Garage Door Makeover

Ok, so first off, I’m sorry I’ve been MIA. I’m just having a hard time finding time to blog in this season. All my free time (when Bronny is sleeping) I’m using for projects (or teaching the older kiddos.) And most the time he is awake is just not a great time for typing. So it’s just not been happening. Right now I’m attempting to fit it in during “Oooo we just got new Play Doh! time.”

So Today I want to show you a project I am seriously proud of. (Unfortunately the photo quality isn’t to the level of pride I have for it, but I just wanted to get it shown.)

Because Befores and Afters NEVER get old…. Here’s our house before we owned it (Thank you Google Earth for the shocking truth!)

But where I really want you to look (I know…there is SO MUCH to take in) is the garage door.

 Because I need to show work in progress...

And this was us at the end of this summer.

I tried to find some close up photos I have of the garage door, but my computer wasn’t in the mood to load them. 

So you’ll just have listen for a minute instead. The garage door (well really the general garage area) is pretty much the first thing this house presents to a viewer. (Especially back when the yard was a jungle hiding the rest of the house.) And so when we pulled up to view this house, I immediately noted the garage as a point of change.

If you look from the picture above, to the picture below -- we did change the light fixtures. That made me SO happy. The old ones scale, light bulb placement, and color were so off for the house. These fit so much better.

Anyway...

The garage door itself is a material I’m not used to seeing as a garage door. It’s something like hardboard, but it’s got faux (large scale) wood grain. It’s really ugly. It wasn’t in great shape, but it’s still very functional.  

A bit ago I painted it flat black just to kinda hide some of it’s ew factor. And it worked well. The faux grain chilled out a bit, and the oldness hide itself.

Still old looking, but better, espeically from far away. (But I wanted to show you with this photo, what this door really is made of.)

But then...

One day, while brainstorming house stuff, I had a moment where I thought…Wait, if people add trim to doors inside their house to make them prettier without getting new doors….why can’t I do that to my garage door. I asked a smart DIY friend of mine what she thought about it’s possibility, and she thought that as long as it was not so thick as to get in the way of the door opening, and not so heavy as to make the garage door opening strain, it should be doable.

(I didn’t ask Blake at that moment because I had JUST asked him to do about probably 6 other house projects that week, and if this was just impossible I wanted to save him the mental effort of my requests.)

So then I started looking at garage doors and trying to figure out what I could add to mine to make it look nice.

Enter this look: (I’d show you think Pintrest pics I saved…but crabby computer says no.)

Blake bought hardboard, he cut it (And I think the store cut it a bit for us initially?) and we painted the backside for some extra water sealing out protection.

Then Blake did awesome math and cutting to create my plans. Then he glued the backs and then brad nailed the pieces into place.

\

After that I painted everything black and almost died of joy overload because it looked SO GOOD!

But we needed to caulk it all to keep water from getting behind it. There was mild drama initially because we couldn’t find a good caulk for what we were doing. The first one needed WEEKS to cure before we could paint and I didn’t like the glaring white edges staring at me for weeks and embarrassing me to the neighborhood. (I’m totally cool with my house looking like GARBAGE inside as we do these projects because I don’t have to show people until I am done, and wasn’t embarrassed by the outside’s badness initially because I knew we could change it. But I learned in this garage door process that I am not impervious to fear of judgement. Because this whole process what very much a risk (I found no other blog resources showing a project like this and I didn’t know if it wasn’t doing to fail big time), and I hated doing it in front of an audience. Even painting the door black was a design risk, and as people took their walks that day, I was so self conscience. I was so afraid it would be UGLY and that people would judge me for it. It was an interesting emotional experiment during this project.)

Anyway -- I wasn’t about to have white caulk pushing all those emotional buttons for a couple weeks. 

There was black caulk, but it wasn’t paintable (and we all know it wouldn’t be the SAME black, so it would ALWAYS show.) So that wouldn’t work.

But it turned out that we just needed to shop another store and found an exterior caulk that could be painted in a short amount of time.

So Blake caulked the door and I laughed inside about how it actually just kinda looked period appropriate. I feel like midcentury doors regularly accented the raised panels. (However, I did not want it to stay that way.)

Finally I got to go back over it again paint everything again. And it was good.

I mean, I really can barely stand how nice it wound up being.

Even that faux wood grain looks right now.


We did this a few months ago now, and I still crane my neck when coming and going from the house to watch the garage door from every angle and enjoy the crazy good improvement.



