OH EM GEE...

I found this in my drafts... embarrassingly enough from before I went away... so "Friday" is really September TENTH! **shame** Many, many updates to come this week!

I got home Friday to see this...

"GASP! Are you doing what I think you're doing?!"

I think the words, "I have never been so happy to see someone do something in my entire life!" [I am, perhaps, prone to exaggeration...]

Goodbye you horrible green monster.

And now we have:

[gigantic sigh of relief] It makes such a difference, even though I'm now even more painfully aware of how badly the garden needs weeding... and I don't really care... and I love it.

So Much For Being Ignored...

So remember when I said I didn't want to be FEATURED on the Garden Walk, I just wanted my house to be "ignorable"... Well...

Siiiigh. How can I say no to something this hilarious? Well, maybe this was the best cover for the front yard AC unit!

Anyway, as per usual, the to-do list expectations exceeded the ability to actually do them, BUT, I'm happy with the progress made. First up, the walk way:

Before:

After:

(this was a sh!t-ton of work, surprisingly... that's annoying...)

The porch; 

New moulding, primed, full update coming soon...

The driveway;

Still a hot mess (shock me shock me shock me!)

Back door;

Likewise

Back of house;

Trip to "the dump" planned... for reals...

And the crown jewel of our new "curb appeal"... the garden!

Let's see what took so long... as we discussed, there was rototilling...

then plant transplanting

and then topsoil

then more tilling...

then plant planning...

with Brick supervising...

then mulching and finallyyyyyyy...

Let's remember before, shall we? (because that's the only thing that makes this impressive, haha!)

Before:

Afterrrrr:

(will be replacing sucky sun-flarey photo tomorrow...) SO we still need to redo the flagstone pathway, and line the garden with the bricks we found on the side of the house, AND cover that massive eyesore of an AC unit... BUT... le sigh, it's ignorable. :)

So our garden was definitely not the star of the Garden Walk... but I don't think anyone noticed... 

We're stars for better reasons... with neighbors like these, who cares about the effing garden anyway? :)

Blog Poll!

Ok all (both) of you readers out there! As the garden makeover continues, I need your opinion on what to do with possibly the BIGGEST lack-of-curb-appeal eyesore in the whole Money Pit... (now that we have a gorgeous window for the OTHER biggest eyesore...)

One of these things is not like the other... Do you see the problem?? All this time and energy and money spent a garden that, in the end, still has a GIANT A/C unit in it! Who puts that in the front yard ANYWAY? Well, since it's an environmental hazard to remove yourself, we have to hire pros to do it, and since that costs a pretty penny, it's going to have to wait until next year. SO, I ask you, should we:


a.) Turn it into a bird bath
b.) Paint it to blend in better
c.) Turn it into a planter
d.) Paint it black, put 8 sticks in it, and make it look like a giant spider for halloween

Rototill This...

Mary, Mary quite contrary, how does your garden grow?  Not well, I'm afraid, not well at all my dears. I should have been listening to Megan when she said, "Work smarter, not harder," and NOT when she said, "That rototiller won't handle all that grass, you're going to have to dig it up first..."

My tool (for the last two weekends or so...)

That's right, the old-fashioned Amish way, of digging the weeds up from the roots, turning them over, stabbing them with the shovel to break up the dirt, and pulling out the weeds... Until finally, while having beers and enjoying the nice [albeit too-hot-to-garden] weather, my neighbors just couldn't stand to see me toiling any longer, and they said, "Why don't you just rototill it??" To which I responded what I was told, about the grass wrapping around the blades and breaking the thing... To which THEY responded, "Why don't you just TRY it?"

Well, guess what folks... This thing:

Was a f*&%ing champ... And I got to tag off and take a break while Nick finished, in 15 minutes, what it had taken me several weekends to "start."

I'm looking at it this way - what a WONDERFUL learning experience, and just think of all the CALORIES I burned! Hooray!!

So, once again, a holiday weekend full of parties, friends, and cookouts got away from us, but, we did get it to this point:

 

(Lest we forget it WAS this:)

 

And we've got these all ready to go in...

So we're gettin' there... and we'll just have to keep taking advantage of these light-out-late evenings... After all, you can't work the whole summer away!!

Weeds – Your Days Are Numbered...

Since this weekend consisted of wrapping up the upstairs for window installation [yawn, nothing worth blogging - how many pictures can you take of contractor bags and piles of dust?] we didn't make much headway on the "curb appeal"... but we did get...

[and by WE I of course mean Nick :)]

Look out weeds... we aren't effin' around...

With Love and Discouragement...

New puppy, traveling, local site-seeing, and cross-coastal friends visiting... we have had an EXCEPTIONAL whirlwind of fun the past few weeks!

The downside: it's now more painfully obvious than ever how much the exterior of our house looks like something out of Life After People.

SO, to hopefully get our asses in gear, here are some "Accountability Befores"... and hopefully we can at least get our house to a level of ignorability before the crowds set in...

As we know... the front garden:

Needs: Rototilling (sp?!), topsoil, plants, mulch, and possibly rocks to finish it off...

The front porch:

(WHICH I managed to punch a hole in last week! Nothing makes a thick girl feel worse than a chair leg dropping through a floorboard... rotted or not...)

Needs: New moulding, prime, paint, sconce, outdoor tablecloth, replace floorboard.

The driveway and front walkway:

Needs: Edging, weed pulling/killing. (NEED a new driveway... but lets keep this list manageable...)

The back porch:

Needs: Oh so very much... new door, new sconce, a good scrub down!

The back (This is extra embarrassing, but I am putting it all out there!!):

Needs: A good cleanup/purge of junk (yes, there are three grills, and NO, none of them work! I know, absolutely ridiculous!), some weed wacking, and a clawfoot tub with veggies planted in it! :)

Oh yeah, and I still want to get that rain barrel!!

Black Thumb

Hi, my name is Alyson, and I'm a plant murderer... [Hiiiiii Alyson...] Yeah, it's true, I just don't "get" gardening; it's dirty, and full of bugs, and worms, and slugs, and I kill anything with roots and leaves, except weeds, apparently I can grow them, and it's just really HARD [panting, out of breath, exasperated]. Now, my sister is another story, she can grow anything, she enjoys being in the dirt... and thereby is a mcjudgerson when it comes to my house's "curb appeal." So, with a big "Pre-Reno/Sibling Grad Party" looming, I went out and bought me-self some flowers! And pots! And soil! And gosh-darnit, I planted me some flowers...

In my triumph, I call Megan... who promptly deflates my proud posture.. "There are holes in the bottom, right?"

.......?

"WELL IF THE POTS NEED HOLES IN THE BOTTOM FOR DRAINAGE WHY WOULD THEY SELL POTS THAT DON'T HAVE HOLES IN THEM!?"

Enter my hero, my rescuer, my power-tool-weilding superman, who I pouty-faced asked to drill holes in the pots. And he did, even the super heavy, already full of dirt one...

And.. I haven't killed them JUST yet... (these pictures are from today):

And then my adorable, sweet grandparents bring me this:

So now I REALLY gotta get used to this whole gardening thing... Because my garden looks like this:

Sooooo I guess I will be doing that soon. Very soon... because I don't want to kill it, but I did give them fair warning it MAY be dead in a week...

Fingers crossed... black thumbs and all...