Other Minor Exterior Improvements

I wanted to make sure to document some exterior improvements made last summer--now that spring is upon us! And maybe include a few updated progress comparison shots!

I cleaned up the garden beds to the left of the front door, looking out:

This involved re-placing the brick edging (remember the 1890's leftover fireplace brick? yeah, that), replacing weed block and mulching. There are two hydrangea shrubs here, a new boxwood, a tall emerald Arbor Vitae, and some spray rose bushes. We also re-seeded the lawn because it didn't seed well the fall before when we removed the large boxwoods.

I re-located these yucca from under the Rose of Sharon to a new location near the entrance of the driveway. It is too crowded there and I think it will do better here!

There is an un-identified shrub that we have next to it to the right, that is doing really well. It is one that we got from Gabe's work for Arbor Day a year ago. It *might* be a dogwood.

See? It's doing so well! Except that I took this shot right before the deer got to it...grr

Took this shot mid June 2020

And another with a little cumquat:

In the background you can see a redbud tree doing well, and a pine tree in the farthest sight.

A few other beauties around the yard, blooming in June,

My peonies, in an unfinished garden bed in the front:

Beautiful climbing roses blooming next to the deck in the back:

I haven't quite had success getting them to climb, yet. As opposed to the climbing rose on the other side of the deck I've had since 2017 that has done quite well in the climbing/blooming department!

Here's a slightly different angle of the front garden bed shared earlier, with the hydrangeas about to bloom and the spray roses blooming:

Hydrangeas in the front left garden bed, going crazy awesome:

They started out like this in 2015!

Day-lilies, running out of room, growing up in-between our viburnum and evergreen:

Here is our garden and chicken coop/run combo:

A close up of the watermelons getting started in there:

Progress on how the front garden beds are doing, at the beginning of July:

Do you spy the elephant ears getting their start?

And now, the front facade, in the middle of September, elephant ears in all their glory (and swallowing up the juniper tree! Not to worry, it was looking pretty bad, having gotten a bad infestation of bag worms):

More up close shot:

We made a few other improvement too, to our back yard. We added a shade sail to our south facing deck which really helped make it more comfortable back there with a dark colored stain of the deck underfoot. Also, we added a stock tank pool, which is bigger than the other pools we came up with and is a little bit more in-destructible too.

We added some of the same white granite gravel around the pool to cut down on weeds and grass clippings that would make their way into my house ;)

This girl loves the stock tank!

Some technical difficulties are seen here--the pool got rusty looking because the chlorine was reacting with the metal. This year, we are going to spray 6-8 coats of rubber sealant instead of just one ;) 

Visuals of the set up at the end of the summer, on a foggy morning:

Last but not least, we have some pictures taken by my brother in law, who just got a drone/license and was having some fun taking some pics of our property when they visited in May:

And that's all for now, folks!

Meanwhile, a year later...

I realize I have been quiet on the blog front for the last year!!  Allow me to update you on our projects from 2019!

First, in January, Gabe worked on the wiring for our TV corner.  It's by no means finished, since we've been focusing on the outside for most of the year, but we got it functional for a Superbowl gathering we hosted.

This spot is Gabe's brain child and his creativity will come to life with this one.  I will save the details on this space for another time!  Cliffhanger anyone?


In February, we welcomed a new little lady into our home ;) Her name is Tirzah and she is a sweetie!!!

In March, we re-installed the basketball hoop.  I think both Gabe and Judah are glad for this!

In April, we bought a shed for extra storage, like the lawn mower and that stinky gas can.

It was not the same color as our house color and black trim (SW 6258 Tricorn Black), so I got a gallon of Hardi-plank's Woodland Cream from SW, Gabe and I teamed up and got out there in the fresh air.  He did the first coats and I did the finishing coats.

Mid-July, we hired out the building of the porch roof. My Dad managed the subcontractor while we went away to Michigan for Gabe's grandmother's 98th birthday party (which happened to take place on Zoe's birthday--Grandma Cropsey's birthday wasn't for another week!).

