Remember when John met his frog friend (well, technically his toad friend) here?
Well, this time around we made a new neighborhood acquaintance…
… a snaaaaaaake! And we were skeeeeered. But not to scared to take a picture. Thankfully he was just a harmless garter snake.
Why were we outside? Yard maintenance. We figure our exterior will need a whole lotta small phase projects if it’s going to ever-so-slowly transform like our last one did, which went from this…
… to this (over the course of 4.5 years)…
So since that’s nothing we’ll ever be able to accomplish overnight – or even within a year – we’re all about breaking that humongous task down into much smaller bite sized pieces to tackle slowly over time. So here are a few little outdoor undertakings that we’ve recently checked off.
First on the list: spray the mailbox and our house numbers with ORB (oil-rubbed bronze spray paint) so they would look a little more refreshed.
The most fun part of the process was when John brought it to me using rubber pot holder thingies because it was literally too hot to touch from sitting out in the sun out front:
Up close and personal, she definitely wasn’t looking so hot (even though she was literally quite hot):
So I wiped down all the bird poo with a wet cloth (I live a glamorous life) and used my favorite ORB spray paint (hi my name is Sherry and I have an ORB problem) to apply a few thin and even coats (you can check out some spray painting tips here). I also sprayed the rusted tops of the screws for holding the mailbox in place and our brass house numbers.
Oh and for “drop cloths” I usually use an old fabric one (or cardboard from the recycling bin) but this time I decided to use the same few big black plastic bags that I’ve used for other ORB projects as of late (I just ball them up after they’re dry to be reused since I’m such a spray painting fool these days, and hate to toss them after one go).
Can’t show you all of our house numbers of course, but the mailbox is looking mighty shiny:
Oh and I did this on a Sunday so as not to confound the mailman. By the end of the day everything was dry and I was able to screw them back into place. And while I was up there I snapped a few shots of the flowers since we had some requests for updated pics to see how they’ve grown.
But first, here they are before, back when we planted them:
And here they are now, paired with the freshly sprayed mailbox (we photoshopped out the newly painted house numbers on the post though):
Isn’t it amazing how much they’ve filled in? And it’s worth noting that we only watered them once (when we planted them) and it’s been scorchingly hot so I’m extreeeeeeeemely impressed. Wave petunias are the way to go, it seems.
Even Lord Squirrelio is enjoying the expanding flora:
Oh and as for the mailbox post, we’ve considered painting it but kind of like how it blends into the landscape thanks to the old weathered wood. A landscape designer friend of ours has a theory that you should never bring attention to your mailbox or post itself, just keep it neat and let it be what it is (so it doesn’t stand out/detract from the yard around it). That natural wood post definitely does that. We still might paint it down the line, but for now we’re happy to leave it au naturale.
But I digress with all of the mailbox updating. Back to the title. Here’s why we’re those neighbors again. Remember when we admitted that we had a bit of a mailbox problem (before we weeded, laid down landscaping fabric, planted some flowers, mulched, and removed some extra signs on our mailbox post) which made us quite the embarrassed new family in town?
Well, we also have this insane side yard that doesn’t look like it’s ours, but it is. Yup, everything in this picture is our lot:
Even the crazy shaggy stuff on the left.
See, it’s a whole lotta don’t-know-what-to-do-with-that-but-don’t-want-to-have-to-mow-or-weed-or-otherwise-maintain-it space to deal with, so we decided to see if we could naturalize it (the neighbors have some naturalized land on their lot next to ours so we thought it would “go together” nicely).
Oops. Total failure. It just ended up looking crazy and overgrown:
Not only wasn’t the overgrown grass doing it for us, a few well meaning neighbors actually mentioned that we might want to mow it before “we get reported to the neighborhood association.” Talk about embarrassing. We muttered something about trying to naturalize it like the lot to the left, admitted that it definitely wasn’t working out the way we hoped, and vowed to at least cut the grass in the front for less of an unkempt appearance from the curb.
