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.
Ashli Malinek says
We gutted it all at once! Although it should be mentioned that our front yard (and backyard for that matter) is much smaller than yours :)
Credit where credit is due! That is one big project!!!
Look’in good!
~Ashli
http://www.maillardvillemanor.com
GreenInOC says
If I saw a snake in my yard, my house would be for sale within 3 minutes! I cannot stand snakes.
When I was in elementary school I saw a HUGE snake as I came up the hill and turned toward our house. I, quite literally, peed my pants as I turned and ran all the way back down the hill and came up the other side.
I was sobbing, sweating, hyperventilating and, well, chafed from the peed pants. I finally was able to explain to my Mother why I was late and much to my horror, instead of packing she went to “check out” the snake.
From what my Mother reported back it was a 15″ snake skin that had been driven over 100’s of times and was almost one with the pavement. My family has had much fun teasing me over that but I really don’t understand, clearly there was a snake there at some point and that my friends is a reason to pee your pants and to move!
Can you imagine if you were these poor homeowners?:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015331099_snakesonahouse16.html
YoungHouseLove says
Comment of the day for sure! Hilarious childhood story + horrifying link to article about snakes = 500 YHL points.
xo,
s
GreenInOC says
Also, I may have been traumatized by an event earlier in my life.
I was probably 2 or 3 at the time. My parents love to joke around and pull pranks on one another.
One day my Dad comes home, walks through the house to the master bedroom. He and my Mom are chatting and then he says, “Nice try.” Confusion and banter ensue. Finally he says, “The rubber snake you put in the chimney is so big it doesn’t even look real!”.
Turns out that my Mom didn’t put a snake, rubber or any other kind, in the chimney. They freaked and instead of a rubber snake my Dad found a NEST of Rattlesnakes in there.
I’m certain that with all the screaming and evacuating I peed my pants.
My fear is deeply rooted!
YoungHouseLove says
Bwahahah, hilarious. So sorry to laugh at your childhood trauma, but pants wetting stories just do that to me.
xo,
s
Arnice says
Love the mailbox! Feeling inspired to spruce mine up. It may be too late to mention this, but Chesterfield used to have (and may still have) a program where a master gardener comes out for free and gives you free gardening advice. We did this when we first moved here ourselves. Problem is, I think you can only be a resident for 2 years (I’m not sure if they include your previous resident). Even if they did charge, I’m willing to bet it is reasonable. I think I found info on chesterfield.gov’s website and of course they have changed it since we moved here (5 years ago). Also, the guy who cuts my grass told me that if you put lime around the perimeter, most snakes will not cross it. Happy gardnening :)
karen says
Yard work ain’t easy..especially when you got a young one!!
I try really hard to keep my yard looking good. It’s really tough with a 3 and 1 year old. They usually “help” me and end up soaked or with soil all over them or even in there mouths (the little one). I think it’s very important to keep up a great appearance for the neighborhoods value and overall feel of your area. There is nothing better than taking a walk in a well kept charming neighborhood.
Erin says
Looking forward to the evolution!
We have been tackling a disaster of a 1.5 acre yard for 2 years now… basically as time permits. First order of business was clearing tons of weeds and debris away from the old stone walls at the front of our property – why anyone would let those go is completely beyond me but they did! It took a year for grass to take hold, but the walls are looking pretty darn good now!
Rachel says
Haha! Pterodactyl. Love it. And I’d love to have a crazy yard like that to work on! Someday, someday. You guys give me a little glimpse of what I’d like to have in the future!
Robin R says
Do you no longer use your fiskars?