The garage door still works great.  It’s rained a bunch with no issues. And we saved big bucks just facelifting what we had.
I’m super happy about it.

We still have another project up our sleeve for the garage area visual improvement. But that might be a next year thing now because the weather finally cooled down.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I’m still just giddy over this!!

Extreme Spring Cleaning

You guys, I get bit by the weirdest bugs.

I'm not sure what really got me started, it might have been the combo of our across the street neighbors painting their porch (the rest of their house is brick) or seeing our friends with a similar house to ours, painting their house --- and how fantastic each is looking. It might just be my own internal intensity propelling me. 

Actually, now that I think about it... it might have just been a moment where I was trying to keep the kids busy while I did something else and gave them rags to clean with, and seeing the siding start looking actual-white again, and not being able to resist that glorious improvement.

 Whatever it was, I started washing our house.

I started over our garage door, and as you can see above, there was actual dirt build up.

I don’t know. When we bought this house, I fell in love with it’s good bones, it’s good space, and it’s great location. I had zero emotions about it’s exterior. I didn’t have positive or negative ones. I guess they leaned more towards negative because... well the house looked terrible on the whole. And I’ve never given a lot of thought to exteriors and my dream-look, and at first the black and white seemed boring to me, and the house just looked aged and tired. So in the back of my mind I just kinda figured the exterior, like everything inside, needed a makeover. I even have a photoshopped picture I did before moving of the color I was thinking it would need to be. (Now that I look at it, I don’t really like it. ha. Good thing I couldn’t do it. I was just bored waiting to move, and trying not to go crazy waiting.)

However, recently my interior designer instagrammers have all started posting (here and there) cool houses they see on walks, or inspirational exteriors, or their own work….all these white houses with black accents. And it make me head-tilt and think about my own house. Maybe this house has a great classic look. Maybe I don’t need to change it --- maybe it just needs a little spa day, and a little mascara. (Because let’s face it -- being a classic beauty is always desirable….BUT saving money….well that’s usually the main director of operations in my planning (you know, as long as “saving money” consults with “beauty” )….so yeah, how much money can I save by calling the house good as is….LOTS.)

So I’ve been pondering, what would count as mascara for the house? I’ve been coming up with the plans, I’ve gotten SOME done.

But what I’ve mostly been doing is the spa day(ssssssssssss) for the house, giving a never ending sponge bath. Every time Bronny has been asleep lately I’ve been outside with soapy water and a rag, wiping down the siding. 

Never did I think to myself, “You know what we should do, self? Hand wash the house!!” But here I am doing it. And I would feel like a crazy person only, the difference it’s making is astonishing. I just feel crazy-pleased with the results.

The reason I am hand washing it is because our contractor brother in law told us when we re-sided our first house, that you should not power wash siding, because it forces water behind it and causes rot and mold. Also I’m not sure I could actually get it as clean that way, there are so many cranny’s I’ve dug into with the rag.

I don’t have any good before pictures besides that one up there. Because I just did not foresee a visible shift so strong that I’d want before and after photos. So this may be a really lack luster blog post. But I had to do it, because in real life this really makes a major change (maybe not really an understandable change -- I doubt anyone is like “wow their house is cleaner” But I do think people will think “Wow their house is looking so well kempt these days.” But maybe not know why.) Anyway,  I am riding high on this random change in my house.

The other day I had the chance to just really scrub down the entire front porch. It was encrusted with cobwebs and dirt and it just looked really old and worn out. I was shocked to find that when I scrubbed down the porch roof, a lot of what I thought was peeling paint, was just the cobwebs’ dirty effects. The porch could still stand a repaint, but it suddenly looks awesome, and no where near as worn out and mildly haunted. It now looks like a really happy house. I keep thinking it almost looks like a new house. (That’s my motherly bias talking. It’s still a 1960’s looking house -- but it’s a fresh and homey and happy 1960’s house that’s loved and cared for.)

I mean look at the door frame and window frame -- they glow with clean bright whiteness.

I keep just popping out onto the porch and thinking “I cannot believe a simple cleaning was THIS BIG OF A DEAL!!!"

Also look at my cute fern I found on clearance for $7. That fern adds the best level of “cottage” and  "Anne-of-Green-Gables-ness” to the house. That’s a new summer must (as long I prove able to keep it alive anyway.)