But it meant that we had to attempt to mow that wayyyyy-too-looong-to-easily-mow grass. Thankfully big strong John got ‘er done! It didn’t take five minutes (more like about an hour of slow back and forth maneuvering and turning off the mower to get clumps of grass out every ten minutes or so)…
… but slowly but surely…
… we went from that crazy overgrown embarrassment to a slightly more manicured-up-top look, thanks to just moving that front strip:
We like how it actually looks like it’s part of our lot now, even if it’s obviously the more naturalized portion of it:
Now it looks like the area down the hill is intentionally wild (hooray- no weeding or incline mowing necessary down there) but the area up top is a bit neater from the road. You know, as opposed to looking all sad slash abandoned.
In other small-things-we-tackle-in-the-hopes-that-in-five-years-we’ll-blink-our-eyes-and-love-our-exterior news, we also planted three more evergreens in the back area of our house to hopefully provide more future privacy from the back (and to pay the environment back for doing all this clothespin driving).
We went with three more of the same fast growing evergreen trees that we planted on the side of our house (so you can check out more on how that all went down here).
Next we did a little weeding. Or should I say big weeding. We don’t know what the heck is in the soil here, but check out the size of some of the weeds springing up around the someday-we-hope-it’ll-look-naturalized-and-wooded side & back yard:
Yeah, that’s a giant dandelion. And yes, it felt like we were suddenly on the set of Jurassic Park and would soon see a pterodactylfly by or something.
Sure we want some areas of our side and back yard to look woodsy and naturalized someday, but for now these big ol’ weeds were more that a little embarrassing. So we dug them out and marveled at their shrub-like proportions. Crazytown.
As for our outdoor checklist, it’s waay too long to share in its entirety, but we’ll jot down a few things that we did (just for the satisfaction of crossing them off) and list a few more objectives that we hope to tackle over time:
weed the side of the carport(done here with some mom help)limb up the giant magnolia(done here)build a side patio(done over the course of about four weeks here)weed, mulch & plant the embarrassingly unkempt mailbox area(done here)plant three fast growing evergreen trees on the side of our house for privacy(done here)make some mini porch updates(done here)upgrade the mailbox and our house numbers with some ORBplant three more fast growing evergreen trees in the back of our houseweed the side and back yard areas, so they naturalize with trees (not giant dandelions)- avoid snakes (so far so good, but this is an ongoing initiative)
- transplant the tree that’s planted ON our house (seen here)
- remove/transplant a ton of bushes and shrubs that block our front walkway & our house in general (in multiple phases)
- paint the front door
- frame out the round country-ish columns on the porch
- remove the also-country-ish scalloped header on the porch
- build raised bed gardens in the back
- add a wood compost bin in the back (right now we use this slightly less handsome compost method)
In short, we’d like to slowly tame the jungle that is this in a bunch of not-too-intimidating phases:
Because let’s be honest, you can’t even see the porch. Le sigh.
What about you guys? Do you completely “gut” your yard and rebuild it all at once, or are you one-project-at-a-time folks like us? Have you ever seen a sneaky little snake? Or a giant person-sized dandelion? Or been told to mow your lawn by the neighbors? Oh man, we’re still kind of blushing.
Krystina says
You know you desperately want to stop living in an apartment and buy a house when you read a post like this and think- “I want to spend hours sweating and doing yard work in front of my house!! Spray painting mailboxes? Battling it out with a snake?! UGhhhhh why not me?!?” …No doubt after owning for a few weeks I will curse my response to this post. But for now- le sigh! (sighing always happens in French) I long for the life of a homeowner!
Care says
Wow! You really have a lot to do….not meaning that *I* think you have a lot to do, but according to your list it looks like you have so much work ahead of you. I feel for you guys!
I live in the SF bay area where all neighbors are within arms reach of one another. Really. If a window is open you can easily hear other peoples conversations – not yelling, just normal speaking tone. Sometimes I wish I lived on a big lot like yours – must be nice :)
Jo @ Jo In the Kitchen says
Lol, every time you guys talk about “thin, even” coats of paint it reminds me of this scene (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfgTWY_h-1o) in My Cousin Vinny. Not sure why, but it makes me happy :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- metallic mint green paint! Like thin and even paint. Haha.
xo,
s
KellyA says
I just got a composter going last week so the link back to your tips was great! My city has a $100 rebate deal and mine was… $98!
My yard is much smaller but still a work in progress. I’m removing two trees, reviving the grass, creating a side yard garden and keeping my roses from overtaking the house.
I find doing one thing/day works, even if it’s just watering.
