A Green Thumb and Black Shutters

Our front yard projects have been put on hold while we try and find someone to put in our walkway.  walkway. We can't move forward with any of our curb appeal projects until we have the walkway in, so we decided while we wait, our back yard needs a little love. The shed is the focal point in the backyard and we realized it would be pretty cheap to spruce it up.

I've seen so many fun flower options on pinterest and thought a flower box would be the perfect addition to the shed. This is the first "gardening" project I've attempted at our house, which is kind of crazy since I grew up with a dad with a green thumb and a mom who loves flowers.

My parents are so helpful when it comes to home projects. They are always giving us tips and lending a hand. We're all in the midst of working on our yards, so we took a trip to a local landscape place and picked up a bunch of flowers for all of our projects. It was a good research trip for when the walkway is complete and we do the landscape in the front yard, but to hold me over, I picked up supplies for the flower box.

I chose two kinds of flowers. I liked the idea of having lots of green against the black and white of the shed, so I choose the tiny leaft flowers and then added taller white flowers to give some height. This is how it looked right after.....

 

It's been a couple of weekends and the tall flowers haven't withheld the recent winds. I'm thinking I'lljust remove them and add more of the little leafier flowers. I think it will look better and be less  maintenance.

We also added shutters to the shed. I think the shed originally had some of the pink shutters when we moved in, but they've been off for awhile. I love the black shutters on the house, so we decided to put some on the shed, too. We replaced all of the shutters on the house last year. So many of the originals broke when we pulled them off, but a couple did survive. A quick paint job made them as good as new.

It was a quick weekend update, but I really like the result. Here's the before...

Have you tackled any easy projects recently?

September Progress

We've shared the start of a lot of projects, but don't really have any after photos yet. Our big project this summer was supposed to be the front of the house. We had a bunch of ideas on how we wanted to add a little curb appeal. We started by removing the bushes in the front of the house, painting the shutters black, and adding a new mailbox. We also took down our awning and had some plans to spruce it up. Then we had an issue with unwanted guests that completely threw off our plan. This is where we're at now:

After having an issue with some unwanted guests getting into the house, we had to pay for a pest expert to come in and deal with the issue. After a few visits, we learned that the wood under our door had rotted. This turned into us looking into contractors to replace the door frame and install a new entry door and screen door. Part of the issue is that the step in front of the entry door is at an angle, so when it rains the water goes right under the door and caused all of the rotting around the frame. This turned into removing the step. This then turned into removing our walk way (most people in our neighborhood have walkways going to their driveways not to the sidewalk, we always wished ours did and since we were paying for the tools to remove the stair, it seemed like a good idea to actually do this project). This then turned into re-seeding the lawn. This then turned installing a new mailbox  so the mailman can actually deliver it.

After all of this domino effect, we're in the middle of a lot of projects. We have to add new bushes and a walk way, choose two new doors and have them installed, choose a new step material and walkway, finish painting the awning and put it back up.

I usually like to do one project at a time, but my dad had some free time and offered to help with everything, so we took him up on his generous offer. He's really great at this stuff. So even though it's a little stressful getting everything done at once, it really made sense for us to do things this way.

He's also given us a big push to get things done. Since he's helping, we've gotten a little more proactive. This weekend was pretty much a research filled weekend. Last week we had a contractor measure the door and got a few quotes for installation. We then pulled the trigger and picked doors and placed the order (which happened to go on sale this weekend and we saved 15%!). The doors weren't in stock, so we have three weeks to figure out the rest.

The day we ordered the door, we also went on a few trips to research materials, bushes and look at houses in our neighborhood to get an idea of what we like. When we first started looking we only went to the big name stores, but my dad spent Saturday morning with us showing us way more options at local places that only allow contractors to go. He has a contractor card, so we were able to see way more choices.

We have finally a plan in place, so we're feeling even better about the progress. Over the next few weeks we're hoping to check off these items:

1. Research entry configurations. Decide on step and walkway materials.
2. Grass maintenance- fill in grass where old walkway was.
3.Install entry door and screen doors.
4. Install front step.
5. Install walk way.
6. Put awning back up.
7. Choose bushes (which probably won't go in until the Spring).
8. Add flowers to accent bushes.

