Yard Progress and Completed Fence

Feeling morning sickness? Pregnant? Might as well tackle some outdoor yard work to fend off the yuckies. Several weeks ago, I removed the tanbark, black plastic and giant ivy roots from our flower bed area in front of the house {notice the unpainted fence in the background} Here is some follow up.
Bye, bye tanbark, hello planting area.
Bye, bye roots, hello blistered hands :)


This root was GIGANTIC! Who knew ivy roots grew so big?


And today, it looks like this. I still have to add more plants {lookin sparse} but haven't made time for that yet...maybe after the Buddy Walk planning is over.


Here is the pretty painted fence that John {and I} worked so hard on. It really adds a lot to the front yard area.

Love the added bonus of a fully fenced in, safe for kids play area too.

Here's what it looked like right before John painted it, and one below, of what it looked like the day we bought it.

It needed so much help! Thankfully, now it looks a whole lot better!

Thanks John, you're the best! It was tedious, and I know you hate painting fences, so THANK YOU!

New Fence and a Plan

While I was away on a whirlwind visit to see a friend, John decided to redo our picket fence (aka, the playpen) in the front yard! We still have to paint it, but for just over a days work later, we have a wonderful, soundly built fence! Special thank you to John's dad, Mike for helping with the project and to Cathy for being on Jack watch.

He built a new gate, so it is now an official playpen! There's no more running around the block attempts without mama by your side anymore, Mr. Jack.


Some of the fence was still good to go. Almost all of the posts we're kept, but most of the pickets and horizontal supports were replaced.

New side gate too.
And I contributed something new too. Front yard landscaping plan...and a plant :) The entire front was rose bushes (yuck, sorry, but I can't stand roses) and a Camellia that we kept, on the far right. I have decided to buy another Camellia to put under the left window as well. I bought a Hydrangea (our wedding flower) to put in between the two Camellias. I still have yet to find the same variety Camellia, but the search continues.

The only issue with the plan is that the plants are predominantly green most of the year...with our green house, green lawn and green tree. So still looking into either some small planters to place on top of the brick mini pillars, although they seem like they'd be begging Jack to knock them over, some hanging plants to add some color, or planting a small flowers throughout the area until the new plants are larger. Ideas?

New Hydrangea acclimating to it's new home, hope to plant it in the next few days. I was hoping for a white one...but since none of them had flowers, I guess it will be a surprise.

A Little Zip and Polish to Our Entry

This weekend was filled with little projects around the house and we feel SO accomplished! Here is the new looking entry: new porch light (same 2 new lights on either side of the garage door as well.), and new house address numbers.
Just another "before" reminder.

A little closer look
They're the numbers that are raised off the siding, I really like them and think they contrast nicely with the house paint and trim.

Lights on either side of the garage too :)

Speaking of garage, we had a successful garage sale on Sautrday to get rid of the piles of unwanted items we were planning on dropping off at Goodwill.A profit of $100 later and some organization and cleaning we can now park a car in our garage! Most of the pile on the left is going to Goodwill and if anyone's in the market for that AWESOME fridge, let me know...it needs a new home :)

I feel good and grateful to have had such a productive weekend, house is looking better and better, next step spruce up the front yard playpen {picket fence} and landscaping!

New Paint Job

John decided that enough was enough and that he was going to tackle the exterior painting Memorial Day Weekend. He hired a guy from their company to help out for the two day feat. Jack joined Daddy for a little more prep before the painting was started.

Jack is pretty much in heaven, pretty sure John isn't :)

Now this is where Jack pouts...he can't play outside while they're painting, tried that last weekend during color sample time and he had paint from head to toe.

He's miserable, must help daddy!

At least he gets to watch!
Some of the prep and finished color on rear.

Jack finally is set free.


These two guys single handedly transformed our house from worst looking on the block to, not so shabby in just 2 days.



And the finished product...
Just need to pick out some new lights for the porch and either side of the garage door and we're "done" for now with the exterior. After lighting, new picket fence...it's the only thing shabbying up our yard. Thank you. John, you're the best!

Power Washing, Exterior Paint Prep

We spent this last weekend power washing the exterior of the house in hopes to paint the exterior next weekend...and by we, I mean my wonderful, amazing, hardworking hubs, John.

Oh, and let's not forget Jack, he helped too.


After John moved everything away from the house, he sprayed the entire exterior down with a bleach-water mix.
Poor, guy, he didn't complain once, and he does this all the time for work too.

Then he began power washing.


Here are the befores, dirty and moldy eaves.

Yep, we used to have birds in our rafter, that's poop people.

And afters! So much better, just think of how nice it'll look once it's got a fresh coat of paint on it too.





Here are our paint samples, we are going with the middle green-gray, Sage.


But, our house looks much prettier until next weeks painting! Stay tuned!

Pool Removal

Errr, swamp removal. Yep, this nasty "feature" that came with the house HAD to go. After draining it out, we were still left with this pleasant scene above....no alligators were hurt during the pools removal.

Once it was as cleaned out as possible we started dismantling the structure which was MUCH easier than we expected.

While daddy handled the demo of the pool, Jack and I loaded the truck with it's carcass as well as the remaining tree clippings from our tree removal the weekend prior.

After the pool was down John took it to the recycling center, all of it was recycled free of charge!


One pool headed your way, recycling center. Good riddance!