Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Front of the house after

We still have several more outside projects to do in the back yard. I hope to be able to tackle them soon, but have to work around the weather! But, I'm considering the front done for now!

Reminder of what we started with when we first moved in:


And at the first of June:



Here's how it looks today (sorry for the glum, but at least it wasn't raining):


I wish we could have mowed the grass, but I still think it's come a long way! Eventually I want to replace the 2 outside lights and add some garage door accessories. Other than that, I really like the front of our house now. I still love the yellow door!

Oh, and our Crape Myrtles stated to bloom, so I had to get a picture of them:


Love them!!

Linking to iHeart Organizing's Monthly Challenge!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Flowers and Mulch

I love the way flowers and mulch brighten up a yard. The mulch makes a flower bed so much more noticeable and professional looking. Of course, are plants still have a lot of filling in to do, but it looks a lot better.

I got a bunch of flowers at Wal-Mart on clearance. Three of the plants are perennials, so if I can keep them alive I won't have to keep replanting every year! Here's what I got:


The pink flowers were called "Hot Pink Jazz", but I think they were Wave Petunias mixed with something else. They were $2.99 each and they went into the hanging pots. They were nice because they just popped right in to my existing pots. No planting required! These are the only annuals I got.

The brownish plant are Hens and Chicks and they were $2.68 The ones to the left of those are Upright Stonecrop. I got 2 of those. They were $1.66 each. They are starting to bloom now and they are yellow which is perfect against the front door. The last one at the bottom is actually a shrub - Japanese Pieris for $2.88. That is going to go behind our lilies where another shrub died.

My son loved helping me plant these! Here's how they look now:

 


 

 And, we planted these 2 weeks ago and they are still alive! I think all this rain has been their saving grace. I really hope I can keep them alive!

You can see in the picture above to the right that I had started laying landscaping fabric in our other flower bed. We made the mistake of mulching last year without laying anything down. The grass just took back over. So this year we took the time and laid the fabric. It looks so great with fresh mulch!

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Under Pressure

Sorry to get Queen stuck in your head :). A few weeks ago my wonderful hubby pressure washed the house and drive way. It is amazing the difference pressure washing makes!

Here's a close up of one of the worst spots on the house:


 And after: 

 

And here's a shot of the driveway before and after:

 
 
Of course it was still wet in these pictures, so it lightened up a bit.

So glad to have that really bad spot cleaned up. It  bugged me every time I pulled in the driveway!

The front of the house is officially done. It's taken me a while to get pictures because it's been the rainiest 2 months ever here! We even laid mulch in the rain. At least it wasn't hot though!