As I’ve been doing this, I keep thinking: “You know this will get dirty AGAIN right?!?!” And I tell myself, “Yep! But this is worth it. Besides this has got to be at LEAST 8-10 years of dirt on here, based on what we know of the ownership. So it won’t get as dirty again for a while. I’m so impressed with this change I HAVE to keep going.”

It’s delightful.



Ok….I’ll stop now with the “I washed my house” crazytown talk. (But I might have more to come later because I’m NOT done washing. This is a ridiculously involved task I have taken on.)

We’ve been doing SO MUCH to our backyard (including washing the back of the house. ha!!) And I want to show you -- but I really want to hold out for a good big reveal post when it’s more done.
But so, one of the projects was raised garden beds, and we bought a lot of dirt for that project and turned out to have leftovers.

Blake had been talking about a project for a while now -- he’s been wanting to address a low spot in our front yard where water collects. So since we had the dirt now, he went for it. It wasn’t on the immediate plan list, but life moved it up the Que..

I don’t have pictures of this, but he dug a trench and laid down a drain pipe from the front gutter, to a pop up drain near the side walk.

Then he added a small retaining wall of bricks which match our patio and tiny drive way add-on area. And then filled it all with our extra dirt. (All three kids where ALL OVER helping filling the wheel barrow. It was quite adorable and somewhat hilarious. But man, little Bronny has been INTENT on doing helper-stuff since he could walk, there was no stopping him and his tiny sandbox shovel. And the girls where right there too.) And now we are watering the grass seed.

Blake and I are both like “WOW! That added SO MUCH. It’s one of those bigger than expected pay offs again.
Maybe not in these photos, I don’t know. But in person it’s so “professionally landscaped looking."

It looks awesome from our dining room table.
Feeling fancy with our clean porch views and our landscaped-selves.

So yeah….I was telling Blake, I think we are at the point now, where we’ve put so much into the house that every little thing we do now looks impressive. And that’s really nice. Because when we bought the house, we were just pouring every ounce of energy in and the difference was not always apparent yet. Some of it just was non-visually impressive, but needed. And some of it was a visual change, but the rest looked so bad it didn’t make sense yet. But we are finally to the “ooo” stage, where each thing does something notably good.

So for now I’m just detail, detail, detail, detail. Each one adds up to something over time. Like painting the (never used by us…but maybe it should be?) rusted out flag holder white. These little things really just take the age off.

I feel like the house is one of those scruffy strays you find (like in a movie or something, because this has never happened to me) and you think this dog is a poor kinda gangly mut, but then you wash it and love it and it’s this pure bread beauty who’s so sweet and wonderful.

I’m really loving this process, and stepping back and seeing the house shine.

As I was waiting for the photos to upload, I scrolled instagram and found this black and white house. Just like I said -- all my instagrammers feeding my mind with good beautiful things. 

Pretty right? See -- classic. 

Sometimes I toy with painting our brick white. BUT only the SMALLEST of toying….because that’s like a HUGE decision. I’m not ready to decide something that big.

Does my porch roof ever want to go black? Hmmm? Not sure, but I LOVE it here.

(Welcome to my endless mental testing of ideas. It never stops in here.)

Anyway. That’s all for today.

I’m so excited to show you our back yard stuff. But I gotta finish it first….back to the grind guys.

Thoughts, Thank yous, and Update

 Today I wanted to show you an update of some stuff around the house. But first I just wanted to thank anyone who’s taken the time to tell me any happy thoughts on the wardrobe series I’ve started.

I can really easily start to feel like I’m wasting my time on something too trivial. At times I start to feel like my talents/gifts are just frivolities and rather meaningless when pitted up against the big picture of life. And of course in that light, figuring out beauty (home, personal, musical, visual) is not as important as weighty things like health and safety and love, etc. And I would never imply otherwise. But I love when I am reminded that these beautiful things do actually matter. And I believe God made us in a way which causes us to crave beauty. (I think it’s part of how our hearts cry out for him.) And I also think God gave us the gift to create. (I think it’s a special blessing he imparts so we can ponder him in special ways. For example, when I sand down an old table, I think of Him and how he makes beauty from ashes. I think of how His ways are not my ways, how I’m pretty sure the table isn’t a huge fan of getting it’s edges rubbed off, but how when I’m done it’s going to be gorgeous.)

And I also think seeing beauty in places other people don’t is a gift straight from Him. I know He sees things differently than people do. And at times I feel blessed to have moments of that kind of clarity.

