Before (Fall '06) & After (Summer '12)

Last summer we were officially able to say 'the house is painted' (well, just don't walk around back). Troy tells me there is one wall left to paint, but 'out of sight, out of mind' is in full effect for me. Let's just say, for the most part we are *finally* done with the major work outside. Many thanks to the various family and friends who helped make this happen! This summer we'll be turning our attention to the garden and some indoor painting, namely, the entryway...including the stairs. Ugh. I think I'd rather repaint the exterior than tackle the stairs, but...they REALLY need to be done. Offering cold beer and pizza for anyone crazy enough to show up with paintbrush in hand! For now, I leave you with a before & after...and I'll relax knowing we have months to go before we set to work again!

Worker Bee

Henry's ready to work. 'Nothin's too tough'

Eventually, the doors and shutters will be black--but for now, we lucked out that they're a (slight) shade darker than the paint so we can leave them for next summer...

Another day, more projects

Another summer has almost passed, and we're not quite at the 1/2 way mark! BUT...we're making progress...

Next up...

So, we're trying to keep our blinders on and just look at what we (mostly Troy) have accomplished...every once in a while though...we catch a glimpse of what's waiting for us eeeeeeekkk!

It's truly amazing what a difference a new light fixture, some trim and new paint make!! woo hoo! Sorry about the night time pictures. I was too excited to wait until morning!

July 09 After first coat of paint(and new trim around door!!)

July09 In progress

May09 After new door (last year)

View from hill in May 09

(scroll down to Dec 07 entry to see the same view in Sept07)

May09 Back Garden

The back garden is filling in little by little....(gotta love how slow shade gardens grow!!)

A little garden

It's nothing spectacular, but I did manage to put one small garden in this summer...
Behind Henry's play area. He and his friend Roni were playing in the sandbox one day and I was pulling a few weeds. I noticed a pile of rocks that we hadn't done anything with yet and was looking for something to do. Before I knew it I had started a little rock wall and had plans for a simple low maintenance shade garden. Voila! We're going to continue the river rock the rest of the way around the play area to make mowing a bit easier...then take it from there.

Itching to garden

We haven't done much planting yet b/c we have plans to paint the house (though, it didn't happen this summer....too much rain and not enough money....!!!). BUT...once upon a time, a gardener must have lived here because we have a rhodie, lilac, forsythia and this huge honeysuckle...as well as a great bunch of spectacular peony, these awesome orange poppy and some lilies & irises. I can't wait to get to work!

View From Front

Here are a few pictures from the front of the house. We have our bird houses up on the posts and the arbor mostly finished...we still need to finish trimming the arbor then get it all painted (fence & arbor....and the whole house. UGH!)

Need some sympathy from my west coast friends...

This picture was taken at THE END OF APRIL!!! Can you believe it?! We had one lone hyacinth bloom. CRAZY. This is taking some getting used to (and ALOT of whining!)

Random Pics & Notes

Once the walkway was in...the Wagstaff brothers came up for a weekend to help us with our back porch. The intention was to re-roof the porch...should have taken a few hours. I came out at some point during the process and the porch roof was ripped apart and the clapboards from the 2nd story were MIA. Hmmmm...turns out the roof was in worse shape than we realized so the boys decided to redo the whole thing...and The clapboards, well, like almost everything our previous 'handyman' did...were done the lazy way. The put a new window in (yea!) but did a shoddy job of replacing the clapboards so it was easier for the boys to remove all of that mess and start over!

Then it was on to completing the front walkway/retaining wall. We decided to do the front walk/retaining wall last so that we could more easily get the wheelbarrow full of stone up the hill and into the yard. We initially were just going to put pavers down...but it was so close to the edge of the hill we were worried about slipping down the hill. Would have loved to have a full retaining wall done from the street but it would have cost us $1200-1500 just to have it done in wood and who knows how much to have it done in stone (what I would have wanted!).

In Sept. we finally put the arch top on above the gate. WOO HOO! My father-in-law built this for me (Thanks Dad!) We still have to finish trimming it out...add the birdhouses on the fence posts and paint the fence white but that will have to wait until next sumer!

Oh yeah...we also get to scrape and paint the house next summer. Won't THAT be fun!

I'm hoping to get started on a bit of landscaping too! I'm itching to get my garden going! I did manage to revive the rhodie this summer and prune the lilac and honeysuckle (that's the big
tree in the yard). Henry loves to get his fingers in the dirt too...and grab WORMS!

Hard work pays off (usually)

You've seen the results...now about the process...

First--having that monstrous tree cut down was the BEST $150 we ever spent. We had no idea it would be so affordable and they crew had the tree down in 30 minutes. AMAZING! Henry was completely enthralled--and we were right there with him!

The hardest part about the fence was trying to figure out where it should run. The yard, unfortunately, is not a nice neat rectangle--it's more of a trapezoid. To have the fence look "right" from the street....we had to have a ~70 degree angle instead of a 90 where the front fence and the fence along the property/tree line meet. We (and by we I mean Troy) also had to build a retaining wall into the hill to level out the corner of the yard nearest the neighbors house.

The walkway: What a job! The digging really was alot of work...but atleast we were depositing the dirt we were removing into the corner of the yard (to level out that corner). Once the area was dug out...it was replaced with 8"layer of 2"minus gravel, tamped down, and 2-3" of crushed gravel. Might not sound like much...but keep in mind all of this [heavy] material had to come up the &$*% hill in the front! Yikes! Talk about back-breaking and slow going. Troy is a trooper!

In the yard facing out

May2007

June2007

July2007

Sept2007

Sept2007 (taken from the hill)

Side Yard from the Street

May2007

I say "side yard" like there is actually more to our yard. There really isn't. We have a hill in the backyard...and a small path around the house where our birdfeeders and future sunflower patch are...and a hill in the front. SO...the side yard is the yard. Troy (and Henry) built a playarea to keep the little man busy (see his blog -June07- for pics!) Then it was on to more "fun".

After the play area and fence came the walkway. I was out weeding in early spring and found brick after brick.So I unearthed them..and found what I assume was flower beds bordering the house and around a clump of peony. Later I found another 1 ft. bed running the length of the property along where our fence is now. I unearthed all of the bricks and relaid them to form our beds/walkway...and then Troy started digging...and digging and digging. He dug down 10" the entire length of the walkway...and a patio sized area near the back porch and Henry's play area. Whew!
P.S. The two pictures above were from July07 & Sept07

Exterior: Nov, April and Sept.

The first thing we did was to cut down the huge tree that was practically growing in the house! We bought the house in November but weren't able to have it cut down until spring rolled around. We were nervous that a branch would go through a window during winter storms!


Our second project outside was a fence for Henry so we could keep him contained and move along to our other projects!

Sweat Equity

We bought a great 100 year old house in the fall of 2006. The house has "great bones" but as is true for any old house...there is work to be done. At some point in time I'll finally get organized and post some before and after photos of the house and yard...but for the moment you can see a picture of the little man at work!