Dirt, gravel and a Bobcat – the making of a new front exterior

June 2, 2014 / Winnie / Leave a comment

This weekend was supposed to be easy, this weekend was supposed to be a walk in the park…..alas, Dave and I don’t roll that way. 1 1/2″ gravel was delivered on Friday for the front garden, with the idea to load up the front garden and be done. Here is a before pic:

Dave and I got to work on the front garden fairly early on Saturday as there was a potential storm rolling through our area in the late afternoon. The Bobcat made quick work of the heavy gravel. Dave was able to sneak in through the plants and sprinklers – making it super easy for me to rake out the rock.

Above – you can see Janey relegated to the porch.

We were able to complete the front garden before noon. That was a positive and a negative all at the same time. I asked Dave if we would be able to expand the parking space that we had already planned on. He agreed and we made so much more work for ourselves!!! The initial gravel expansion would have been a 1 1/2 day deal. That one small ask tripled, quadrupled our work load.

We were going to leave the grass in from end of the cement pad to the house….but we went all in and took it out all the way from the road to the house. In doing that we needed to take out 3 sprinklers, which lead to adding back in a spigot (that’s the white PVC pipe coming up left of center), which led to an incident with the sprinkler system and digging out the control center in the middle of the side yard. Arg. Saturday ended in rain so we wrapped up early in the day. Sunday was also a bit on the rainy side, so we had just enough time to put in the french drain for our gutters and called it for the day.

We will be working on the driveway and my front door this whole week….can’t wait to update you. Have a great Monday Peeps!

Garden gone crazy

May 28, 2014 / Winnie / Leave a comment

I was out of town for 3 days….barely….and my garden went and exploded on me….in a good way. I had a few potted vegetable plants that were looking kind of sad and a raised garden full of seeds that hadn’t made an appearance yet. The Memorial Weekend treated my plants very well……….

Kale:

Cilantro:

Sweet Mint (hello – for awesome Mojitos):

Peas:

And here is a preview of the final garden area that is getting added:

Sweet, right?! Those are some left over gutters that we had and Dave set up a drip line. So pumped.

Thursday Early Wrap up

May 22, 2014 / Winnie / Leave a comment

This week has been intense after a hail storm hit us on Sunday. We had a few hours prep time as we had a storm chaser friend warn us about the strength of the storm blowing in.

We put away all of the ‘fragile’ furniture and outdoor cushions, moved all the plants inside or under the eaves and then covered my tomatoes and peppers that were already planted. ANNNNDDDDDD…………SUCCESS!! Everything made it. We had golf ball sized hail so there are other things that need attention. I addressed the chipped paint on my NEWLY painted front porch, and it is looking mighty fine.

The front porch update will be completed once the new front door is installed and my ground cover for the garden is delivered. Whew.

After I completed the outside paint touch-ups I moved the painting party inside. I cleaned up the edges in the kitchen……

Before:

After:

Lastly in the paint extravaganza….my stairs. They needed a pick me up.

Before:

After:

Well Peeps……..in anticipation for Memorial Weekend I am leaving for vacation Friday morning……see you on the flip side.

Move from the back to the front….Front entry redo

May 13, 2014 / Winnie / Leave a comment

In the spirit of outdoor improvement, I have moved from the back to the front. The backyard improvements have gone so well, that I decided to tackle the yucky front entry. Here is a long distance shot. There has not been very many nice spring days yet, so very few of my plants have begun blooming. It looks rather desolate with my front garden torn all apart (I’ll get to that soon).

I try not to get to close in – don’t want to scare myself. I purchased a new front door and in order to make sure that it is the focal point of the front I am redo-ing the porch.

First order of business is to take down that railing. Check out my mad carpenter skills! I want a clear sight line to the front door – the new sexy front door – the new awesomely sleek looking front door, the front door that will be put on next weekend (I hope). The door that the house currently has, was an addition from the previous owners. I wanted to find something that would be more true to the house itself (but sneaking in some mid-century modern) …….more to come on that.

Scrape some loose paint, substitute the vertical slats for horizontal….good times.

Here is an unflattering shot of the base coat stain, old front door, and the front garden all torn apart.

Here is a better shot of the work in progress front entry…….I have the slats up to ensure that the short ones don’t fall off. There is still a larger drop off (larger than I am comfortable with) on the front left side – I will be using those half barrels as planters on the high side.