S – how about getting a bright watering can and having Clara help you water when you get the mail?
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that would be adorable! She has a small watering can that she plays with at the beach, so we’ll have to give that a try. Haha.
xo,
s
Karen says
We are definitely a “slowly but surely, one project at a time” household, even if my brain wishes we could do it all in ONE! BIG! WHIRLWIND!
When we moved into our house, the lawn and landscaping looked pretty sad and overrun. On one of the first weekends we were in the house, my husband went outside and removed dead bushes, weeded, and mowed the lawn. Within HOURS, four sets of neighbors came over to tell how how happy they were to have us in the neighborhood, and how good the lawn looked. My husband said he planned to do more work on it as it was not quite up to par with their spectacular lawns. but they all told us that the previous owner NEVER mowed the lawn. Instead, he would wait until it got about knee-high and stand outside, in an open robe (with nothing underneath) and cut it down by hand with a machete.
Yes, you read that right.
YoungHouseLove says
Wow- that might win for craziest mental picture. Haha.
xo,
s
LIsa says
We do one project at a time and our landscape is always a work in progress! I have been really focusing on our back yard now that we have kids and put in a fence and playset last summer. Then I saw your post about the front porch around the same time my best friend commented about our black front door…I realized our house has no color in the front! We have a tan stucco home with a black door and accents…I love the colors, but it wasn’t very “curb appealing” at first glance. So, I bought two large planters in a cinnamon/persimmon color and put an evergreen tree in each, added a great rug with tan and black medallion and then put a wreath on the door with berries in a lighter orange/red color…what a difference! Now, I am working on a plan to paint our light fixtures and the railing black to bring them all in together and just make them shiny and new again. I also ordered a new mailbox. We live on a very busy street and while I love our current mailbox, I hate having to step into the street to open it. So, I ordered one that will open from the back so that I can safely get the mail. :) So, that will be another project getting that installed.
Oh, and I would totally paint that mailbox post or use a pressure sprayer to get the gray off and then stain it. :)
diana says
Yikes! I can’t believe that you found a snake. Who design your website? Did you pay a web designer? If you did design your web site yourself, WOW!! You are my heros!!!
YoungHouseLove says
It’s all John! Well, I learned a bit of coding too, but he taught himself everything from scratch and has designed it all himself (with some wifely input, haha). He’s planning to write a post about simple web coding stuff that he’s learned for our upcoming blogiversary!
xo,
s
Donita says
THAT WOULD BE SO AWESOME if John would post that SOON. LOL I was JUST this morning wondering how I could make my blog page look nice…….and actually start blogging with and adding before and after pictures. I’m very excited and anxious for that post. ;-)
Chrissie says
Oooh yes please!! I’m wanting to update my site, but have no idea how.
(Ignore this if it will be in the post) do you guys use a theme and work from there to make it what you want or did you build it from the ground up?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, we use a theme (WP-Remix). John just customized it a lot with code. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Chrissie says
Oh cool, thank you very much! The idea of building a whole website from the ground up is more than a little daunting, it’s good to know that you can come up with something great without needing quite that level of skill.
Btw, I do love the layout/functionality of your website :-)
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much! It has definitely been a work in progress, but over the past 3.5 years we’ve definitely made some slow progress- sort of like how we tackle house stuff (slowly but surely). Haha.
xo,
s
Seriously Sassy Mama says
You guys are seriously productive. I would get out a clean the jungle that is the side of my house, but it is already 105 degrees. Ugh!
Barbara says
I have been waiting for the weather to cool down a bit to tackle our mailbox, but now you’ve done yours, perhaps this Sunday is the day?! I plan on spray painting it, and once it is dry adding a little Rustoleum Reflective Spray Paint, so I can see where I live(!) (no street lights) in the winter months (well that’s the plan). I couldn’t find it at our local store so I had to order it online, and it has mixed reviews.
YoungHouseLove says
Ooh tell us how it goes! Never used it but would love to hear!
xo,
s
Heather says
I have those same flowers, but in purple, and they have TAKEN OVER the small flower bed in front of my condo. I love them so much. I watered them when I planted them, and that’s about it. They just grow and grow and look all wild and the flowers have been going strong. Hurray for petunias!
kim says
Yeah – you gotta lotta work to do, but I feel so much better because I kick myself that ours gets a little out of control when we are focused on the inside. Right now, it’s the kitchen and the weeds and overgrown bushes are really bringing me down, but we are only human and there is only so much time in one day. So, my advice…..tackle it like you would eat an elephant – one bite at a time. You’ll finish it all eventually or at least get pretty darn close.
