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Wow- it's been nearly a month since anything was done to the house! But this past week was spent making the front of the house more visually appealing. We started on Memorial Day by simply taking some of the 4x4 posts we had (literally) lying around and fashioning them to be the border for our front flower beds. We even bought some dwarf English Boxwood bushes to plant under Megan's bedroom window, too. Then on Tuesday I took the kids and went to a local nursery and bought some day lillies for either side of the front steps and put those in. Wednesday was another trip back to the nursery to purchase the remaining plants to put out front and planting them, and Thursday was spent putting stepping stones and mulch in the flower beds to finish them off. We ended up buying a half yard of crushed limestone to fill in some gaps in the drive as well. Here are the pictures I got as we went along each step of this week:
A before picture of the front before we did anything. Jeremy was getting his miter saw out so he can cut the 4x4's to put them down.
Another view of the front before anything was done. Pretty plain, huh?
Voila!! There is a border there now! Just need to get some flowers in there...
And there is a border here now, too! If you look really close at the left side of the picture you can see the SMALL boxwood bushes we bought to plant- we just hadn't planted them when I took the picture.
Ah- flowers! I picked out a variety of day lily flowers for the front. We had them out front at our previous house and I liked them, so I figured I'd plant some again here.
A picture of my son "posing" in front of the planted day lillies... He's such a ham! At least his poison ivy rash can't be seen... (poor guy!)
The other side of the steps with more day lily flowers...and Michael getting in there again! LOL!
I tried to get a complete view of the flowers by stepping back, but they're hard to see. Michael thought he wasn't going to be in the picture, so he laid down on the porch just to make sure he was in it!
We have mulch! And yes, the gravel is different colored in the picture- you aren't seeing things. There are two reasons for this. One- it rained and some of it got wet, and two- some of it IS actually lighter than the rest. What we bought to fill in gaps is lighter than what the builder brought in to finish the drive with.
Another view- the opposite side of the steps. You can even see the stepping stones we put in the flower bed in this picture, too! They lead up to the water spigot that is on that side of the house.
A closer view of the side of the porch and in front of Megan's window. The three hosta plants I planted are bigger than the boxwood bushes! I also planted some petunia's (Jeremy's favorite) right along the front... not something I would normally do, but they were so pretty and I thought he would like them there... in the future all our annual plants will be in hanging pots along the front porch.
Here is the final picture- complete with garden hose. I know it seems kind of plain, but I figure the plants will get bigger, so the space will be filled in more in the future. But we like it. After all, that's what matters, right? LOL!
So, that's it for now. Our next "big" project is finishing the garden. Jeremy put up the posts to make the fence, but we've been waiting for it to rain so that the posts will set. Since it rained last night and it looks like rain today, we think we'll be good this weekend to start getting the fencing up on the posts! We also plan on putting out the seeds in the garden this weekend, too! Woohoo!! Let the growing begin!
First off, can I just say how thankful I am that I am no longer looking at piles of dirt surrounding our house??? LOL- seriously! Last Tuesday (4/28/09) the builder sent out the company they use to finish our final grade. We literally had NO idea when they would arrive to do this job because it depending on the weather, and since it had been so wet, we figured it may not get done until May sometime. And the day they showed up it was SUPPOSED to rain- thank goodness it didn't! The one gentleman who was here with the bulldozer arrived around 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday and worked until 6:00! I only saw him take a break for lunch and a couple of phone calls through the whole day- he got a lot done! On Wednesday he returned to finish a few spots that he didn't get to on Tuesday and then his brother was hauling in a couple loads of gravel for the drive up to the garage. We weren't home most of the day on Wednesday, so when we got back and saw the yard and the driveway, we were thrilled to see the final results of all that work! We can actually drive our vehicles into the garage now, and stepping outside the basement doors allows us to step right out into the yard without stepping down anymore. The same can be said for going out the side door from the garage. It's a beautiful thing to NOT see piles of dirt surrounding the house. Now to get grass seed down and get the yard established... But for now- here are a few pictures of the final grade that is DONE:
This is looking to the right of the garage... notice the big piles are gone! Also notice that we have tree limbs to cut down at the edge of our property, too...
This is looking directly at the house from the "established" part of the yard. Directly in front of me is dirt that was pushed around from a pile that was on the left of the picture- now it just makes the (dirt) yard more even!
This view is to the left of the house. There were at least two huge piles of dirt on this side- now if you look close enough, you can actually see the sand mound- it's that strip of green along the left side at the base of the trees. I just noticed that these pictures don't have the finished gravel in the drive going up to the garage... Guess I forgot to take those pictures off my camera. Either way, this is pretty much DONE here!
This poor little toad happens to be a "casualty of war" from the grade being finished. I went out to move my car so some dirt could be pushed up near the garage and I saw something move out of the corner of my eye... turned out to be this toad. Yes, he is alive in this picture- but I'm certain he didn't last for much longer that day. You see, he wasn't moving very fast, nor would he ever hop again- he lost his left rear leg during the bull-dozing, and his right leg was pretty scratched up as well. Not to mention he could barely move his left front leg, either. I felt so bad for this little guy, but what can you do?? It's not like you can give warning to all the little creatures that are in a yard when it come time to move dirt... So- RIP, little toad... sorry you had to endure that trauma!!
Hopefully the next time I post the yard will be GREEN! As it is now, we still have to buy some grass seed! The good thing is, though, it goes on sale on Wednesday, so we should be able to get enough to seed the yard by this weekend! And then we'll have to start mowing... ah- the joys of "country" living! 'Til next time... take care! Oh- and watch out for them toads...
A before picture of the front before we did anything. Jeremy was getting his miter saw out so he can cut the 4x4's to put them down.
Another view of the front before anything was done. Pretty plain, huh?
Voila!! There is a border there now! Just need to get some flowers in there...
And there is a border here now, too! If you look really close at the left side of the picture you can see the SMALL boxwood bushes we bought to plant- we just hadn't planted them when I took the picture.
Ah- flowers! I picked out a variety of day lily flowers for the front. We had them out front at our previous house and I liked them, so I figured I'd plant some again here.
A picture of my son "posing" in front of the planted day lillies... He's such a ham! At least his poison ivy rash can't be seen... (poor guy!)
The other side of the steps with more day lily flowers...and Michael getting in there again! LOL!
I tried to get a complete view of the flowers by stepping back, but they're hard to see. Michael thought he wasn't going to be in the picture, so he laid down on the porch just to make sure he was in it! 
We have mulch! And yes, the gravel is different colored in the picture- you aren't seeing things. There are two reasons for this. One- it rained and some of it got wet, and two- some of it IS actually lighter than the rest. What we bought to fill in gaps is lighter than what the builder brought in to finish the drive with.
Another view- the opposite side of the steps. You can even see the stepping stones we put in the flower bed in this picture, too! They lead up to the water spigot that is on that side of the house.
A closer view of the side of the porch and in front of Megan's window. The three hosta plants I planted are bigger than the boxwood bushes! I also planted some petunia's (Jeremy's favorite) right along the front... not something I would normally do, but they were so pretty and I thought he would like them there... in the future all our annual plants will be in hanging pots along the front porch.
Here is the final picture- complete with garden hose. I know it seems kind of plain, but I figure the plants will get bigger, so the space will be filled in more in the future. But we like it. After all, that's what matters, right? LOL!