YoungHouseLove says
We do for the flat parts of the front yard (except in this instance due to the crazy long grass). Just like the company said, it’s not very good with the hilly backyard terrain, but for flat areas that you can do long strokes, it’s awesome.
xo,
s
Regenia says
We moved into our new house this past November. Come April, one of our neighbors actually drove his tractor up the hill in our yard to ask why we hadn’t mowed that patch. We explained that we were going to buy a push mower for the steeper parts. That’s when we found out that the previous owner had flipped a riding mower over on that hill. It was embarrassing, but I felt good about our safety first decision after that.
carolinaheartstrings says
We have lived in our house 19 years and we are constantly always working on the yard. 2 acres is a lot to contend with. All cleared and grassed and we add trees that we like and chop down ones we don’t. It never ends, but it sure is nice when it looks so wonderful and green and lush before it is 100 degrees outside every day for a month! Yikes.
Pam Tucker says
That snake creeps me out! If I found one in my yard, I would freak out! I have an agreement with my honey that I take care of getting rid of any spiders in the house and he gets rid of any snakes if any ever show up. So far, only the occasional spider!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, that’s funny. I’m the resident “bug hunter” in our house. John can’t be bothered to get them into a cup and free them outside like I do (not that he tries to kill things, he just lets them live among us, haha).
xo,
s
Kelly says
We are definitely “those” neighbors, too. Our grass is always cut because we live in a subdivision where there aren’t any naturalized areas. But our backyard is a nightmare! I went to the area by the back fence the other day and found about ten of those huge dandelions! I didn’t know they grew that big! We have big plans of digging up just about everything along our back fence this fall – we can’t tell the difference between the weeds and the plants!
alg says
How are the composting efforts going, btw?
When I clicked through to the link, I noticed that it was from 2008.
Do you guys still compost as much as then? More?
We’ve been wanting to compost for a long time, but have been told that it’s super smelly if you don’t have a “real” tilt composter… And as f yet we can’t afford one… BOO!
Is it? Smelly, that is?
Any new tips?
YoungHouseLove says
We still love composting! We made another bin around a year or so after the first one so we could rotate them out (one could decompose while the other was in use) and have been using them a lot. As for a smell, we don’t have any issues with that (unless you lift the lid and stick your head in) just from some gentle stirring and keeping them lidded. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
Emily M says
We bought our house just over 2 years ago and have been tackling the landscaping little by little ever since. We didn’t like the shrubbery that fronted the house or wrapped around the screen porch in back so that all got ripped out and replaced. The majority of the landscaping along the sides of our backyard were also ripped out. One side was made into a garden, the other is still a work in progress. We still need to do some planting around the sidewalk to the front door too. It’s definitely a slow process but nice to see each piece develop and grow. It’s given us time to really examine what plants work in our soil/climate and what plants we admire that we’ve seen while out and about. I’m sure we’ll still be planting for another 2 years but maybe after that we’ll be close to done.
Jennifer says
We moved into our house a little over a year ago. We’ve been slowly but surely re-doing the yard one step at a time. We’ve already dug out all of the planting beds, removed 6 bushes and 3 trees (we have 18 more but those were just too close to the house), moved about 10 other bushes, refinished our back deck and created raised beds in our vegetable garden. We feel really good when we get to see it improving step by step- but frustrated that its not all finished yet. Maybe if we hit the lottery?
Allie says
I agree with J.A. – you could possibly do something along the lines of a native wildflower meadow in your “naturalizing” areas in the future, if the neighborhood approves. ;) They take a season of work to get in the ground and establish, but afterwards tend to be fairly self-maintaining.
I love what you’re doing with the place! Thanks for sharing yard details. (Are you still thinking of putting in a vegetable garden pots next spring? I’m planning on getting one started and would love to hear your preparation/planning thoughts over the winter.)
YoungHouseLove says
Yes- we’d love to plant some veggies (and herbs and even some fruit) next spring- either in pots or in raised beds!
xo,
s
Ingrid says
Snakes are definitely my excuse. I put off the garden makeover all summer because the floods we’ve had caused all the red belly black snakes to seek higher ground. Those things are aggressive too. (don’t worry, I think your safe from our nasty Australian snakes!)
But it seems I procrastinated too long though; the winter nights have turned warm and my husband saw a brown snake out the back yesterday. Thank goodness we insist the kids wear shoes (and they’re usually noisy enough to scare off snakes too!)