Nikki Kelly says
My BF and I have a teeny tiny back yard (260 sf total) but we have been in the process of redoing the whole thing! Everything was covered in mulch, and under that was a bunch of rock. It took about a month of sifting to completely rid the yard of all the landscaping rock, but I’m so glad we did it. Right now it just looks like a lot of dirt, but hopefully by the end of summer that will change. It’s hard to get work done working full time and trying to have a life with friends! Anyway, here is our journey so far:
http://theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com/search/label/Back%20Yard
Nikki Kelly says
P.S. When is the next Pinterest Challenge? I LOOOOOOOVVVEEEDDD it and can’t wait to do it again!
YoungHouseLove says
Katie and I are planning to do it seasonally, so we should be announcing the next one in September or October for fall!
xo,
s
Alyssa says
Ahhhh!! Another ORB post, I’m considering this a sign! I have been thinking about spray painting our master bathroom fixtures ORB, it’s the only room in the house that didn’t get them when we built. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I was pregnant and must have been loosing my mind:) Anyway, now that I saw you did this on the mailbox I was wondering if it is okay to do it on the faucets and anything else near water? Do you have to seal it or anything? I figured that you are basically an ORB PRO, so I figured I’d ask before getting my hopes up too much….and might I add that I thought I posted yesterday with this question and saying that the video was too cute, but I went back looking for my comment and it’s nowhere to be found. Then a few minutes ago I started a comment here and closed the “blogger” app on my phone and it was gone again. So, if this is the 2nd or 3rd time my comment is showing up, I am sorry to junking up your blog!!
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, that’s a really good question! I know it’s unsafe to paint a birdbath (at least the inside where the water sits) with it since it can affect water quality, so maybe you can spray the outside of a faucet but tape off everything that will come in contact with water so you’re sure you’re not affecting your water supply? You shouldn’t have to seal it with anything (metal soaks it up really well, and it’s self-priming) but you might want to sand a super shiny fixture before spraying it to allow it to grip?
xo,
s
Liz @ the cabbage patch says
We’re in a rental…and it sucks…because this is a college town, so NOBODY cares for their (rental) lawns. We moved in, and it was a jungle (check out the before and after pics on my blog, if you want.) We also only have yard waste pickup every other week, so it’s been very slow going. Oh, and our gates to the fence have to stay shut, so anytime I do weeding/bushwhacking, I have to walk each clump over to the fence and toss it over into the can. Yesterday I was attacking the flowering something next to the house and discovered that it has this horrendous orange pollen (to which I am allergic.) I had hoped to get it done in one day…but I think it’s going to take a little longer!
elle C. says
Haha! We know how you feel! When we moved into our house last summer, we focused all of our efforts on making the inside habitable and updating it, totally neglecting our front yard except for mowing every now and then. Our yard is the only one on our block that doesn’t have a sprinkler system, so it was almost completely dead. Our neighbor (who owns a landscaping business and who has a GORGEOUS green and perfectly manicured lawn) came over one day and simply offered a one-time fertilizing/weed-killing/edging from his crew so that we could get our lawn “manageable”. It was so embarrassing, but his neighborliness helped us at least maintain what he’d done. Though I have to say, his neighborliness also makes me hesitant to approach him about the giant piles of poo his 3 dogs leave on our lawn when he lets them out to roam every night!
Brandy says
I love what you do! I have an idea maybe for the Forrest lot thing. Have you thought about killing all the grass in the area (Google ‘Lasagna mulching’) and surrounding the edge of the woods in a quick growing shrub (Maybe the evergreen azaleas that bloom 3x a year) It would look naturalized, yet refined, Stop the mowing, and give the 3 level flow (Ground, shrub, Tree) Just a thought.
