Quick Curb Appeal Project

Hi Friends!  I sure have missed you!!

What a crazy busy summer we’ve had!!  Super fun, but no time to blog.  I’m not sure how moms with young kids are able to blog all summer.  My hat goes off to all those mom blogs I’ve continued to follow during the dog days of summer.

It’s camp “mom” around here…my 3 kids have been with me 24/7 all summer, as well as our cone-headed doggie.  Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a ton of fun, but just not much time to keep you updated on all our projects.  But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been any!!

Since we chatted last, my family took a 2 1/2 week road trip all through Oregon. We had never been to Oregon before and found it to be a beautiful state, full of scenic diversity and lots of fun.  If you are interested, I’ll fill you in more on that later. 

The day after we came home from Oregon I was right back at it.  I refinished an oak dresser, tore out all the bamboo weeds from our back yard, and gave my front yard a quick face-lift.  

I just finished the front yard today and am so excited to share it with you.  What a difference a couple afternoon’s of work can make.

 

Shortly after we moved in, I tore out all of the shrubs from the front yard, convinced something a little fresher would improve the look.  And then it sat.  And it sat.  And it sat…just like that for 2 years.  I didn’t touch it.  Weeds would grow.  I’d weed it and promise to plant and then didn’t get around to it.  I had a good excuse reason: we ultimately want to re-do the whole front yard so I didn’t want to rush into planting if it was just going to get torn out when we re-do it all.  Well, folks, we’ve been here almost 3 years and I don’t see us re-doing the front yard anytime soon. Sure, we might re-do it in a few years, or even a year from now…but the $100 and 2 afternoons spent working on it are so worth it…even if it gets torn out next year. So happy I decided to put my excuses aside and just DO IT!

Here’s the before (well, almost…I started weeding and then remembered to snap a picture…sometimes I am sooo excited to just start a project, I forget the before shots)

Those pipes have been staring at me for 2 years!  They are so ugly.  And then below is another wider angle view of the front. 

So it took me the entire afternoon to get all the weeds/roots removed.  There were lots of left over roots from the shrubs that used to be there.  It took some woman muscle to get those suckers out!

And a wide shot:

Gosh that fence/gate looks so bad. See why I want to re-do the front? Ok, I’m over it.

Today I headed out to get the plants. I wanted something that looked perhaps a little coastal, without being “tropical”.  Mainly I was trying to avoid the classic Mediterranean/Wine Country look {which I do love} that is so popular around here.  Probably cause those are the plants that grow best in our climate. But sticking with the coastal cottage theme I am ultimately attempting to pull-off, I tried to get a few things that were native to the coast.

Once home with plants, I arranged them {still in pots} to figure out the design.

Then we dug the holes…

You’ll have to forgive the lack of “during” pictures.  When one is the only adult gardening with two “helpers”, it can get a little too messy to pick up a camera til the end.

So here you go with the after:

All in all I bought 34 plants and 3 bags of bark…for under $100.  It took me an afternoon to weed and an afternoon to plant. I am so happy with the results! I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. Even if we tear it all out in a year {I won’t be holding my breath} to re-do the whole front yard, I won’t be bummed…I’ll have enjoyed coming home to this every day in the meantime!

What a difference:

So, school starts in 10 days 14 hours and 6 minutes less than 2 weeks {but who’s counting?} and I hope to be back with you to bring you so many of the pictures I owe you: My finished master bedroom {new hardwood floors and board and batten}, my finished board and batten picture ledge in the family room, a refinished/painted dresser and a fall mantel. Also I’m going to begin to give you a tour of our home as well.  We’ll start in my girls’ bedroom as I am working on a little project in there for a not so little company you just might have heard of.  More to come on that, too!! 

In the meantime, enjoy the last bit of freedom summer brings and don’t count down too loudly for the start of school! Smile!!