landscaping

Happy Friday!

I have so many updates to share. We've been working on the outside of our house like crazies. We had a graduation party for Liam recently. Nothing like having a party to get the project list moving along.

First, here is the graduate:

What a great young man we have on our hands! It was super fun to celebrate with him. 

To start off things, we got our front landscaping under control. 

Here's where we started when we first moved in:

Lots of not-that-thrilling stuff going on here. Except for the eagles above the garage doors. Those had the most personality out of anything. But not sure we were that personality.

Anyway, pretty bleh.

I pulled out some low growing bushy ground cover stuff, painted the front door and painted some of the rim around the front white to see how that might look. We had a feeling it would be pretty great and it was.

Not even close to what we had in mind. But the outside was not a priority for a while for us.

Hero did the hard work of yanking those big not so attractive, why are they even planted there, bushes out with the truck.

So rewarding hearing those finally break loose.

Nothing there was better than what was there.

We did have some day lilies we adopted from a friend that we planted in the empty space. They help up pretty great and filled things up until we could get back to this project. Nothing to write home about though.

That was a few years ago.

And then we finally got on it!

We cut new curvy borders. We added a stepping stone path. We replanted the day lilies in the middle. Added some ornamental grass along the back. And some box woods up in front. Also sprinkled in a few red impatients to work with our new red front door.

New mulch makes everything look green.

The ornamental grass looks so little in the back, but because they are new transplants this year, they will be littler. But next year they will work better back there.

Love that little bit of curve. A little sass.

We found this stones at Lowe's. We had log slices in there temporarily but they totally did not hold up at all. It was good to try them over the last year to find that out.

Feels so good to have this all worked out.

We spruced up the other side as well. Cut the new border, moved a few day lilies to balance things out, and some more impatients. 

We already have daisies and lavender over here and I think when everything is blooming, it's going to be so great.

Before:

After:

Woohoo for finally getting this crossed off the list!

The back yard did not get neglected. We cut new borders along all three sides of the yard under the bushes, filled in more mulch and did some trimming. Liam was a pro at using the hedge trimmer.

See the bushes along the back that we planted two years ago? They are really growing. They should offer some real privacy in about 10 years!

the shed and the bushes

We are making some progress in the back yard. This is the first of a few posts about bringing our backyard out of it's pathetic, neglected state.

I love privacy. Who doesn't?

I love things open and wide, too. At the big house, our neighborhood did not allow fences, so it looked like our backyard went on forever. We actually had a really great treeline along the back that kind of defined our yard, and some arborvitaes along half of one side. It was somewhat private with openness. 

That made sense.

Anyway - At the small house, we have fences. And we have bushes. The bushes are great because of the privacy thing. They are not so great because they take work to be maintained. (Imagine Hero balancing on top of a tall ladder with a wicked looking hedge trimmer extended out as far as possible over the fluffy hedges. And me trying to stay clear of that beasty trimmer while holding the ladder steady. Fortunately, we had no injuries.)

So at this house, we like the privacy all around.

The hedges along the sides are decent - meaning there are no gaping holes (well, there is one, but we have hope it will fill in), give lots of privacy and are pretty healthy looking. We trimmed those babies up and left them alone.

Along the back - different story.

First there is this:

The ugliest shed in town. 

It has no foundation but has a wood floor (great for creepy critters to hang out under). 

It is pink. Yes, pink.

The previous owner really tried to spruce this up and fixed the roof with tar. It doesn't leak, but it seeped into the cracks on the inside and looks a little wonky.

And the doors. The squeaky, screechy doors that barely open. 

Here it is in all it's glory. 

Here are the bushes on the back fence line. Very sparse and sickly looking.

And we have a very unfortunate looking evergreen that needs to come down (another story for another day) that will leave a giant gap in the hedge.

Wow - just looking at these photos - what an icky backyard we started with.

Have hope if you are thinking you may have a yard that is this sad (You probably don't though.)

Hero just pulled all these out with his bare hands!

Ok - not really. He used a cool thing called a "come-along" that he hooked up to the very unfortunate looking evergreen. 

(There are not photos of the action, as I was no where to be found while Hero worked his fingers to the bone.)