YoungHouseLove says
That would be awesome for a long term plan! Sadly buying all those shrubs would get pretty pricey since it’s such a wide/deep area, but maybe slowly we can fill things in!
xo,
s
Brandy says
I know the feeling. I went and got a bunch of 1 gal azaleas shrubs that were about 1′ tall, 2$ a a pop at walmart. Also hit up the end of season sales at nurseries, They drop the price by 75% in the fall, and it the best time to plant here in the south. Best of luck yo!
I am going to do this to my back yard with ‘August Beauty Gardenia’ I love them, they smell great and bloom all summer for me. Just more of a fussy plant. Have fun with it. Yards are my fave!
<3
Liz says
Ugggghhhh, landscaping is THE WORST! This summer we overhauled a portion of our front “yard.” (There’s actually no grass, just plants). We live on a hill, so our whole property is sloped in some way or another, which adds a whole new level of frustration!!! Sometimes I miss level ground!
Jen says
Hey! I just found your blog and “you had me at hello!!” I am loving all of the ideas!! Question….I am about to tackle re-painting all of the trim in our 100 year old house!?!? It has stain/poly on it now….that has probably been there forever!! Do you recommend priming the trim then with the oil based primer? And, would you just tape off the trim and paint it in place? THANKS!! LOVE YOUR BLOG AND IDEAS!!
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, if it’s super shiny I would rough it up with sandpaper first. Either way I’d definitely recommend oil-based primer followed by latex semi-gloss paint for the best results. You can also try something like Kilz NO-VOC water based primer, but you could have bleed-through issues so sadly the fumey oil-based stuff is the most error-proof. Good luck!
xo,
s
kelly says
definitely a huge multi year project, way to start tackling it within the first year! We bought our home about 6 years ago and although we have done little things to the yard that first year we concentrated most of our attention on the inside renovation. It wasn’t until a year ago that we woke up and realized we had to plant the trees now so that we could actually live in the yard that we envisioned… you know reality vs virtual. I’ve spent many hours working on our landscaping/permaculture plan(http://terhunehouse.com/?p=284) but brining it into reality is much more of a commitment.
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
You know when the best time to plant trees is, right? Ten years ago. (Arborist joke.)
YoungHouseLove says
Yesssss. I love a little arborist humor.
xo,
s
Kitty says
I like your approach with the one project at a time thing. Unfortunately, my projects are too few and far between to make any real progress. Maybe by next year I can figure out how to make grass grow in my bare backyard.
Randa L says
You know, when you had your last post about yard maintenance or long grasses (can’t remember which), I was going to comment “be careful of snakes!” But then I didn’t want to instill worry. :) I work in Midlothian and apparently a few years ago there was a large copperhead hanging out in front of my building. Nice!
YoungHouseLove says
Ahh! I think we better google for an image of a copperhead just so we know what they look like!
xo,
s
Randa says
Yes, that would be a good idea… just to be careful and aware, not to worry (like I tend to!)
You may have already found these, but just in case:
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/copperhead.htm
http://virginiaprofessionalwildliferemoval.blogspot.com/2011/07/copperhead-snakes-in-richmond.html
Hope they help!
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks so much! Yup, John and I both looked at photos for a while to identify them. I’ll definitely be on guard!
xo,
s
lara says
not that you’ll ever let it grow that long again, but a weed wacker might be a good option to get it to a manageable length, then run the mower over it
YoungHouseLove says
Smart idea!
xo,
s
Reading (and chickens) says
Snakes are maybe the worst thing in the entire universe, including the sun imploding and killing everything in existence. Good for you for not burning down your yard and house and then abandoning your lot when you saw that snake. Because that’s what I would be doing.
Sara says
We recently bought a new house with a huge yard and lots of bushes. Neighbor just mentioned seeing a snake and I have been having nightmares with snakes in them. I am scared of snakes and have been looking everywhere when I am in the backyard now. I live in Northern Virginia (so probably we don’t have poisonous snakes), but I am still spooked out.
Janette@The2Seasons says
We had 10 acres with our first house (7,000 sq. ft.), and my husband decided we would treat the whole area like lawn. That meant we mowed the entire thing e.v.e.r.y. week-end. Mowing, along with keeping the house up and working full time was too much. We moved and bought a 4000 sq ft house with a smaller yard. This summer, as empty-nesters, we down-sized to a 3000 sq. ft. townhouse with a courtyard. It is total heaven, and we have time for a life. That mowing thing isn’t so glamourous, is it?
