Die ivy die.

About 12 months ago I started attacking the garden, and in particular the crazy ivy which was threatening to engulf us.  Progress has been slow, but we are starting to see something of a blank canvas in which to plant our awesome new garden. Until then, some before and after's:

 The garden path when we moved in (above) and more recently:

 

Unfortunately, clearing the left hand side of the path has also removed all privacy from our neighbours - before:

and more recently (I'm not going to say 'now', because this photo was obviously taken before our house was repaired):

I also made the most of a some tree-cutter-up-erers (otherwise known as arborists), and had the trees out the back removed -they had been kind of ruined by the ivy. Pre-earthquake:

And now (yes, that's a direct view into our neighbour's back yard - we will have to do something about that soonish):

This tree-trimming has also cleared the path that runs up the side of the house:

 

Thereby letting tonnes of light into the laundry: