Paul and Teresa Carter's Yardwork Rewarded; Home Selected as Season's First Yard of the Week

Paul and Teresa Carter

The Paul and Teresa Carter Home

Payson, Utah

Our home was built in the 1950s by Ray Hiatt, a lifelong resident of Payson. It was later sold to Shirley and Yvonne Bjarnson, who raised their family here. We bought the home from Yvonne in 1986.

Over the years, we have completely remodeled the house and the yard.

We’ve torn out walls, old plumbing, and overgrown shrubs. Big, old Juniper trees lined the property's sides and along the back, and there was an old chain-link fence that we took out. The back patio had red swirls in the concrete, with a big, old brick fireplace that was broken and falling apart. All of that was torn out and most of the old concrete has been replaced.

We cut down and tore out several huge willows in the front yard. Lightning struck a large maple tree in the back yard. We had to cut that one down as well. We tore out so many old thorny climbing rose bushes! The front of the house and across the back fence used to be covered in Virginia Creeping Ivy. Countless truckloads have gone to the landfill.

The addition of a family room off the kitchen in 1996 was a big project. A hole was dug to pour the foundation, then a concrete cutter came and cut away an 18-foot section of the original foundation. This left us completely open to the outdoors. One day my daughter, Sarah, walked into her room and saw a snake on her nightstand lamp. She thought her brother was playing a joke on her, but then saw the snake move. We had a few “creature invasions” before the foundation was again safely enclosed.

One year, we added a covered patio and we love it.

One of the best things we’ve done is taking out the old irrigation ditches installing sidewalk, curb, and gutter. Before the curb and gutter, with a hard rain, the rain water would overflow the ditch banks and pool up in our front yard, then pour across the driveway and flood the grass on the north. Sometimes mud would cover the grass from the dirty water. We don’t miss that mess at all.

Our big yard has always been a fun place for the kids to play. It’s like having a mini-park. The swing set was built by Shirley Bjarnson and is one of the few “originals” left in the yard. Paul built the “sand castle” when the kids were small. It’s been a favorite place to play for our kids, the neighbor kids, and now our grandkids. We’ve always loved having a big yard. It may not be the prettiest yard in town, but we’ve had lots of fun here: family parties, water games, volleyball- we even had a ward party. Last year we had our youngest daughter Kim’s wedding reception in the back yard. Our yard was as pretty as it’s ever been for the wedding.

We love to garden. We love to see the plants grow and then produce fruit. But we wish morning glory didn’t grow so well and I miss having children at home. They used to have to pull a bucket full of weeds every Saturday morning. And we would pay them to squash bean bugs, five cents a bug.

It’s still a work-in-progress. There are always weeds to pull. Don’t look to close or you’ll find plenty of things that still need to be done. Every year we seem to find a new project. We aren’t landscapers, but love Olson’s Garden Shoppe, who always answer our questions and help us know what would grow best. We just buy it and put it in the ground.

There are so many beautiful yards in Payson. We are surprised and delighted to be chosen for Payson Chronicle’s yard of the week.