Jaclyn says
We have a naturalized portion of our lot too. We actually paid professionals to remove all of the weeds (I know, I know, but it’s WAY too big for my husband to tackle on his own, we have no family in the area and I have severe allergies that curtail most of my would-be yard activity – once I did an hour of weeding and my face didn’t look the same for months, totally ruined my high school senior picture). And of course the weeds all came back. D’oh. They are taller than me again and some of them are pretty scary looking. We had a bunch of giant dandelion-thingies (I’m in VA also, so maybe the same as what you have?) that I wouldn’t go near – not just because of allergies, but also because they reminded me of something from Little Shop of Horrors and I was scurred. Yep, I’m the girl who is scurred of her own yard.
Martha says
I love that you thought to paint your mailbox on a sunday! I totally confounded our postman yesterday painting ours. Come to think of it, I still haven’t put it back …
Ali says
We have so much to do on the exterior that short of an appearance on Curb Appeal: The Block, it’s going to be awhile. We ripped out some nasty hedges and a flagpole that was smack in the middle of our yard (well, we got someone on Craigslist to do it – thanks for that tip!) and also snazzed up our mailbox area a bit with painted numbers, a painted post, and a new mailbox altogether (it was all rusted out).
We have a tree like the one that’s hugging your house outside our house too. How do you know when it needs to be removed? Couldn’t any tree near a house grow out under the foundation too much? Help. :)
YoungHouseLove says
We only have a tiny tree against the house (and had them check to be sure it wasn’t invading the foundation when we moved) so the big ones that are about 15-20 feet from the foundation aren’t a problem. I definitely think you want to call in experts to ensure yours isn’t damaging your foundation if it’s super close like the smaller one we linked to in this post though (and if it is you’ll want to hire professionals to safely remove it and reinforce any damage). Good luck!
xo,
s
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
Do you actually have a mandatory neighborhood association (like with dues and the ability to fine you and stuff)? My neighborhood is from about 1960, and there’s a voluntary association, but they don’t have the power to make anyone do anything. The restrictive covenants just give individual neighbors the right to sue us if, for instance, we had tried to build a detached garage. (Really. Detached garages, second stories, duplexes, livestock — all verboten.) I’m amazed that a 1950s neighborhood would have a mandatory association. I want to hear more about this.
YoungHouseLove says
Yup, it’s the latter. It’s all voluntary and nothing is mandatory. So I don’t think we’d actually get fined, but we thought we might get some written letter that says “please mow your lawn and stop embarrassing yourself.” Haha.
xo,
s
Melissa says
We’re definitely slowly but surely yard people, although my dad loves to show up unannounced to take down trees. We appreciate it because we want them gone, but sometimes we could do without the surprise 7am wake up calls.
Connie says
Petunias are always labeled annuals, but some will survive the winter. We accomplished it once in Santa Rosa, CA (USDA Zone 8B). That area might be enough warmer than your Zone 6B that petunias won’t survive.
Pansies survive the winter here in Colorado (Zone 5B), so the experiment might be worth doing.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks! Our of sheer laziness I might leave them there and see how they do. I’m fully expecting them to die over the winter, but we’ll keep you posted!
xo,
s
jackie says
unsolicited suggestion: paint that flag on your mailbox bright red or orange. we had a mailman complain to us about not being able to see a black on black one well when i was a kid. plus, it looks cute! :)
YoungHouseLove says
OOh that would look cute!
xo,
s
Jaime says
Its amazing what a little mowing and weed pulling can do! Looks great!
I am just curious as to why you guys havent switched to a locked mailbox? Everyone puts in so much effort protecting passwords, and shredding mail/trash with sensitive information, etc, but I still see so many people with the old school mailboxes that someone could just pull right up and steal that mail out before you even get to shred it. If I am a criminal, its seems a lot easier to me to swoop in and steal mail than it is to dig through someone’s trash for torn up bank statements! Ha!
YoungHouseLove says
We actually have a PO Box where all of the sensitive stuff goes, so we just get magazines and stuff delivered to our house.
xo,
s
Nancy Cutrer says
Just wondering why you wouldn’t go the extra step and either stain or paint the mailbox post. How fabulous it would look if it were white to match your house trim? And it would so set off your freshly painted mailbox. If painting it isn’t your cup of tea, how about a fresh coat of stain. Both painting or staining will add years to the life of the post and will look to your neighbors that you have really spruced up that area completely. Anyhow, just a thought.
