It's been almost 2 weeks since we moved into our new home and we LOVE IT! Oh yea, totally
bold worthy love here! Our home was built about 12 years ago and though
certain things are modern and up to date other things were either neglected or left back in the 90's along with acid wash jeans and feathered bangs. A few people have asked me if we need to do any work to the place? My answer is this: Yes and No. Helpful right? Here's the break down. Yes, there is a ton of work that we 'would love' to do to our new home. Woods floors, granite counters, extend the back deck, new kitchen appliances, paint the outside of the house a different color. The list goes on and on. Then there is a shorter list of smaller (less costly) things that we would like to do to the house as soon as possible. Changing things that are not our style or things that need updating. Luckily the house is in great condition and nothing is broken or not working. Everything is minor, cosmetic details to get the house to where we would like it. One of the 'cosmetic' things on the list was the very first thing we tackeled about 6 hours after we moved in. The front lawn. Our front lawn used to look like a cemetery to me. Two layers of white concrete stone, white concrete lions, white rock/stone in all the plant beds instead of mulch and totally dead plants. A total cemetery,
sterile feel, in my opinion. So Steve and I, err, and by 'Steve and I, I mean I had the vision and Steve had the muscles, decided to rip out the whole
prison/cemetery theme they had going on in the front yard and just replace a few plants and mulch it to warm it up. We didn't want to go crazy since winter is just a few short months away (sigh) and we figured that next spring we will finish. So without further a
dieu here is the MLS picture of the house before:
I wish we had a better picture of the detail of the front yard. However, we literally moved in and the very next day starting ripping the yard up. I didn't even think to take a good "before" photo until it was too late. This photo was from the
MLS listing. You can see the bench, sort of make out the 2 lions, the dead plants and of course the piled high stone trim the previous owners loved so much.
and here is the after:
Hopefully by next spring our new baby plants will have
grown some and will be the same height as the other more mature plants. This will make it look much more manicured and nice.
Totally warmer right? We were so amazed how a few plants and fresh mulch could totally transform the look of the front of the house. We removed the top (second) layer of stone around the beds, removed all the rock/gravel that was in the beds, removed the stone lions and stone bench from the front yard as well. We dug up all the dead plants and tried to salvage a few of the plants that were still semi-alive. Hopefully, we can bring them back to life and make them look good. And the best part? All the rock/gravel that took Steve 2 days to remove was picked up the very next day by the lucky winner of a
craigslist auction. We offered free landscaping rock/gravel in return for coming to pick it up and take it away asap. Free labor folks! Does it get any better?
Stay tuned for more house updates. We still have a few more things we would like to do to the front lawn before winter and we have also started to tackle a new project in our master bathroom! Ah, the joys of home ownership!
