Front Landscape Part One

Updating the front yard landscape was not on the weekend's to-do list. We were supposed to be cleaning up the garage and moving the final boxes to the basement. Morning frost had arrived and we're not keen on parking overnight in the driveway as the weather gets cooler. I think it's all those years in apartments and having to scrape off the car windshield every morning. Not a fan.

But the weather was beautiful and Lowe's had some plants on clearance. And frankly, the yard was bugging me. I hated the first impression it gave and the sloppy unkempt appearance. The former owners had planted a ton (and I mean a ton) of sun loving day lilies. I like day lilies but the sheer quantity was too much. Plus the front yard has 3 huge trees and hasn't been a sunny yard in at least 20 years. It was time to upgrade this home's curb appeal.

The front walkway. Lots of lilies, hostas and one coneflower.
Looking at the photo here, it doesn't look too bad...and that's
really starting to bug me about this house. It's hard to convey
why we are changing so many things when it doesn't appear
to be too bad in the photos. *sigh* 

Front door with bay window on the side. More day lilies. 

I had researched local landscape nurseries and there are not a ton in the area. The few I visited had $40 price tags on single shrubs. Yes they were large plants, but that kind of price to re-do the entire front yard would quickly be out of our budget. So to keep on budget I selected smaller plant from Lowe's. I'm hoping with the pep talk the boys and I gave them, along with some spring Miracle Grow, they will fill in the space nicely.

I tore out the old plants and reused what I could. B and T loved loved loved digging out the old plants. Fill dirt and mulch were added to the new bushes. The bricks were moved from another area and re-purposed here. They were lovingly sorted and placed along the walkway by the boys but will need to be leveled eventually.
The two areas nearest the house are complete. I have bids out to remove the birch tree near the front porch.The large area near the front trees is still under construction and probably won't be completed until spring

New walkway area. I added a row of shrubs with a row of hostas.
Note to the photographer: next time take photos before the storm
comes and blows leaves and dirt everywhere. Note the birch tree in the
right side of the photo which is getting cut down in the next week or two. 

Front walkway: After. I'll have to make a mental note to post
again when the shrubs grow a bit next year. I am happy to
have some place to put Christmas lights! 

Front porch area. I would call this area "semi complete."
We will need to add pavers or some sort of retaining wall,
move the garden hose, and add an underground
gutter drainage pipe (instead of the green thing).

There is still a lot to do in the front yard before I will call this area complete but the progress really makes me feel better about the curb appeal. We have 3 large maple trees in the front which need to be trimmed up. There is also a large semi-landscaped area underneath 2 of the trees. Planted there are....you guessed it...more day lilies. I did tear out some of the leafy perennial flowers but I think I can live with the rest until spring. 

Check back in the spring for Front Landscape Part Two. :)  

Second Floor Carpet

The second floor of the house had carpet in most of the rooms. It was in okay shape in the master bedroom, but pulling away from the walls in several areas in the loft and B's room. Not knowing the history and the age of the carpet, we decided to go ahead and have the entire second floor replaced. T's bedroom had original hardwood floors. Pretty, but I've never been a fan of hardwood in the bedroom. Especially in a room where a child walks like an elephant.

T's bedroom with original hardwood floors. 

Master bedroom carpet. In decent condition. 

This was also our one opportunity to fix the sub-flooring. We chose to go the harder route and do the tear out of the old carpet ourselves. It wasn't so much a cost issue but more so that we wanted to fix the squeaks and slight undulations. We spent almost a week pulling out all the squeaking nails in the subfloor and replacing them with screws. D fixed the stairs with a combination of screws and caulking.

Assisting with the carpet removal.

We also found original hardwood in B's bedroom under the carpet. It was not in great condition. It did give us some insight to the original layout of the house. Unfortunately because we need to do the tear out and repairs, we can't have any furniture put in their proper places until after the carpet is installed. Boxes remain piled up everywhere and furniture is squashed into the bathrooms. Everyone is camping out on air mattresses in the master bedroom.


The final result was well worth the time. The floor feels so solid. It no longer has the squeak and groan of an older house. The new carpet immediately improved the overall feel of the home; it feels richer and more cozy.

                                           Hard to get a good photo of carpet but it's a nice neutral brown with                                            flecks of tan and white. Adorable children sold separately. 

Now we can finally get the upstairs organized. Right? Maybe. There is still the laundry room to finish and the outdoors is calling to us. We plan to take a break from renovations in order to enjoy the tail end of summer and to get a bit more organized. Turns out the former owners left us a bonfire pit! Time for some yummy s'mores.

This is what summer is all about. The house can wait. 

The Day The Walls Melted

"Lets just get this room done, it won't take long." Said no smart renovator ever. The universe knows when you start to say such things and immediately takes you down a peg. In fact, don't even think it.

We wanted to get the laundry room done before the furniture arrived. Mainly, before the movers hauled the heavy washer and dryer up the very narrow stairs. We knew that once it was in place it would be very difficult to paint around. We had that problem in the old house- it was nearly impossible to paint properly and we ended up with some blank spots on the mid and lower wall behind the machines. At the old house the orientation of the room didn't make it very visible. But at the new place you could probably see some of the old color peeking out and that would've bugged me.

The old laundry room was a very....um....interesting color choice. Kind of a salmon-ish color that looked sponge painted on. On the left hand side of the room was empty, but every time we toured the house prior to closing it was piled with junk...laundry baskets, clothes, boxes. The cabinets were a cheap MDF with no backer so when you opened the door you could see the wall. Like all of the doors in this house, the laundry room had flat panel hallow oak doors that were immediately removed. The overhead light was a dome with a single bulb. The outlet covers were an almond color. (Ewww.That always looks so dingy to me)
Having searched Houzz and Pinterest for months, I had a very specific vision for what this room could become.

The laundry room "before." An interesting color choice.

First up was paint. Simple enough. Or not.
I decided to reuse the paint from our old house that we had in the kitchen. We had originally bought enough paint to do the kitchen and the large front room there, but just never got around to it before we decided to move. It was a full gallon in shade of blue-gray.
I started to roll on the paint...turned to check my work.... and the paint was dripping down the wall. Weird. I chalked it up to a new roller with a thicker nap; clearly I am using way too much paint and need to back off.
Started again. Same thing. The paint is literally melting down the wall. D determines that it is old paint and it needs to be stirred up properly. He stirs it thoroughly and begins to paint.
I wish pictures could do it justice. The only way I can think to describe it is a bad horror movie. The kind where the main character turns, the camera pans to the wall, and....*scream* ...the wall is bleeding.
Yes, a bit dramatic, but I've never seen anything like it before and I've done a lot of painting.

Impossible to get a good picture of the wall repelling the paint. 

You could literally wipe the paint off the wall.

Two coats of primer later the new paint started to stick. I think we finally concluded that the original paint was not sponge painted on, but some sort of glazing technique. The kind where you paint your top color on and then wipe it off. Not sure of the name but I think I've seen it on HGTV. The kicker is I think this same technique is in the master bathroom. *Yay!*

In the end our simple laundry room painting took one night and one personal day off of work. Just a reminder never to say how easy a project will be before starting it. The washer and dryer did fit up the stairs. We were both very happy not to be the ones trying to drag them up there. We purchased new cabinets from Lowe's in a crisp white. We bought modern drawer pulls and door handles from Ikea. The light would not be saved but we did re-purpose the track lighting from B's room for the laundry. D installed a counter top over the front loading washer and dryer. We still need to install the built-in ironing board, purchase the doors, and add the drying rack. I'm not quite ready for the final reveal, but I hope you'll check back for the results! Posting soon....