YoungHouseLove says
We definitely might sand and stain it down the line!
xo,
s
Megan C. says
Your yard now has a slight resemblance to a mullet! Business in the front, party in the back! We also have monster dandelions, but instead of growing tall, they are short and squat with stems that are up to two inches across, and flowers up to four inches across. They are monsters to pull out!
YoungHouseLove says
Hahah- hilarious mullet comment for the win.
xo,
s
Donita says
The mailbox area looks so nice. The flowers look so pretty.
The side yard, I wonder………what if you sprayed that area that John mowed, killed all the grass there……..then in the spring spread wild flower seeds there. You can get all types seed packets. The tall flowers in the back, shorter in front. That would make it look natural, yet so pretty and colorful. Just a thought. ;-) *We have always wanted to do this in our back yard, behind our garden boxes……always forget. We need to put a note on our calendar for next spring. :-D
YoungHouseLove says
We definitely love the idea of adding some wildflowers to the mix! We love some of the stuff going on in there already, so we doubt we’ll rip everything out to start fresh, but adding things in should be fun over time!
xo,
s
Lynn @ SafeBeauty says
Frogs and snakes are not my cup of tea. When first married, I once locked myself in the bedroom for 4 hours because the worlds largest moth got into our little country apartment. (Moths are my sworn arch enemy!) How do you guys deal with the critters? The thing that I love and can’t wait to see you tackle is your new compost bin. We live in a rental house right now, so all these wonderful projects you get to tackle as homeowners, we just get to live vicariously through you! This year feels like our year though…I can feel it in my bones.
My best, Lynn
YoungHouseLove says
We just try to stay out of the critters’ way. Haha. So we saw the snake, snapped a pic, and got the heck outta that part of the yard and weeded the back.
xo,
s
Lynn @ SafeBeauty says
Oh just to clarify, I locked myself in the bedroom because my husband didn’t get off work until 4 hours later and I wasn’t going to kill that moth myself – who do I look like? Oprah?
My best, Lynn
Emily F. says
We definitely had a lot of yard stuff to do when we moved into our house, and it’s been a continuing project three years later! But, just this year we realized it’s paid off! We took out 4 big overgrown evergreen bushes (ya know those ones in front of EVERY 1960’s ranch house that people prune into squares? Yup, those, only ones that hadn’t been tended to in 3 years) then we added new plants, landscape edging and rocks. It was a pain, especially when we figured out that one of those overgrown bushes was blocking a window well during rainstorms…yup, there was a literal waterfall flowing down the basement wall, luckily it was the pre-carpet days. Well, this summer, our neighbors took out their evergreen bushes and re-landscaped and said that it was OUR YARD that inspired them!!! Such a great feeling, makes it all worth it!
YoungHouseLove says
Aw, that’s amazing! I love when it’s a ripple effect like that!
xo,
s
hyzen says
Boy, your neighbors wouldn’t like us, I bet. The rest of your yard looks so tidy that I wouldn’t think it would be a problem to have one wild area like you did–you know, for contrast. And wildlife habitat. Go green, people!
Seriously, we live in the city, and gladly have no homeowners association here. We keep our grass decently mowed, but we have one steep hillside that goes au naturale sometimes, and we definitely get some monster weeds here and there that get out of hand before we notice. Even with a small yard like ours, it’s too much to keep on top of every fiddly little thing all the time. We have these little things called jobs, and kids, and pets, and lives, and the length of the grass and occasional jurassic sized weed (and what the neighbors might think of those things) is not my primary concern. Sorry for the rant–nebby neighbors bug me, even if yours were well intentioned.
hyzen says
Oh, just to add–I love to stay on top of those things when I can, and I really delight in having my yard look nice, but I don’t think it’s anything that people should try to make you feel guilty about if you fall behind on it, either.
Judy says
My husband & I used to own a vacant lot (that we planned to build on some day but ended up selling along with our 1st house to buy our current house #2). Anyway, the first time we got a letter in the mail from the City (including a $75 fine!!) we busted out 2 lawnmowers and went at it. It took at LEAST 4 hours and it was definitely stop and start to unclog the mowers. After that we tried to mow once per month… but it was a pain! I would try really, really hard not to let that grow up again!