We're hoping to get everything checked off this list by Halloween, except of course the bushes and flowers. While we don't have anything completed, it feels like we're finally making progress!

Are you working on any big home plans? Have you ever had a project that dominoed into multiple mini projects?

Entry Doors

The day we realized our door frame had been rotted out, we made our way to Home Depot to look at some new options. We figured if we're going to put in a new frame, it's time to put in a new door. We've been talking about a new door pretty much since we moved in. Our current one is in rough shape. The peeling paint shows at least a few colors. Since the previous owner was the original owner, we think the door has seen some better days.

 

Now we come to the decision of do we just get a decent new door or do we splurge a little bit. After some online research, it seems that many people think if you are going to get a door at a big name home store (i.e. a Lowes or Home Depot), you should go for at least the mid-range. I wasn't thinking about a post on this, so I don't have links to actual research, it's just what I seemed to notice as a common theme on forums and reviews. Also while doing some research, I learned that front doors have a decent rate on ROI (return on investment). Steel doors seem to have a better ROI than fiberglass, but we've been told to go for the fiberglass. Jim happens to have a friend who works in the door and window department at our local Home Depot and he's the one who gave this recommendation to us. Not sure if it's an across the board recommendation, or specific to our issues. However, it definitely narrowed down our choices a bit.

 

I originally wanted a solid door. I prefer not to have glass, mainly because I like the idea of wreaths on a solid door. Not really a great reason, but I tend to think of holidays when making home purchases. Jim really wants a window though, so we started looking at the options. I figured we could compromise and get a door with a smaller window.

 

Of course, I instantly fell in love with a door with a pretty big window. It also had more details than I thought I'd like. I didn't expect to like something like this, but it definitely has character.

The other option I liked was more of what I originally was thinking, once we drove home, we noticed our next door neighbors recently purchased this door. It probably doesn't matter, but the homes in our neighborhood all look pretty similar, so it's nice to have something that stands out a little and gives a some curb appeal.

The third options is Jim's favorite. I like it, but I'm not in love with it. I think the reason I love the first and can get past the big window is the details. This one is a little more modern, which I usually like. I'm also wondering if I'm loving this less because we want a black door and even though I know this can be ordered in black, I'm already seeing my first choice in the color we want.

So, now we have three doors to choose from as the main door, but we also have to decide if we want to do black on black between the entry door and screen/glass door or a black entry door with a white glass/screen door frame. I originally thought hands down we want black on black, but the sales people said no one does that, everyone gets white screened doors because they blend with the molding surrounding the door. I wasn't sold on this, but Jim started leaning more towards it. So, I had to find some examples.

These photos below kind of show the difference. I think the white trimmed glass door on the bottom cuts down on the size and impact of the black door, where as the black on black in the first blends together. I'm still pulling for the black on black.

Both photos from Beneath my Heart

Decisions, decisions.....

Which door do you like? If you have a screen/glass door, is it the same color as the entry door?

Unwanted Guests

Last spring we had what we thought was a really random incident. I had a virus and stayed home sick. Our dog sky was being a pain and thought it would be fun to play a game of see how many times I can get Melissa off the couch. He'd bark to go out, but as soon as I shut the door, he'd bark again until I'd give him a treat to come in. We played this game (his favorite game) for a few rounds before I decided to leave our back door open. He never realized he could still bark. I felt like I won and went back to the couch to take a nap for a few hours.

The next day, I was home sick again. I was feeling well enough to work from home for a bit, so I was working on the computer in our study. I started hearing the food in our cat, Midnight's bowl rattle around. I didn't think anything of it until she pranced in the room while I heard the sound. I turned around, but nothing was there. I thought I must have misheard it, until this hap pend again three more times. At this point, I thought I was crazy. Until the fourth time when I turned around and saw a little rodent scurrying to the corner underneath the base board heating pipes. I screamed, ran out the room and started yelling to sky to go get it. He looked at me like I was crazy.

