About 3 hours and several hundred dollars later (including a trip to Wal Mart), we arrived home with our PURCHASES!
I'm going to show you all the things we bought, and then some ugly pictures of the outside of our house.
Our porch light is gold and gross!
This will look much better!
Some of our neighbors have these and they are pretty.
Paul's clothesline stuff!
I planned to paint our front stoop and our door.
4th of July decorations!
We hadn't mulched in years....
Welcome... too our shit hole.
It's crazy how sometimes you look at your house and think it's fine... but then you really look at it and you realize there's so much that could be done. Allow me to show you...
Our little home... but let's go closer...
Let's go even closer...
Here is our front door. Not too bad, right? LET'S GET CLOSER!!!
Gross gold porch light!
The black one will look a lot nicer.
Ew! The door! It's all dirty and the paint is chipping off the sides!
THE FRONT STOOP IS IN SHAMBLES!!!!!!!
These hedges down our driveway are way too big.
They need reigned in...
Ugh, shitty flower bed.
More shitty flower bed...
These shutters flew off in a storm years ago.
WE HAVE NOT GOTTEN AROUND TO FIXING THEM!
I finally threw them out yesterday. They were laying in our side yard, partially disintegrated under pine needles... I am so ashamed...
Here is our back porch. Okay people, start thinking of ways we could make this more inviting because we haven't even started coming up with ideas for this area yet...
Okay, now here is the fun part... Here's what 5 hours of yard work will accomplish!
First, I put the tomato stakes in my garden!
In case you didn't know what tomato stakes were...
My garden consists of 4 tomato plants,
4 pepper plants, cilantro, and basil.
It is growing really well!
I got about 4 peppers so far and ONE cherry tomato that was DELISH!
Oh, I also have some squash but I accidentally deleted that picture.
Then I painted to front door and the trim. It will need another coat which I will do today. (The recommendation is 24 hours later.)
With just one coat it already looks better.
Then I painted the front stoop. I will do a second coat today. I can't wait until that is done so I can put the welcome mat out as well as the potted plant I bought to put on the stoop!
Not perfect but a lot better.
This will go on the front stoop.
Then I weeded the flower bed in front of our house, cleaned up leaves and trimmed some of the dead parts off the plants.
My reward!? LAYING DOWN ALL THE MULCH!!! That was so fun. Then I put up the "decorations", such as our rocks, our garden art (GART), the solar lights, and the American flags!
Remember those overgrown hedges? Paul trimmed them.
He did a good job, but did you see everything I accomplished in 5 hours!!??
I'm sure you noticed our front door needs a new screen door. I'm not sure how it broke, but it bit the dust over a year ago. We also need a new roof. Our roof was "newer" when we bought the house, but it is time to repair it. The shingles are DONE.
It makes sense that our house should need some big home improvements. We have lived here for 9 years! We love our little home and I am serious when I tell you I don't ever want to move out of it. I am quite certain we could afford to upgrade to a bigger place with maybe a nicer lawn and a deck... But I don't know, I am such a homebody and this is our HOME. I think I would rather spend money keeping this place nice and then of course go on trips and vacations to the beautiful places we want to visit. Who knows, maybe someday we will buy a second home in Colorado!? I girl can dream...
There is more work to do, but that is what I was able to accomplish yesterday!
This is after 3 hand washes and a shower.
What's the last thing you did to spruce up the outside of your house?
Is there a home improvement project on the horizon?
How's your garden doing?
Is there a home improvement project on the horizon?
How's your garden doing?
You did a great job! The coat of paint on the door really helped a lot. Now I am even more motivated to paint our door. When we first moved in I noticed that the door needed a coat of paint, it honestly looks super similar to what your door liked like before you painted it. It's on my list of things to do but I need to move it to the top!
ReplyDeleteI like what you did with the flower bed in the front of the house!
Your porch... girl, there is so much you can do there! I would probably add fairy lights or Edison lights around the roof. Twinkling fairy lights or white christmas lights would look nice at night! I mean I love Edison lights, it's what we have around our pergola but I know they're not for everyone. You could also add a nice outdoor carpet or rug (search indoor/outdoor rug on Joss and Main for ideas). Maybe add some flower pots along the side by the chairs? Aside from the lighting which we already have, these are all things I need to do too!
Thank you so much for the tips for our back porch! I never thought about lighting but obviously that would make it look really nice! I also never thoughts about an outdoor rug. You are giving me some wonderful ideas.
DeleteI think you will enjoy painting your door. I enjoyed being outside and accomplishing something, you know? I am excited to see what the second coat does today. What color is your door? Are you keeping it the same color? I love RED doors, but obviously that would not like right on our house.
Megan - What an awesome post - I LOVE before and afters!! You really did a great job - everything looks beautiful. I love doing stuff like that - makes me feel very accomplished. We have a pretty nice house and it looks good, but we need to get shutters (all the other houses in the neighborhood have shutters, when we bought it, it was the only one without) - we also want to get an awning for our back deck. we love to sit outside, but we get the afternoon sun on the back of the house, and it's hot as balls out there. We have a nice umbrella, but it doesn't quite do the trick. We also need to freshen up our back yard, we want a new tree or two. Our dog has take over the yard, and it needs some polishing up! I would love to have a garden, but no green thumb here!