But I did stop at 7-Eleven to get him a giant slurpee!

That pile of bushes got dragged to the curb and hauled off by the city. Hooray!

Here's how it looked without the bushes - all except one, lone shrub. It is different than the others and actually had pretty flowers on it. But it, too, soon went the way of all it's buddies.

And here is what we are filling that long empty line with. Two foot tall arborvitaes. I know. It's going to take a decade for them to offer up any privacy at all, but they were only $3 each! The four foot tall arbs were about $15 each. 

We have time. They will grow. 

Although it's a little strange to be so exposed along the back.

Hero was pretty darn sad to see that shed go. He loved having the extra space so he could move around in the garage a little easier. He was actually really resistant to losing that space.

It took some convincing, but he got on board after we looked at these:

Woohoo!

back yard

I like having a back yard. Really I do. 

But I really do not like yard work. Not in the yard either for that matter.

I know some people love it. My next door neighbor is one of those people. She is working on her yard all. the. time. And her yard is beautiful, with lush green grass, colorful flowers and fun yard art in the design on critters, flags and light up things (which our grandson Jett just loves).

The following is not anything like our neighbor's yard. Just sayin.

There is so much to do in this yard, it is crazy. Let me show you -

This is along the back fence. These bushes were most likely planted around 1960 by Hero's parents. They have lived a long a fruitful life. But their age has been starting to show for a while now.

And the grass weeds. Just lovely. 

There is actually grass in most of the yard, just not here. Even if it is green, do not be fooled.

Looking at the south/west corner. First, more bushes, with a few bare spots. (Hero actually transplanted one of the smaller bushes removed along the back to this spot. Here's hoping it lives.) This line of bushes is actually in pretty good shape, so they will stay. They just need a little trimming.

And then there is the shed. This has to be the ugliest shed on the planet. Ugh. It is one of old those sheet metal situations with the awful squeaky doors when they are slid open. And to top it off, this thing sits on a plywood floor - No foundation. Last year Hero had to tilt the thing on it's side because he saw a possum run behind it. Yikes! He got the whole thing cleaned out and secured it the best he could without pouring cement. Seriously, every time I had to get something out of the shed, I would kick the side to make sure nothing jumped out at me.

Hero tied a come-along to this evergreen and pulled all the bushes out one by one. Fortunately, even those things were like a million years old, they didn't have very deep root balls. They popped right out. 

(For the record, I say they came right out, because Hero did all this while I was at work. I came home and they were all laying on the ground. Easy!)

See the roots? No big deal. (And there is some of our grass!)

Looking toward the northwest corner. A long line of no bushes. Yay!

Oh, wait. There is one bush left. Hero left it there because it is different than all the rest. It has little pink flowers on it. Hero wanted to save it in case we could use it somewhere else. We couldn't, so it also got pulled.

When I got home, I helped out in a very important way. I got Hero a Slurpee. Boy, was I needing a break after that.

We weren't entirely sure what size arborvitaes we were going to plant along the back as we didn't want to spend a ton on them, but we didn't want little tiny twigs. But, I found these 2 footers for $3! We needed 17 of them, so we saved a bunch over the next price range we were looking at that were around $10-12 each.

So we are good with small. They will grow.

Another lovely shot of our shed. Ugh. Even looking at the photos, I get a little shaky.

And here is the new shed. Oh, it so glorious and not metal and not on icky old plywood and not squeaky and loud and not ugly. And not hiding any critters.

Looks like we might be on our way to having a yard like the neighbors.

Or not so much. But it is a big improvement already.

growing a little

Things are changing and growing all over.

Change and growth can be hard! But it's usually a good thing.

I showed you our little plants and my very own basil planted from seed (that is still alive and getting bigger). That basil is big enough to be in a real pot - I am so excited! I'll show it off soon.

Our family is growing - Lauren and David had their sweet little baby Max at the end of April:

Oh. My. Goodness. So dang cute.

As much as we have done on our small house, the list of projects keeps growing. Does that happen to you, too?

Now that it's spring, our grass is growing. And the weeds, too. Darn it.

Colin is graduating in a few days. His life is really changing as he gets ready to leave home for school. And we will be down by one at the small house.

