’s favorite flower) from another part of the property and replanted it there. A large, old tin washing bin flipped upside down was large enough to cover one of the manhole covers while a wooden half barrel purchased after a trip to Home Depot covered the other. In the middle, we planted a pretty little magnolia tree surrounded by several other plants. But we still had that white cap sticking up. 

The Pinterest "solution"

What to do about that? Lori had a simple plan – Pinterest! She scrolled through ideas, found a photo of a birdhouse stand and asked, “Can you build me something like this? But can you make it shorter? And make the lower shelf tall enough off the ground so it covers up that white pipe?” I had my marching orders so I got to work. 

The first thing I did was gather a few birdhouses we already had including one Lori made with one of our grandsons, assembled a butterfly house and built another from old chicken coop wood from the old family farm in southern Utah. (insert link) I capped off that one with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation plate from my old pickup. 

I took measurements, used some of the leftover fir planks from our flooring installation, cut them for length and glued and clamped them together for width. After they dried a couple of days later, I attached the top platform to the sides and included the lower shelf for both looks and stability. After staining it, I used screws to attach each birdhouse to the top shelf so they wouldn’t be blown over by the wind or knocked over by birds or whatever critters, big or small, would come along.

Now, unless you saw the process unfold, you’d never know the above-ground ugliness that lies beneath. Sooey! It’s a beauty!