It's Finally Spring!!

The creeping phlox I just had to plant and surprise lilies popping out in the front planter

Now that spring has sprung, I'm turning my attention outdoors. When you buy a house in December, it's kind of a gamble what's gonna come up in the spring. One of the first areas I've begun tackling is this berm at the back of the property. 

We just love the beautiful spruce and bald cypress trees. To the left are a couple of rose bushes that are starting to green up. We would like to plant another tree behind the rose bushes next to the spruce. Anyone have any ideas??

Let me tell you, I was just eaten up over the lack of maintenance of this beautiful landscaping. There is a ring of large landscape rocks surrounding the berm. Over 50%, probably 75%, of the rocks were completely covered over with grass. The mulch had eroded, composted, seeded and grown a thick layer of sod. Covering those beautiful rocks! How many years did that take? You can see my pile of sod near the rose bushes as I've been making my way around the berm. Ughh...

Just off the patio is a ~1500 gallon pond with a little waterfall. As with everything else, it needs some tending to bring it back up to snuff. I'm interested to see what all the landscaping around it will turn out to be. We have a little bullfrog friend that croaks for us all night. It feels like we got our home in the country after all : ) I've been using barley hay bales to try to treat the green algae that's been growing since it started warming up. We've also talked about fish or algae eaters. We'll see how adventurous we get!


Then we get around to the back side. Gross! Just an empty hill and a big eyesore of a waterpump. Josh has mentioned building a stone "well" around the back of the pump to better camouflage it. I'm thinking maybe terraced planters below that. I'd love input or ideas! I just cannot handle it staying like this. The kids think it's a running hill and I know it's just going to turn into a weedy mess.

So that's where we're at so far for the outside! I'd love to hear your ideas!

My Personal Carpenter and Jack of all Trades

I'd just like to take a minute and brag on my hubby right now. Not only does he have a brilliant engineering mind, but he can also fix anything. Well, almost anything anyway.

Just recently our dryer decided to quick working. With a wet load in it. And another in the washer... It was a scramble to get everything dried at the laundromat before they closed (it was 30 degrees outside so I couldn't exactly line dry...) but the next day he was able to diagnose the issue, pick up the part and get everything put back together with hardly a blip in the never-ending stream of laundry that 4 kids produce.

He hardly bats an eyelash anymore when I say "Josh, come look at this picture. Can you build me that?" or "This thing doesn't exist in real life but I must simply have it. Can you go to Home Depot and use your engineering magic to make it happen?"

The new house had this useless shelving:

(cell phone pic when we looked at the house)

*Note to home sellers: Please don't leave your garage full of trash when you move. Literal bags of trash...

We lived with an unusable garage through the winter but the first warm weekend, BAM! He knocked this baby out! The garage has a ways to go still (yes, that is fiberboard printed with a wood paneling design), but it is SO much more functional now! We had to take advantage of all that height! We're still working on bike storage, but I'm thinking maybe under the dream playground I've been pinteresting. 

This is the latest project he's been working on (between dealing with electricians so our house doesn't burn down- thankfully it is now fixed).

The old gate was basically inoperable. Both of the posts broke off from the concrete during the demo so that made for alot of fun getting the concrete out... He started off doing a slanted top rail with the slope, but we thought the stair step looked better. We're planning on adding a row of square picture frame detail on the top of the gate and then capping the posts with solar lights. You can get a little glimpse of the beautiful flagstone and river rock path that has settled terribly and has been painfully neglected. I can't wait to get it looking pretty again, but since we're (hopefully!) getting Google Fiber installed soon and all the utilities come in at the corner to the right there, I'm guessing it's probably going to get alot worse before it gets better. 

Those are just a few of the things I've kept my talented hubby busy with over the last couple months since we moved in. 

Thanks for always saying yes to my crazy ideas, hunny. I love you!

Here we go!

While I have no intention of becoming a "blogger," I've been chewing on this idea for awhile and finally decided to just go for it. Honestly, the hardest part was coming up with a name that wasn't already taken! (Hello, if you haven't blogged in 10 YEARS go ahead and free up the domain for somebody else to use!)

We recently moved and I am finding myself feeling overwhelmed with running my household as well as renovating it. I have so many ideas swirling around in my head (and pinterest boards mocking me) that I thought this outlet might allow me to organize my thoughts as well as record the fact that I actually am making progress!

So, if you're game, follow along as I tackle this 80's house one project at a time, or maybe a few simultaneously ; )