Curb Appeal

This is what our house looked like on the day we bought it:

cute right? We thought so- love the cedar shake shingles and the ivy of course! And the cute black shutters. We were smitten.

We moved in and started working on the inside of the house and all of the sudden started realizing that we needed to do some work on the outside as well. I felt like the bushes were TOO tall EVERYWHERE and the ivy was overgrown. Want to hear a dirty secret? At one point I was ready to just completely get rid of the ivy! I even asked around about how to do it! But then we (meaning P talked me off a ledge) decided to trim the ivy and do some weed pulling and bush trimming! This was back in September and man- it was a LONG day. I pulled the ivy off of all the window casings and made sure that it was an inch above the foundation and an inch below the roof line/ shingle line so it was trim and tidy looking. SO CUTE! That is when I decided I LOVED the ivy. Really.

pardon the dullness- this was taken in winter

Then we, err, P went to work on the bushes- and trimmed the tops off of the bushes in front of the living room window. So much better- we can actually see the window which is a plus and they are a little more structured looking. (Don't mind the trampled monkey grass- that's from the window install) I realize they look a little funny since they have no leaves on top at this moment, but anyhoo. Good stuff- we tried to tackle the bushes in front of the porch and guest room window but they were just too big.

This is when we realized that the roots are seriously growing out at like a 45 degree angle to get out from under the roof line and they are just massive.

Isn't that crazy looking! That's what you see when you walk out the front door (pardon the nightime shot)

It was on this day that I decided we would be redoing our front yard landscaping!! YAY
Now fast forward 5 months and a BUNCH of work and $$ spent on the inside of the house and I am READY more than ever to have those enormous bushes gone! And what a better time right?

So I drew myself up a little landscaping plan- I might have gone overboard with the color pencils...

 It’s almost to scale too! (My sidewalk got a little out of control in the width towards the driveway- pretty sure we don’t need a 6 foot wide path but whatever) You get the point. So after a bunch of online research I found a landscaping service I really liked. Garden Guy for local Houstonians. Had him over and he’s worked up a plan for us!

SUPER DUPER excited- now I just have to save some more money- more than expected because we decided to pull the trigger on the lighting situation (see Monday's post )

But anyways- come mid-April I hope to introduce you to our new and improved front yard!