Friends and family arrive at my front door and their first question always is: “Where’s the landscaping?” I smile and sigh. I’m wondering the same thing since my fiancé, Matt, owns a full-service landscaping company.

The saying, “A plumber's pipes always leak” holds true, I guess, for most service professionals. I’ve come to the conclusion if you spend so much time working on other people’s homes, the last thing you want to do is work on your own home in the little spare time you do have.

I’m not complaining though. Matt did install a custom-made wooden privacy fence to keep our dogs in and our nosy neighbors’ eyes from staring into our back yard. It’s 95 percent complete.

I have a nice looking 800-square-foot tumbled brick patio that’s, well, 90 percent complete.

Matt purchased plants and a tree a month ago at an auction, and they’re still sitting by the driveway. He did remove the overgrown taxus shrubs, a year ago, and I will give him credit for the effort of trying to find affordable, nice-looking plant life.

I’d get out there and get to work myself, but if you ask anybody, I can’t keep a plant alive for more than two weeks. I can use a hammer, a screwdriver and a paintbrush, but installing fences, patios and shrubs just isn’t my thing.

I guess I could always hire a landscaper from Angie’s List, but I have faith that in three months from now, or maybe even a year, my personal landscaper will make our house the envy of friends, family and neighbors knocking on the front door. And, I’ll proudly sigh and say, “Yep, WE did that.’”