I was driving through the downtown of my city, and I saw one older man walking, and my heart ached to think of my grandpa and how I miss him and how he still seemed like a little boy even at the end, and then suddenly this stranger-man was as clear to me as my own baby boy walking through a town, and I loved him without care of who he was or what he’s done, just because he is. And I think that’s how God is. If we are his children -- mix that with how I love my children -- heart ache explosions of deep deepness when I see their faces, so good it literally hurts. And sometimes I can feel that deepness for all humanity.

And I saw three different women walking. Each one a totally unique soul, different skin and hair, different heights, different shapes, different choices, different styles, different moments of life. And all I could think when I saw them was how stunningly beautiful -- just that they are. Not that they needed anything more than that to be beautiful.

When I put together my wardrobe series, it is that place I am coming from. That you are beautiful because you are. It’s not meant to imply you need to change. It’s not meant to imply you need more. It’s not meant to imply you need to hyper-focus on this stuff.

I just want to offer things I think will help you feel the beauty you have.

A friend, who had her baby right around when I did, told me she used my tips to shop for herself. And I got to see a photo of her in her new clothes and I almost fell out of my seat I was so happy and excited  -- she looked amazing and so beautiful. And I loved that she felt that way. That’s what made me the happiest.

I love if any of the sort-of-silly, probably-too-intense, work I do to understand beauty can bless someone else. I’ve gotten to see a tiny glimpse of the results from a few women who’ve been sweet enough to share with me. (Their homes, or clothes, or births.) And if you get to see their eyes, you know it means more than we so often want to admit it does. God put something inside us that is somehow connected to Him through how beautiful he intended the world to be. (Before sin muddied it up.) And when I see these women be blessed by beauty, I see part of God’s heart.

I don’t always know what my blog is really for. I am so random in my post’s subject matter. I just know I want to bless hearts. All I can do is share things I have. So I share things about birth because I’ve been dragged through hard things, I want to gift the parts that are gift-able from that. So I share about house things, because if I can help someone enjoy their house I know what that means. So I share about clothes when you are postpartum because I know the value there. I just am a random hoper of healing in the small things because I know they are actually really big things.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that, because I’ve been battling thoughts that say I’m wasting my time, and being too trite, and hiding from big things. (I’m definitely still working through big things inside me -- different aspects of my pregnancies and births have been hard enough to give me some post traumatic stuff I need to resolve. I’m still grieving my grandpa and some other family things. I still struggle immensely with our food allergies and how that limits our lives in ways most people cannot fathom or admit.) But I don’t think blogging the small things is me hiding. I think it’s me healing. I think it’s me holding on. I think it’s me seeking to know for sure His Goodness inside pain. It might seem otherwise, it might seem to be turning away from Him. But I think He knows me so well He purses me this way, inside small, because I’m not strong enough for big just now.

---------------------

Now onto what’s been going on in my house.

I finished sewing my pillows. I was kind nervous because I went an unexpected route and used minky fabric. (Super soft, kinda furry stuff meant mostly for baby blankets.) But I liked the idea of the tone on  tone pattern in it. And I thought my family would like the soft sensation.  I made three -- one for each end and one for the corner of the sectional.

I wanted to do piping (of course, because it’s my new obsession.) And I thought I could do it out of the minky, but it looked really weird. So I made some out of white cotton decor fabric. And I think that gives it just the right touch.

If you want to know how to sew these sorts of pillow covers:
A good piping tutorial -- here. (But I didn’t cut on the bias -- just straight across to save fabric.)
And I used this page to figure out adding a zipper with bias. I had to read it like four times to grasp it, but once I did grasp it -- it was VERY easy.


In other news:

So with all the talk of capsule wardrobes, and then the drastic weather switch at my house (First day of Fall was still shorts weather. Then about a week later I’m huddled up in a heavy coat -- it should be noted no one else seems to be. But I think it’s freezing!) anyway, with that going on I had to go and switch the kids clothes for the seasons and massively par down the “too many clothes” situation we always seem to have.

While mentally processing this situation it finally dawned on me the solution to many an issue was that we needed a different dresser for the girls room.

The room’s layout has felt off to me. 

In addition to the fact that the girls can’t reach their clothes in the tall dresser we have.

We need a short, long dresser between their bed. And I will take out the tall dresser by their closet.

I have a curbside pickup dresser in my garage I had intended to makeover and sell (before baby #3 was in the works or here.) And it’s a similar size, but it’s not really the look I wanted. I was going to paint it anyway and use it for now. But then I realized that was a silly way to use my time right now. I’ll just sell that one cheap (as is, no makeover.) And I need a dresser I want to keep, if I’m going to take the time to paint it. 

