My Before and After
Within the last few weeks my goal has been to make my house have a little more curb appeal than when I moved in. When I moved in there was a HUGE (and beautiful) Oak Tree overshadowing my front yard and house. (it made me very nervous from the second I stepped out of the car at the showing of the house). The shutters and storm door green, the steps UN-kept with chipped paint and no handrails. Needless to say, the pruning had not been done on any of the bushes in years and I didn't have a working doorbell! Well MOVE over "Yard Crashers," Jacki is in the 'Hood!'
What a GREAT feeling to get my hands working towards a goal! I had a few days of working in the hot sun, a LOT of late evenings watering the new sod (in place of the worrisome Oak), painting, unscrewing hardware and painting it, applying new shutters and figuring out what I want to do as the next step. There has been a lot of time to process my thoughts about the divorce and how amazing and a blessing my babies are! What a gift to have them in my life! I would say a total of about 80 hours or so has been spent in my front yard within the last 2 months. With the help from a couple friends and my "Mighty Mouse" this place is bringing me super-pride when I pull into the driveway. I love making my house a home!
Accomplishments:
--Green shutters gone.
--Maroon Shutters on living AND Kitchen window now.
--Bilateral Railing on front steps leading to door
--Tan steps
--Oak Tree GONE
--Black mailbox
--Black light fixtures
--New storm door- Maroon with larger viewing screen
--Trimmed the 'yew' shrubs and put flowers in pots between them
--Put plants/flower in front of living room window
--Updated/painted address signage
--Lilac pushes on north end of the house brought down to trimmed lilac bush size.
I will most likely be starting a project in the fall months to beautify the transition area to the back yard. It involves not only demolition but true handiwork. I will tell ya what else I am thinking about!!! I want to hack the stinking apple tree down in the backyard-however, I know I LOVE the blooms that it brings in the spring time. So tired of raking up the 8,000 apples that fall each week from the tree! I don't like to grind them up in the mower as it can dull the blades and also I don't want to attract wasps with the sweet smell of fresh apple juice. The Ex (Who I will sparingly refer to as Mr. J) has a severe allergy to honey bees---I don't want to find out if the boys have an allergy yet so I am avoiding any unnecessary encounters.
What's nice is getting my social life back after the crazy year I have had. My friends and family have been SO amazing through this whole thing and it's great to have them over for grill outs and play dates more regularly. I have ventured out quite a bit with the boys into the neighborhood with the double stroller. We visit the parks and they get to pick the directions we go when we come to a corner . They love it. I'm able to get my exercise in, teach them how to take care of their bodies, spend time with them and jam out to my favorite tunes with my ear buds in. Lately I have been really fired up about starting up jogging again. I used to be able to run 4 miles (amazing for an activity-induced asthmatic) with no problem . I want to get back to that and shoot for a 5K (3.1 miles) next Spring. It will take some training through the slow Wisconsin Winter, but Hey! What the heck else am I going to do?! I can't WAIT to go downhill skiing this winter as well. I am falling in love with the idea of being healthy and taking care of ME for a change. I'm motivated and ready to go!
SO? What do ya think???
Boomer is much happier, I think.