ReplyDeleteabove post was from Kristen : ) Also wanted to tell you that now I am obsessed with the Bevers case. have been learning about it. it's fascinating!
DeleteThank you so much! I was hoping people liked this before and after. I hope to have more before and afters in the future because I am going to work, work, work some more today. Hopefully I can get Paul to do a couple things too. :)
DeleteI don't have a green thumb at all either, but I had my mom help me with my garden the first two years, then this year I was able to do it myself. I bet you have a relative or friend that could get you started if you really wanted to. :)
I'm glad you have a nice house and a deck you can enjoy. All those little improvements sound like they will make your house even nicer and more enjoyable for you. What kind of trees are you looking to get? We have a corkscrew willow in the backyard and we freaking love it!
Really!? I was surprised so many people liked my post from yesterday! I got more readers and comments than normal. Maybe I should change this into a murder blog... Megging a Murderer??? Did you watch the Brain Scratch videos? If you found any good links or videos, let me know. I love reading the comments on reddit but I think I read everything there is to read on there. Have you come up with any other theories?
My husband picked out a tree, don't know what kind it is, we live in South Jersey, so the soil can be weird and not always be conducive to certain plants. My husband loves corkscrew willows, we should find one of those!
DeleteWatched one of the Brain Scratch videos about Missy Bevers - I really think that the FIL did it! He had very much the same walk and build as the suspect in the video. And the interviews with both the husband and FIL were strange, they didn't really seem too distraught about her violent death. I am going to watch some more videos today about it. and yes, you should do a murder blog! : ) Kristen
Have fun doing your detective work and of course report back with any interesting findings. ;)
DeleteI love this post! You did a great job sprucing things up! I've been working on my outdoor spaces too lately. We have this one area of the patio that needed a little something so I bought an outdoor rug, a potted plant and hung a string of lights. You could do the same for your patio!
ReplyDeleteYou all are giving me great ideas! Drive down to Camp Hill today and help me pick stuff out. ;)
DeleteI would love to come help you decorate! I was just in selinsgrove this morning, I could have drove a few more miles down the road. Now is a good time to buy patio furniture and accessories cus lots of stores have 25% off right now! Good luck and show us what you end up doing with the space!
DeleteI found a really cool pub style table that would be nice for our back porch because it is small and our back porch is small. I bought lights today at Big Lots- $12! Going on Amazon now to look and get ideas. I actually got some ideas on my run today! I was looking at people's screen doors and yard decorations.
DeleteYou worked so hard! And did such a great job!!! I'm not a decorator by ANY sort, but if I ever want to spruce up an area, I string little white lights around. Maybe that's what you could do on your back deck?
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea! Why did I not think of lights?
DeleteBig news... we harvested our first garden veggie today... ONE snap pea!! Yep, and I cut it up and put it in my salad. Glorious day! My yard gets overgrown in a hot minute. Makes me so mad. I spend time on it, and then the next week it's a mess again.
ReplyDeleteWe just got our basement carpeted. Basement finishing project is almost done! I will blog about that soon. Very exciting!
Your hard work really paid off. Everything looks great!
YAY FOR ONE PEA!!!! I got one more cherry tomato today. It was very good.
DeleteI can't wait to see your blog about your basement. Will you have before and after pictures?
Way to go with all the improvements! Too bad we didn't live closer, Rick could have done your painting for you! We are on the tail end of a complete main level remodel. It's been "fun" (OK, not fun but love the result). I have a feeling we are going to continue because now we are a bit addicted to updating the look of our house. Our garden is coming along--things come later in the season here. Rick brought in our first (tiny) zucchini yesterday. Makes me happy!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait for my zukes to start popping up. So far I have lots of flowers but no veggies yet. So what part of your house do you think you will do next? Are you in your forever home?
DeleteI could use Rick to help me clean out the space between our shed and the fence, and behind the shed. There is so much debris and CRAP back there! Part of me wants to pay someone to do it then another part is like... well, I'm able bodied. I just don't think I have anywhere to GO with the debris, you know? And I think a landscaper would prob just haul it away and chop it up.
I think we are putting in another bathroom in the garden level basement. We were going to finish the workout room but we decided for now "it's finished enough" and just added in the new equipment. I think we are going to stay here for awhile. It will be paid off soon and then we can just travel more!
DeleteGood idea! I can't wait until our home is paid off! Think of all that money we will save every month!
DeleteOur HOA landscape is gravel, but I do have a couple flower pots for the patio. I needed sturdy flowers because while my mom and aunt are excellent gardeners, I tend to kill plants, not matter what I do. So far the flowers are doing very well.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your flowers are doing well. I bet they look pretty!
DeleteNice job!! That's always a very productive use of time. Frank and I have been renters and have no plans to change, so we don't do too much maintenance ourselves. Although last weekend we did build some shelves in our bedroom and finally unpacked the last few things from the move (I know... we waited a while).
ReplyDeleteDoes it feel good to be all unpacked at least??
Deletehow cool!! I love the close up pictures! they felt like a mystery show!
ReplyDeleteI should show Roger the picture of your porch and ask him for advice on decorating... he is really good at it. he decorates our balcony.
LOL glad I could make it feel like a mystery. :)
DeleteYes, show Roger please and get his opinion! So far, I bought lights. Everything else seems so expensive.