So I prayed about it (I like to pray about purchases -- I had a really sweet spiritual role model tell me she always prays about shopping. It’s too much to write about now. But it wasn’t in a “give-me give-me” way. It was in a "God really does care about me" -- Matthew 6 -- kind of way.) And I went to ReStore. Sometimes when I’m there they have just about no dressers. This time there was at least three rows of dressers, all long and low size. The choices were almost overwhelming to me. And I went back and forth for a while, weighing pros and cons. Eventually I decided on this one. I have the desk from this furniture line already painted (currently in our guest room closet, as a craft kind closet thing) and I’ve always really liked it’s lines. But the mirror that comes with this, is awesome! I’ve been wanting a really pretty mirror to add to our guest room (there is a window above where I plan to use this dresser in the girls room) so this was like a double bonus buy. The dresser was only $60, which was one of the cheaper ones at Restore. So I felt like I was really getting a deal of a deal. (I plan to paint it white. and put new hardware on.)

After I left ReStore I was thinking through the benefits of this particular dresser. (Initially I didn’t like that the top drawers weren’t very deep at all. But once I got in the car and started thinking about how I want to use the drawers I decided it was actually perfect.) I had been thinking so hard at the store (I was in a hurry to get home before Baby Bronson woke up from a nap and needed to nurse, which of course, Blake couldn’t provide) that my mind was in total tunnel vision. So once I was on my way home I remembered that I prayed about this dresser, and then it dawned on me how perfect a gift this was. And I remembered to say thank you. That’s part of why I like praying about purchases so much, afterwards I get the joy of remembering how He cares for me every time I see it in our house. I’m not very good at seeing him in hard things, but if I get to have little gifts like this around my house, I can so much easier keep my eyes on His goodness.

I’m still working on painting our two small coffee tables. But I’m getting closer. 

Another update:

Our house came with a lantern. 

I’ve been both in love with that fact, and also not really so into how this lantern looks. It feel like it’s kinda vintage in a non-cute way. But I take solace in the fact that most houses around ours haven’t updated theirs either. (Some have. Not most.)

I’d like to update ours someday. But for now it needed some help.

For about half a year now it hadn’t been lighting up. We didn’t know why.

So last weekend Blake did some work on it, opened it up and rewired it and then like magic it’s been lighting up at night. (We actually had no idea it has a light sensor on it which makes it turn on. We thought it had been wired into this light timer thing we had taken away -- but that was just the front of the house lights.) So that’s been really exciting to us. It’s so, so, so nice having that light turn on at night. I’m so glad we got it fixed now that the year is going to get darker and darker. And I’m really happy it’s fixed in time for trick-or-treaters.

But once it worked again, I was sure we needed to repaint it. It’s been chipping since we bought the house, and it’s gotten worse lately. But wasn’t sure if we would be keeping it, with it not lighting up for a while there. Anyway, now I had the green light to paint it.

 

I went and wire brushed off as much of the chipping paint as I could. And then I used some oil based Rustoleum black semi-gloss paint  on there.

This was actually a shockingly fast paint job. (I’m SO used to thinking a paint job will go fast and then it goes super slow, that I just assumed for some reason this would be the same. But I mean, honestly, it’s a tiny pole -- it can’t take too long.)

I used the oil based because I’m sort of falling in love with the stuff. But because I knew it would stick to the bare metal way better than latex. And I know it will be more durable in the elements outside. Plus I wanted to buy this paint to redo a table anyway -- so two birds, one stone.

This is one of the projects that probably no one but me will even notice. But I’m pretty sure people would notice if I didn’t do it.

But man oh man, this project makes me feel like a million bucks. 

It just un-crappy-feel-a-fies our exterior by 10 fold.

We have a ways to go with curb appeal over here. But check out this side by side. It’s pretty great.

Ahhhh...

That was definitely worth the 30 mins or so it took (most of that was scraping chipping paint.)

And the other thing going on at our house is:

 We are becoming fashion designers.

This summer my girls have been pretty much nonstop out-of-clothes.

I know this winter I’m not turning the heat up enough to make that an option.

Only Jasmine has some pretty specific sensory stuff with clothing.

I think it’s mostly due to her eczema and how clothes feel on it. Well that and I think she inherited her Dad’s temperature genes. He would wear flip flops in the winter as a junior higher, and also loved to skip the coat. 

