Landscaping our Home

Creating curb appeal and landscaping our home has been a slow process...(and finding the time to blog about it, has been even slower!).  Chris and I have been chipping away at the landscaping part of things mostly since Spring of 2011.  But we did the most work on it this fall.  There are still a few finishing touches to be done, but I am pleased with the progress.

Here's the journey...

We bought the house in Fall 2009.

 Spring 2010

 Spring 2010

 Winter 2011

(New paint job and woodwork)

Winter 2011

 Spring 2011

Fall 2011...

My goal in landscaping our yard was to make our home feel tucked-in to the landscape and feel like it has been there for a long time (which it has...but the landscape wasn't speaking to that).  Because our house is so high off the ground, it is easy for it to look out of touch with its surroundings...like someone just plopped it down.  So, we bought as many fast growing shrubs as possible, and the largest shrubs we could afford.  We planted the tree on the left corner of our home to provide shade that will give us a cozy cottage feel.  I can't wait to see as the Carolina Jasmine grows up around our porch to bring "green" up, making our home feel "tucked-in". 

Now we just have to wait for everything to grow!!!

Eventually the Taber Azaleas on both sides will grow to cover our foundation completely.  The River Birch tree will be taller than our house and will shade our front window (our bedroom).  The Caroline Jasmine vines will wrap around our columns and arch over our front porch.  The rosemary flanking our steps will grow big and create a fragrant welcoming to our home.  I'm not crazy about the two small Azaleas by the sidewalk, so I think I will move those this spring and replace them with something else.  

A few notes for impatient people like me...

I'm no gardening wizard, but here's what I've noticed at our house:

Knockout roses grow like crazy.  

My rosemary is not growing very fast.  I've heard the more you cut from it the faster it grows, though.    

Carolina Jasmine and pink jasmine grow very fast (but you have to make it very easy for them to climb...I created a trellis of nails and wire on our columns for it to fire, and fishing wire on our light post.  The confederate jasmine that I planted in a few places in our backyard is not growing very fast at all.

I also planted creeping fig on our foundation, it is growing well...but it's having a hard time clinging to our bricks...which is the whole point!  When I bought it, I got mixed advice, but one person said to cut off all existing growth when you plant it, because only the new growth will stick to the walls.  I didn't do this...I think they must have been right.    

By the way, Happy New Year!  

Thanks for checking in!

Ta-Da!

Operation Exterior, complete!  

(for now)

 The color is a little truer in this photo...

We used Kingsport Grey HC-86 as the main house color and Grant Beige HC-83 for the trim color (Thanks to my friend, Doug, over at Tracery Interiors for the trim color tip).

Next on the agenda...
Painting the concrete walkway and porch (same color as house)...then eventually replacing it with stone.
Landscaping...we want greenery that will come up as tall as the brick foundation and make the house look "tucked in".

The recap...

Before:

After:

 

I'll post more details on the whole process soon.   First, Chris and I need some R & R to enjoy our accomplishment!   

sittin', waitin', wishin'...

Sorry, for the delayed post, but the weekend before last, Chris sacrificed a weekend in the woods, to put up our railings.  I am very grateful!

He worked long and hard.  Our friend, Lindsey also came over and helped Chris get up the railing post...which was the hardest part of the job.   I was the assistant throughout the day, and I even cut some of the wood myself with a big scary miter saw.

The railings were a lot easier to put up than the new columns, even though they were time consuming.

I got the porch swing painted, rigged and hung...

And even got a little festive with some Christmas lights...

But STILL NO PAINT JOB!  Arghhh!  

You can't paint your house when it's under 50 degrees outside, and we have had a COLD December!  There's still some caulking left to do, priming on the brick, and then paint all over!  

I'm praying for just a few warmer days so Charles the Painter can knock it out!  

For now, I'd still rather look at this...

...than this...

...I'll just keep dreaming of this...

...til it's done!  

(I'm just hoping that day comes before March!!!)

The Work Has Begun...

The work has begun to make this...

Look *something* like this... (which I rendered in photoshop)

We found someone to help us do the work for a very good price so things are moving much quicker than if we were doing a straight DIY.

First, the scraping & sanding...(which took about a week)

Looking rough, huh?

Then, Chris and Charles the Painter spent a Saturday putting up some additional trim work...

(don't worry, we'll add that last little piece up top after we fix the gable)

...While Bei and I worked on the shutters...

Then, Charles the Painter pressure washed the house...

and accidentally discovered that we have really pretty flagstone walkways and patio in the back (under a bunch of dirt)!  Who knew!?

Anyway, back to the house...

Next, Charles the Painter primed (most of) the house...

And then...

drumroll, please...

Charles the Painter went on vacation.  

But never fear, the improvements continued...

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend...Chris and his dad (and I) were hard at work.  

They removed the wraught iron...

(can I get an amen!?!)

...replaced rotten wood, and started building new columns, which meant that our house was temporarily suspended by 2x4s...scary.  

Huge improvement, right?

But the gable needed replacing...

I kept myself busy by adding more color to our front door, painting & rigging our porch swing, staining & building our shutters, and priming wood boards.  

At the end of the weekend, I think we accomplished a lot!  

This week, we'll work on getting up the new wood railings, and then awaiting Charles the Painter's return for our spiffy new paint job!

Wahoo!  

So remember, we started out with this...

Spruced it up to this...

But it currently looks like this...

And now, we're going for something like this...

Check back in for more updates!

What lies beneath...

Started scraping the paint off the ceiling of our front porch...because it was basically falling off on it's own...

And I discovered, that beneath this chipping paint lies awesomeness...

I had to call in for back-up.

(Which involved Chris making an emergency run to Lowe's for legit paint scrapers)

I mean, really, I'm basically in love with the thought of our hole porch ceiling look like this... 

(minus the leftover grey paint, of course)

Roughly three hours of labor and we're only this far...

Feel free to send encouraging postcards, letters, or presents...because it's gonna be a LONG hard journcy scraping this whole thing...but it WILL be worth it!

Check back...in four months...for the results!

Fixin' Up the Fixer Upper...

We've FINALLY been getting some real, professional, non-DIY work to our house this week.

We needed some fixin' on the brick on our house and had some rotten wood to replace.

So I left for work on Tuesday morning, and returned to this...

Wow.

Day 2 was about the same.  

But Day 3 is actually kinda nice...

We added a nifty little door so we can store things under the house.

The good news is...now that all the rotten wood has been replaced...we can paint our house!!!

The bad news is...we have to scrape the old paint off first....

by ourselves...

like with scrapers...

:(.

But I'm not going to think about that.  Instead I'm dreaming of what it will look like when it's done.  

A.

(lighter top, darker bottom)

or 

B.

(darker top, lighter bottom)

I'll remind you...the house currently looks something like this...

Except all my plants are dead.

...as a doornail.

Which one do you like best?

A, B, or something different altogether????

Come on....chirp up.  We need a little help.

We're going for awesome resale curb appeal, so you're opinion counts!