I called Jim to tell him about it so he could come up with a plan to get rid of it when he got home. I described it and said he had a nubby little tail, to which Jim responded mice have long tails. I told him it definitely didn't have a long tail. He was skeptical until he ended up catching it later that night. At that point we realized we had a mole in our house, which apparently is extremely rare. We googled photos and it seems to be that it's a mole. We also have holes/tunnels they've dug in our yard, so between the no tail, holes and his little snout, we think we've figured it out. We chalked it up to me leaving the door open for a few hours the day before. End of story.....or so we thought.

A few months had passed when I started hearing a noise in the same corner I had seen the previous mole run into. I apparently have good mole listening skills because Jim could never hear it when I did. Again, I felt a little crazy. Then one day while we were watching a movie in the living room, I heard it. I jumped up and saw it scurry into the corner that has a whole for heating pipes between the living area and office. Luckily Jim saw it, too.

We knew there had to be a way it was getting in, but we couldn't figure out where. We looked around the exterior of the house and couldn't see a way. We knew it was time to call in the professionals. We used service magic to find a few professionals in the area. We've had great luck with vendors we've used through them in the past. This time though we never received a follow up phone call form any professional, which was weird because normally we receive phone calls from multiple vendors in the first hour. After a day or two of no response, we started calling other pest control services. Each time we were told that they don't do mole control in homes because moles don't go into homes. If we had a mole issue outside, they could help us. They then went through the "are you sure it isn't mice?" where I'd have to confirm we've seen at least two moles in our home and had caught one.

After 5 calls with no luck, I received a follow up from a service magic rep. I let her know we never received any calls. Within about half an hour, two vendors reached out to us. The first said they don't do moles, the second said he had a lot of experience with moles outside the home, but found it hard to believe they'd be coming in a house. However, he was willing to give it a try!

We were pretty relieved. A pest control guy came out within that week and found a few small holes that he thought could be the issue.  He put out some baits and gave us a few tips like not putting bushes so close to the house. He also recommended using rocks near the house instead of mulch, as mulch can be inviting for termites.

We thought we were in the clear until the next weekend when I heard it again. I was home alone and heard something in the walls, but not near the same location. Previously he/they were near the right side of the wall and coming into the house, now he was on the opposite side of our entrance door and while he couldn't get into the interior of the house, it sounded like he was digging to get into the wall between the interior and exterior. I banged on the wall and scared him away.

Pest control came back a second time and found a few more holes that were overlooked and filled them in. Again, we hoped they figured it out and we'd be in the clear. About a week or two later, I was home alone (again- apparently the mole is more scared of Jim) and I heard the same scraping noise in the same spot. We realized there was a pattern. Every time he tried to get in the house (or succeeded) it was raining.

Awhile back my dad had mentioned that our front step slants and we should remove it. He said if we didn't it would rot out the door frame. I remembered this comment and asked Jim to check under the kick plate. Once he pulled it off, he saw that the wood had completely rotted and we were completely sure at this point we found the issue. The pest control guy came back a third time to add this filler that keeps moles/rodents away. It's a temporary fix until we get the whole door frame removed and upgraded.

The past few weeks have been pretty long and stressful to say the least. I thought the little guy was damaging our house and no clue how he was doing it or how to stop him. I've been reluctant to write this post because every time I think we've got it figured out, he's back. He' the unwelcome house guest that can't take a hint! However, now that we're working on getting a new door and frame, my fingers are crossed that this will be the last of him.

What's the craziest thing you've come across as home owners/renters?

RIP Pink Shutters

Back in Spring of 2010 we decided to purchase the house with the pink shutters. Jim said it wouldn't be pink for long and that the shutters would be the first thing we changed. Fast forward about 20 months and about 20 projects later and we finally completed project #1 on Jim's list.

They had a good run. They made our house look especially festive for Easter and easy to locate when friends come over, but it was definitely time for them to go, along with our pink mailbox. I think we'll now be known as the house with the cool mailbox (according to me), instead of the house with the TV or pink shutters.