So, I racked my brain to figure out a way to get my kids to wear clothes as it cools off outdoors.

And I decided to offer Jasmine a chance to design a dress.

She LOVED that idea.

She hates long sleeves with a passion. (I think it itches her rashes.) So I figured if I could make a dress with short sleeves, but a maxi length fleece bottom I could even things out temp wise.

So she drew up her idea, 

And I let them pick out their fabrics. And I’m going to try to come up with something of an outfit out of it.  

They are VERY VERY excited. SO I will likely have no choice but to get them sewed up soon!

I’ll show ya what I come up with when I’m done.

(I’m pretty excited too. This is the kinda mom stuff I’ve been looking forward to. Mother-daughter-crafty fun!!) 

Outdoor Spring Cleaning

Or…It has to get worse before it can get better.

We’ve been playing outside as much as we can lately. It’s SO nice to be outdoors.
(Don’t let that death grip looking photo fool you. lol. We like the dirt. I was just trying to keep her still long enough to send Daddy a text of outdoor fun evidence.)

 



But our outdoors is kinda majorly in need of love.
(Like everything about our house.)

Yesterday I showed you our indoor spring cleaning….today I’ll show you the outdoors.

Our house the day we bought it.

Those bushes are covering so much of the house. I knew right away I’d want to take them out. Besides the bottom half of them was all bare with no greenery.

So I thought the house was looking rough,when we bought it….

but then I looked our house up on google map street view 

(they took the last photo before I’d ever seen the house)…

 it used to be OUT OF CONTROL!

I mean, where is our house?

And where is the grass? 

Oh, there is none. (Still none -- just dandelions.)

This photo solved a mystery for me, I guess they just chopped those huge bushes on the left off at some point. (Likely when they listed the house.) We have the steams of those bushes in our front yard still. I didn’t really know why anyone would chop a bush up like that and just leave the messy sticks there.  But once I saw that photo I saw that the sticks are actually an improvement. (Not that I condone doing half jobs. Still should have gotten rid of the bases.)

I also makes more sense to me about our Pine Tree. You really can’t see it in these photos unless you know where to look. (In the top photo, on the left in the middle of a bunch of green leaves, you can just barely see it’s more blue needles.) Anyway, the base of the tree is all limbed up, I just now realized it was because those bushes were overtaking it. (In person, that is CRAZY they aren’t very close together.)

I think back at some point this yard was very nicely thought out and very pretty. But given way too much time of neglect, and our own personal hopes for the space, tons of our landscaping needs to go.

Blake’s been hard at work chopping down more stuff. 

There he is out the window, working away.

Here’s a halfway photo of our bush removal.

And now they are gone. Check out all those leaf bags! (That’s our second round! The city already took about that many from us the first time around.)

I got used to the bushes, so it looks a little naked to me. But we will be landscaping it. (Eventually.) I think it’s an improvement. But our yard is COVERED in brush and landscaping edging that we need to take to the landscaping recycling place.

If you ever miss the good old days of door to door salesmen, just leave your yard full of leaves, and/or chopped up landscaping, right in the middle of a well kept neighborhood. You will get a flyer at least twice a week, and visitors just about as often, offering their services to help you with your yard. Clearly our yard cries for help. We’ve had these flyers and visitors since the snow melted (before we littered our yard with branches.) But we are doing it ourselves, we really don’t want to pay for it to be done by all these people offereing. But Blake has a full time job, and I have a preschooler and a toddler…we are doing it on our time schedule. Sorry neighborhood. We’re getting there. I promise, someday you’ll like the view.

Same story in the back yard. Landscaping gone wild.

These bushes, I’m not sure I’ll ever get why they were placed here. They are at the end of our deck and separate a space that doesn’t seem to need separating.

We took them down. 

Another view -- bush remains on the right of the deck.

There’s Blake, back there chopping away more shrubs that surround a tree.
We want more yard, less shrubs.


See, there is just really nothing to be gained by those bushes back there.


Both trees in  the corners seemed to be wearing skirts made of bushes. I’ve never really since the look before. (I mean even imagining it before it grew too big.) It’s crowded.

Those very tall ones on the left, I actually like those, I think it makes our yard more private. They need care, but I hope to keep them and make them work better. 

Anyway, so for now we play around these piles, until we can haul them off.

But you can definitely still hunt for Easter Eggs a mist the chaos!

We have our work cut out for us. But we’re excited.

We are settling in here, we have time to do it.

I’ve been thinking of it as urban homesteading.