As for landscapers, we are a move-as-we-go-so-we-don’t-have-to-buy-new-expensive-plants couple. As the hostas get big we split them and move them around… in the process redoing the front or the side, etc. It’s short bursts of labor that is free and produces eye-pleasing results!
kathy says
Sounds like us!
When we (and by we, I mean the people we hired) demolished the brick patio as well as all this crazy concrete in the backyard we were left with a center of dirt in our backyard. We have rebuilt the deck but have to wait until next spring to start seeding the ol’ dirt pit.
Then we hired a neighborhood person to rip out some overgrown shrubs on the left side of our property but the jerk didn’t take out the stumps so now they’re all growing back again (and I’m mad at him so I refuse to pay him anymore money)!! We’re putting a fence there any way but we’re also going to add some fast growing evergreens for privacy since we’re a corner lot
My project for the beginning of fall (end of September-ish) is to rip out the front flower beds which are very tired looking and revitalize it with shrubs native to our area.
Deanna says
We moved in to our new home a year ago & have been slowly working on the front of the home since then. There are numerous (6) planting beds that were crazy overgrown so we’ve been tackling pulling them up one at a time. However, we’re not sure what we want to do with them (add sod to make less beds or make them smaller at least or replant more managable flowers/bushes, so we just have dirt filled pathes now….thoughts, ideas?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, it’s really a catch 22. Planting grass from seed and mowing is somewhat easy compared to buying pricier shrubs and taking time to weed a lot, but it’s greener to naturalize or plant bushes so there’s not all that mowing going on. Although we do have a push mower and like to use that when we can. I guess it’s really about what you’d rather do (mow or weed/prune) and what you have in the budget! Good luck!
xo,
s
Jael says
We actually approached our neighbors, offering up our mower after seeing theirs stranded on the lawn for many days and their grass grow quite high. They declined–their mower wasn’t out of commission, they were just busy. Oooooopps. Still slightly embarrassed about that :)
houseofearnest says
oh my goodness… you’ve hit on my biggest weakness, the yard. Oddly enough, we own a landscaping company (what?! you say). Yes, but you know what they say about the cobbler’s kids not having shoes (or something like that).
I am putting it in the plans for next year because there is already too much on the docket for this year.
KLL says
I’ve never been told to mow my lawn by a neighbor, though I can see it happening the other way around (ahh the joys of absentee landlords!)
But, my father has this great picture of him mowing the grass while a neighbor (and close friend) holds a ruler in the yard in front of him showing that the grass had clearly grown to more than a foot tall.
It’s a very funny picture and, minus Sherry holding a yardstick, the photos in this post remind me of that. Too funny.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh man, how did we miss that photo opp? I bet ours was at least 16″!
xo,
s
KLL says
Hopefully that opp won’t come around again anytime soon, for John’s sake ;) Here in PA, it rained for something like 40 out of 43 days in April/May so no one could mow their lawns because it was never dry. My grass got kind of crazy (not more than a foot, but still!) and it was CRAZY thick and took more than patience to get through it. I can empathize!
Aimee says
About three weeks after we moved in to this house last spring, our next door neighbor mowed our [very overgrown] front lawn. When my husband thanked her, she said, “Well, I wasn’t sure if you owned a mower, and I figured this would be a more useful housewarming gift than a plate of brownies.”
*BLUSH*
Alexandra says
Inspired my you, I did my first spray paint project the other day (a frame that was the wrong color). But a problem was that small flies and knats kept on flying into the paint! Have you ever had to deal with this?
YoungHouseLove says
Hmm, never had that issue! Maybe set up a fan nearby since bugs hate flying into wind (not too strong or it’ll blow the spray paint all over though). Good luck!
xo,
s
LoriD says
Our next-door-neighbour routinely cuts our lawn while we’re at work – he also cleans our pool and clears our snow. He claims to enjoy helping us out (he works 6 days on, 12 days off and has no kids). We pick him up a case a beer or a gas card every couple of weeks to thank him.
YoungHouseLove says
Woah, that’s awesome!
xo,
s