But something else is changing and growing, too. My ideas for this blog.

I really love having this tiny spot in the world to share my love of decorating and the adventure we have had downsizing from a house twice the size. (And I love your comments and input!) I've thrown in a few posts about non-house stuff, too (Macaroons anyone? Or how about a fake marquee letter?) 

I want to keep posting about our house projects, hoping to inspire you to tackle your own projects. And I also want to include other things that round our our lives - we have more than a house going on.

So, I'm excited to make some changes around here.

You see, one of the great things about having a small house and less stuff is having the time and energy for other loves.

And I have lots of good things that I want to share. Like:

Organizing - I've done a few posts (here and here), but I would like to expand to respond to specific areas I've been asked about.

Minimizing - You know we are working on that a lot since we bought the small house. And we have been working on keeping only the things we really love and/or use. Sometimes, I am really inspired by people who have so few possessions, they can fit them all in a suitcase. I do not want to do that - Yikes! - but the idea of it encourages me to really take a look around. I love the lighter feeling of less stuff to take care of.

Decorating - Love this! And I would love to feature other's decorating style, too.

Other Decorating - What? I'm talking about special stuff - Parties, holidays, weddings (In fact I have a wedding coming up soon!)

Crafty Things - I have about a million pins of very clever ideas. We can do pin challenges (Make something you've pinned and share - Great motivation!)

Hand Lettering - Speaking of pins, if you follow me on Pinterest, you may have noticed I have pinned another million (I have lots of pins.) lettering/font/lay out ideas. I have always loved graphic design, and have ventured into the charming art of hand lettering. It has been so much fun! I get lost in time with my pens and paper.

And I may throw in a few personal things occasionally - after all, my family is one of my first loves!

So with changes, I am excited to design a new look for the blog. I have been working on the new header and hope to have things together in the next couple of weeks.

After sampling several fonts, Hero and I both agreed that this sassy font could be lots of fun. 

What do you think? Which layout do you like best?

things are growing here

First, thank you for your great comments and compliments! I love to hear that you read our little blog. 

Lots of you are asking what we have going on next. Here are a few things on the list coming up:

Getting a new fridge. (Yep.)

Painting and perking up the basement bath. (We do have a half bath down there.)

Maybe doing a bit more cosmetic work in the blue bathroom. (Grout and vanity, I'm looking at you.)

Having a garage sale, which means some more purging. (Alex and I are doing this together. Otherwise I would just donate everything that needs a new home.)

Food storage area needs some organizing. (It's pretty good now, just some tweaking is in order.)

And the outside.

This is a biggie. I'll let you in on it soon.

But part of the outside plan is expanding our garden. I must tell you that I have nothing to do with this. I kill plants. I want to love them and be their best friend, but I end up forgetting about them for months. 

Not good.

Fortunately, Hero is all over this. He took over my seriously pathetic attempts at trying to grow a few tomatoes last year, and we have all been much happier since. We bought a few plants, dug out an area for planting, plopped them in the ground, watered them, weeded them and harvested them. 

And when I say "we" I mean Hero. Except for the harvesting part. I am happy to walk out my back door and pick fresh vegetables for dinner.

Things progressed this year to a new level - Seeds!

Hero got this awesome 72 spot seed growing kit and spent some time fluffing dirt and planting little tiny seeds. So much hope in a seed!

He planted a few varieties tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, cantaloupe, and something else, I'm sure. He has a little map, kind of like a box of chocolate that comes with a guide of what goes where, to sort things out. Which is good, because when they first sprout, they all look the same.

Some of those seeds are tiny!

And look what happens after just a few days! 

Those big ones are cucumbers, by the way.

This is mine. I found a little greenhouse kit for growing basil at the dollar spot at Target. 

I invested one dollar into the future.

This actually looks pretty good. The first one that sprouted got mold on it and it keeled over after just a few days. Dang it.

Holy cow - Look at that! There is all kinds of action going on now. Lots of things sprouting all over the place.

And a few duds. Dang it.

Even my basil is still living.

It really doesn't look much like basil yet. Or smell like it. But I am optimistic.

If I can keep it alive.