When we first found our house, it looked like this. Let me start by saying, we have come such a long way. We were so busy with the inside, this front yard is officially the only thing that hasn’t changed. Today we’re going to share a little front yard landscaping inspiration!
Today, it looks like this.
You can see our new primary addition to the right, deceivingly small from the outside. It holds a butler’s pantry, laundry room, main bedroom, two closets and full bath. If you’re not familiar with our little house journey, here’s a quick trip down the rabbit hole:
{Heartache, but we did lose the only grand thing the front yard had going for it… our spectacular tree last year.}
• Probably the easiest route is here with a quick history of all the phases
• The outside reboot with Window World a little in this post
• We finished our primary suite this summer
{still waiting on things like cabinets, glass, wallpaper, etc. to polish it all up, thus no reveals just yet!}
• We even replaced our floors in the entire house AGAIN this summer, moving out right after the primary suite was finished, due to a bad faucet, last winter. Yes, it felt like good/bad juju or something because now at least my floors match. Because of that, we’re working on our main living space, to revamp it, now – more on that coming soon!
• And if you’re just bored, everything can be found here. Starting right from page 1, where we sold our old home after waiting for a year, whilst at Disney. Fairy dust and everything.
But we haven’t really given you any updates, beyond moving back in this summer. I think we were just so tired, and hitting it hard with all things business and life, updates on our own home fell by the wayside. We were living in chaos for a while… it felt like moving without moving since it was the musical bedrooms/chaotic summer of 2022. I plan to catch us up in a few categories over the next few weeks, if you’re curious. I think we’re looking forward to finishing everything up and taking a break from renovations in our own home for a while. Don’t worry… we will still have plenty of fun projects coming your way.
Then, we talked about all things landscaping a little over a year ago, in this post. But like I said above, between our day jobs, we’ve kind of had a lot going on. Now that we moved into our addition {and are slowly putting the finishing touches on that} we can FINALLY tackle our original plans for all things LANDSCAPING.
Let me start by saying, we have a great yard. It’s an acre with huge, established trees, and lots of privacy now that we’ve planted more {thanks, 2020}. But the front is just sad. Here’s a glimpse {even if the house does need a good pressure wash} of the FABULOUS new roof for which we were way overdue, and thrilled to put in last fall. I haven’t even shared that part. I mean SUCH a difference in the way everything looks. But we lost our favorite tree, and never added anything back. We’ve had a plan, but just haven’t had much time to make it happen.
Let’s make it pretty, already. Sheesh.
Yes, it’s the hot mess express. If you remember from our landscaping post, we had a quick sketch for a vibe of the front yard. So here’s a glimpse of our original plans… {this photo happened before that fabulous roof + addition-I awkwardly photoshopped the roof to make it “grey”.} Yes, the flowers are over the top dramatic but it gives you the idea. We basically want color and character.
SO, this fall we’re tackling stage 1.
Landscaping phase 1 includes:
• A trellis to the front, with curves and character to offset the split level feel that was cool in the 70’s but ultimately makes the house feel unbalanced without a good front yard. – we’re taking this on with Yellawood and couldn’t be more thrilled to design and implement it with them.
• A brick walkway with more curve, again to offset the very square and rigid architecture. We’re implementing this with Glen-Gery bricks and love the look these stone pavers bring to the space.
• A few beginner plants to the front to establish the style…we’ll start big with phase 2 in the spring
• New trees: 3-4ish to the front
• And yes, pressure washing – wheeeee!
So here we are again, before we got started. And this weekend, we began prepping the groundwork, since the left side all has to go.
We will be building off of the established boxwood and other plants, on the right- I want to save all that I can. {Yes, they need to be trimmed.} For anyone who’s going to come for me, I hated to dig the boxwoods up, but they were too massive to save, and they did NOTHING for the front here. I liken them to an awkward neckbeard on our house. It needs a good shave and a whole new look, instead. So we tackled it all with Green Machine to take them out.
Here’s an up close glance of this walkway. I know our delivery people {friends use the side entrance} are like “What in the 1975 is this walkway?” Because apologies in advance if you’re a big fan of monkey grass, but I hate it. It’s sole purpose is to collect leaves, I swear. And it needs to go away because it’s everywhere.
I’m sharing all of this with you in case you thought we had our lives together. This should serve as a sweet reminder, monkey grass and home in need of a big fat pressure washing… complete with mullet and neckbeard -we are far from having anything together. But It was satisfying to take some things out this weekend, and take the first step to getting it closer to where it needs to be.
We’ve done a lot of changes to this house. So nothing was more satisfying than to see this go.
Our oldest was a huge help, and even enjoyed the sledgehammer action with breaking it all up as we went. This is a quick still from a video Jamin took, but you can see our other trees we’ve planted in the past, growing in the background!
Side note: They’ve gotten so big! The kids, and the trees.
But back to that sledgehammer: because this was fun.
Now that it’s all removed, we can start the process of mapping out that new walkway…
And maybe our yard will no longer have a mullet. Business in the front… party in the back. It can finally reflect the rest of our home.
Stay tuned because we can’t wait to we share more.
Have an inspired day!
Debbie says
It’s going to be beautiful!!
Kelly says
Excited to see how it will turn out! I’m sure it will be awesome!