I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said our house lacked curb appeal. Mostly because you couldn’t see it from the street level due to it being on top of the hill with a front yard full of pine trees that blocked the house. The most frustrating part was that you really couldn’t tell where the front was, which for some reason led people to believe we didn’t have one. No joke – one time, a lady we’d never met let herself in the back gate and knocked on the sliding glass door and then was like, oh, you didn’t have a front door. And she was at the wrong house.
Before we removed 13 pines from the front yard.
Because of this, we didn’t really do anything to the front of the house, other than try and maintain the yard. Until this summer, when we decided to take out all 13 pine trees. What can I say? We were feeling good from the master bath renovation and the price was much less than we thought it’d be, so we went for it. It’s made such a difference in so many ways – we get tons more natural light in the house, the crepe myrtles are loving the sun, we have far fewer mosquitoes (since the trees aren’t trapping humidity in the yard) and you can tell we actually have a front door! The downside is that now we get hot southern sun in the afternoon and the impatients and hostas I planted in what was shade in the spring, is now not. Oh well. Totally worth it and now I’ll go for lantana next year!
My favorite part about the front yard are the azaleas! The picture on the front page of the blog is one my husband took this past spring when they were in full bloom. We have pink and white and they are stunning. Just hoping the extra sun doesn’t hurt them this summer! I think I’m the only person cheering when it rains.
After we had 13! pine trees taken out of the front yard. Who knew there was even a house back there?
We’ve got a lot more work to do, but will wait until it cools off to do much more. It is a little overwhelming since it’s basically a blank slate now. And we are getting enough sun to grow grass next spring! We did leave all the beautiful hardwoods though (mostly oak) and trimmed those up a bit to get the limbs off the house but still have plenty of shade in the side yard.
Backyard:
Our lot is more of a corner lot so we have a huge side yard, but not a very deep backyard. However, what we do have is deck, a patio and a screened in porch. We love having the outdoor living space. The Adirondack chairs we picked up at Lowe’s last year right before our housewarming, the pillows come from Costco. Hoping to paint the deck next spring and I have some new string lights to hang on the awning for fall!
Right now, we have some casual chairs. We’d love to do a fire pit where the flowers are, but the previous owners had a fountain there so there’s electrical involved.
We keep the grill on the back deck, which definitely needs a coat of paint
The screened in porch I cannot wait to work on. I’m hoping to be able to get to it this fall. The furniture we have out there right now are some pieces we got from friends down the street. It serves its purpose, but a lot more water gets in here than I would’ve expected so we really need actual outdoor furniture. I’m also hoping to paint or tile the concrete slab and bring some more color and fun to the space. Hubby has his man cave, and I’d consider the porch my “she shed.” In fact, since these pictures, I already picked up some new pillows and accessories from Lowe’s for 50% off, and a larger rug from Target in navy blue (have I mentioned my love of navy)?
Screened-in Porch is the next room I have big plans for! This is also our dogs’ favorite room. Camelot, our Lhasa, keeps guard on the chair.
Side yard:
The huge side yard that got zero sunlight until we chopped down a few trees
Right now, it’s not much, but all I see is potential. I planted one hydrangea bush and now that it gets a good mix of sun and shade over here, I want to do another one next year. We’ll also add some new trees along the fence that will give us backyard-like privacy from the street, but not block the sun like the pines did. We’re going to attempt seed first for grass in part of the yard, and if that doesn’t work, we’ll lay some sod. I’d love for this area to be the game area when we have parties – whether it’s tag with future kiddos, corn-hole, croquet, etc. Curious to know – what kind of grass have you had the best growing luck with?
A view of the side yard with the screened in porch. This is Bogey, our other dog – he is our squirrel, bird and chipmunk patrol.
So that’s it for the home tour! As you can see, I have more than enough projects to keep me busy, The harder part for me is prioritizing and doing one thing at a time – which is a big reason of why I thought a blog would be fun. Will help keep me accountable and help me be patient!
Next, I’ll share my home goals for this year and what I’ve accomplished so far and what’s on my radar for the remainder of the year.
[…] only time I wish we had more pine trees so I could’ve gathered more pine cones (we took out 13 pine trees earlier in the […]