This past weekend our little nest went from this:

to this:

It took a little longer than expected. When we first looked into the project, we realized our shutters are not standard size. We decided to paint the current ones, instead of purchasing new. This was all well and good for the shutters on the back of the house, but mid-way through the project, Jim realized repainting the front ones was not going to happen. They broke easily as he took them down. So, we ended up doing a special order for the shutters on  the front of the house.

I really didn't do much with this project, it was all Jim. He did all the research, purchasing and work. I helped hold up a few shutters as he drilled the holes in. He did teach me something about paint though. I thought we could just spray paint the current ones, but thanks to the helpful person at our local home store, he learned you can't necessarily just spray the old shutters, it depends on the type of paint used previously.

We still have a few more curb appeal projects to do......
1. New house number
2. New color for the entry door
3. New screen/glass door combination with coordinating hardware
4. New doorbell plate & fix the doorbell so it works
5. New awning/get rid of it
6. Remove large bushes and replace with something on a smaller scale

It sounds like a lot written out, but we're taking it one project at a time. We're just hoping it doesn't take another 20 months to complete our curb appeal makeover. We did however make a decision on the mailbox and it's already gotten us a few compliments. Thanks to everyone who gave their opinion, it definitely helped in making up our minds. The envelope mailbox was the clear winner!

Did you have any projects that were at the top of your list that dragged out way too long?

Curb Appeal: The Box

We're in the middle of a front house makeover. The first step was choosing a paint color for the shutters  and now we're looking at mail box options. I've looked at a bunch of different online sites for mailboxes and our two favorites happen to be from the same site, Pottery Barn.

I love the character of the envelope mailbox. I haven't seen anything like it. It scores extra points because it will fit our new color scheme well, black and white. The aluminum will be a nice touch without looking out of place. We have silver details on our door.

The second option is the Post mailbox. I love fonts, so having a pretty font on the front makes this simple mailbox a little more fun. It only comes in bronze, which I'm not completely sold on with our color scheme, but I love everyhting else abut it.

We aren't sure which one to get, so we're thinking it over for a bit. Either one will be a huge improvement from our current mailbox.

Which would you pick? Do you know of any websites that sell simple or unique mailboxes?

Fenced In

This little guy ended up having a big impact on our housing search. We each had our own lists of must haves, but we also had a few must haves for Sky pup. Sky's top must have was a big yard. He's a Siberian husky and needs room to run. He isn't the kind of dog you can go for a walk off the leash, so running usually only happens in the back yard.
Since he loves to run so much and we can't catch up with him (without bribes of treats), we also knew a fenced in yard was a must. The house also needed a door with easy access to the yard.  He has a habit of waking us up at 3 a.m. to go outside. Easy access was a top priority for all of us.

When we were looking at our current home it had all three criteria- big yard, fenced in and easy access. We just forgot to add that fence should be in good condition. When we moved in, the fence was falling down. J found a plaque on the fence with the makers name and number. He called them up and found out they had moved to a new location and changed names. They had done this over 20 years ago, so the fence had definitely seen better days.

Getting a new fence moved to the top of our priority list because we couldn't have Sky pup with us with the current one. Since our yard is fairly big, it wasn't a cheap task, but luckily for our family and friends, it was definitely do-able.

We purchased new fence sections and posts from a local company. It was a bit more expensive than going to a big home improvement store, but the quality was much better. We splurged there, but after getting a quote on installation, we decided to go the diy route. J, my dad and a few friends took on the project of tearing down the old one and putting up the new one. It wasn't easy, there was a lot of fence (a year later, we are still getting rid of the debris).

Because our land isn't completely level, they had to get a little creative with the construction. As you go across the yard some sections are higher than others. In some areas, there are gaps between the fence and the ground. This was definitely going to be an issue with sky, so my dad ended up getting wood slabs and securing them in the gaps, so Sky stays fenced in.

If we didn't have sky, this project wouldn't have been a huge priority, but it definitely makes our yard look better. We have a very happy dog , too. He's become a yard snob though and hates visits to his grandma's because he doesn't have a big yard to play in. She now has to babysit at our house to keep the pup happy. Good thing his grandma loves him just as much as us, so she doesn't mind.

Did your pets have any impact on your home search?