Getting started:

In August, we tackled the front yard landscaping which happened to include finishing the drainage on the northwest side of the house. The drain pipe was installed about halfway out to the road (can't remember the roadblock we encountered at that time) and it was sticking up out of the ground for a half a year.  Gabe's buddy Mark so generously lent us his bobcat (skid steer) so we could finish the job.

A before picture of a strip of long grass and uneven turf shooting down from the house toward the road:

Zoe enjoying some adventures with Daddy:

We had to get the FIOS line marked out again before digging out the trench for the drain pipe. This took about a day's work to lay the pipe and another day to level out the ground.  Gabe also did some earthworks in the back yard with the bobcat, cleaning up the mess that was created at the end of the season last year right before the frost set in when it was too late to do anything.  He got to smoothing out the tire tracks from where the excavator got stuck in the mud, and he wanted to relocate the berm he created in the back woods for target practice with the extra fill dirt and debris that had been created from construction last year.  It looks much better back there now!

And, since we had the bobcat on hand, we might as well go ahead and tear out those overgrown shrubs, since we in process of changing the landscaping pretty drastically in the front.  This was a fun project on a sunny Saturday over Labor Day weekend!  My parents we over helping out with the kids while Gabe was outside playing with his machinery and I was inside prepping hard for our first term of homeschool, so it worked out great.

And so it begins:

Going a little crazy with the chainsaw:

But having so much fun!!

Devoid of one of them!

And then ripping out the stump:

And they are gone!

A couple weekends later after we had a chance to add some new shrubs back in (thanks Mom & Dad for the two smaller boxwoods, all the help with the kids and planting!)--some rose bushes and hydrangeas along the house where we finished up the grading:

Much, much better.  Still a ways to go, but ahh, sweet progress!

And now for the project that has consumed many weekends this fall, and won't now be finished until the spring: the path leading up to the front door from the driveway that act as stairs, garden boxes and retaining wall of sorts.  Gabe and my dad did some measurements, talked through the plans and Dad drew them up:

Starting from the bottom next to the driveway and working their way up the hill:

It's taking shape!

Looking up, looking down:

In November, our contractor Dave came back! To do some punch list items, replace our existing house windows (a line item that we waited on until we had more $$ to accomplish), paint the new porch addition, replace and paint new fascia/soffits on existing building and have gutters installed.

He installed 5 windows (3 in kids bedrooms, 1 large window in living room, and 1 in bathroom) and is here painting newly installed exterior trim:

And, he painted the front door that day!  (actually he painted the first coat, and since I realized it was a warm day with the next day cooling down quite a bit, I went ahead and painted the 2nd coat that evening to finish it off) You can see all the paint swatches taped up on the door, as I'm frantically trying to decide.  No, actually I was cool as a cucumber about the decision (out of character, you may know--me and decisions don't play well together).  Funny story--my first instinct after taping them all up and not looking at the names was SW 6471 Hazel. I went ahead and asked Judah which one was his favorite, and without knowing which one I was leaning towards said, "Hazel" as well!  Furthermore, confirmation presented itself in the fact that Hazel has been my top pick since 2 years ago when we started this mess.  Badda boom badda bing, moral of the story, don't second guess yourself. ;) :D

Dave, painting the front door:

Voila!

I gadda tell ya, it feels good to have THAT done.  And you have to know I went into my master to do list and crossed that sucker off!!!

Closer up:

Let's pause for a second and take this in.  OOOOoooooooOOO!!!  (pretend you are in the movie Despicable Me for a second and you are watching a sea of minions all in chorus---)

And hello sexy black windows!  Nice to meet you!

Have I gone overboard yet? (Why yes, it is past 11pm while I'm writing this)

Dave, painting the porch posts:

And ripping off the old fascia, soffits and gutters, YES please!!!

Ahhhhhh, finally some cohesion on the front of the house.  Long time comin'!!!

Here's a little throw back from 2017, for the funsies:

Is this real life??!?

And now, before signing off, I will take one more liberty and share a picture of our newest little presh from last July:

picture courtesy of my sister in law, Bethany

Isn't she just somethin' else?


Until next time.....