7.08.2011

Garden Overhaul

Growing up I never would have imagined myself planting a garden. They were only a road block to whatever game we were playing in the yard. When we bought the house I didn't give a second glance to the garden, or lawn for that matter. Oh how things change.

The front flower bed looked a bit like this...


Not only did the previous owners love bird wallpaper and living in the 70s, they adored lawn ornaments. I'm not talking about cute bird baths or the occasional cement figurine. I'm referring to these...

I spent a good part of a morning collecting them from all corners of the yard. A sad sight they are really.

My next goal was to remove all of the white rock from the front beds. I grabbed my shovel and some trash cans because it can't be that hard right? Wrong. Pure torture. My neighbor came to my rescue and posted 'free landscaping rock' on Craig's List. Now, I'm thinking these rocks are atrocious and there is no way that someone is going to come personally dig out my flower beds. The saying ' one man's trash is another man's treasure' rang true. Within 5 minutes I had at least three people say they were on their way.

With the creatures and the rock gone it looked something like this. There may be a good chance it looked about the same for the rest of the summer... and fall... okay and the winter.

But I redeemed myself this spring.

I even planted this nifty mailbox.


Okay, perhaps my husband and brother did that and maybe they had to do it twice because it wasn't to my liking the first time. They sure are wonderful aren't they?



7.07.2011

Paint Me Happy

The green ranch is no more. Now she's a pretty Sherwin Williams' stone grey.

Before


Progress



Completed




It is such a relief not to cringe when driving up to my house. We have a lot of finishing touches to work out. For example, the two different light fixtures in the last picture. Along with a new front door, screen doors, window frosting, house numbers... why does this list keep getting longer?