But the garden? On hold till next winter I guess!!
Ashlee says
We’ve lived in our 84 year-old house for less than one year and we gutted our front and back yard all at once. Poor choice (and timing) on our part. We took on the project during the rainy season, a kitchen “refresher” project and having a new puppy. We’re nearly finished but we are are sore and tired….but it’s nearlllly done. ;)
CarrieK says
I painted our less than stellar mailbox ORB about two weeks ago! Major improvement.
We also (like someone above) ripped out the bushes in our front yard, with our SUV… about 2 months ago. Hey, it took me a while to find a replacement I liked!
misa says
we did recently have a neighbor come over to tell us to put our dog inside the house when he had been barking. but, to be honest, i didn’t take it all that well. not nearly as diplomatically as you are, to be sure. i mean, he had been barking for maybe two minutes and every other dog on our street was also barking. but i guess she’s complained to every dog owner on the block.
what’s so funny about it is that i specifically told my husband that we need to move to an area where we’d have a little more room between us and the neighbors–get this–“just like the petersiks.” so i guess there’s no foolproof method to avoid having to hear occasional complaints from the neighbors–even an acre of yard!
Verena says
Since I’m so impatient I’m a destroy-and-rebuild all at once kinda gal. Of course I always run into obstacles within 2 hours and take day long breaks or have to resort to my husband for help. I’m SO independent.
Erica says
We have wildlife warnings in our neighborhood too… “bear sighted on x street”… no kidding! However, there are NO snakes in the state– hooray!
LaVerna DuBois says
Im a lawn care freak-a-do. I mow in a different direction every time, weedeat regularly and wash my john deere. (Yeah, my tractor is sexy) Aaanyway, we were wading through our overgrown field clearing some old horse stalls when a friend pulled up the driveway. I ran across the field to greet them and Kyle was pulling up the rear. I couldn’t for the life of me imagine what was taking him so long. I looked behind me and he was leaning against a tree, gasping for breath and grabbing his throat. I thought he was having a heart attack. Oh Noooo, he saw a snake. When I walked back to inspect, I discovered it was dead. Yes, my big-burly-hunk-of-a-man-thing nearly pee’d his pants in fear of a dead snake. :) I thought you could use a good laugh after all your outdoors-y hard work. :) (BTW, we really need to sexify that mower my friend.)
YoungHouseLove says
Agreed. If only there were more hours in the day.
-John
Rhonda N. says
All I could think of when you said, “…big strong John got ‘er done,” is my oft-used, “honey, I love to see your muscles ripple when you mow the lawn!” (From some comedian? or movie? don’t know the source, but that little ego stroke works, whether the guys like it or not.)
RE: snakes – look for a triangular head. Big honking jaws in the back = venomous snake. Teach Clara – when she’s old enough – not to reach in places she can’t see. Otherwise, it’s good to get a little familiar with the snakes, because they’re good for the environment, and most aren’t venomous.
I actually told a State Park Ranger that I killed a couple of copperheads that were nesting under my mother’s driveway. The hole opens at the exact point where the kids always step off the driveway. The Ranger kindly told me that killing snakes is against the law in TN. Gulp. Actually, killing any endangered snake is a federal offense – and that’s most of them! Thankfully, I spent no time in prison. :)
Deidra says
I just spray painted my mailbox last week ORB! I initially was going for the house numbers, but they took too much effort to get off the house. I went for biggest impact with littlest effort. Now I need to stop being lazy and finish the job!
Kacie says
Holy Moly that’s a lot of work. You guys amaze me with all your work!
Kacie
http://www.acollectionofpassions.blogspot.com/
Katie Kerr says
Do your neighbours know who you all are? Do you ever talk to them about the blog?
YoungHouseLove says
Most of our neighbors know about our blog at least a little bit (we made the neighborhood newsletter, haha) so we’re actually friendly with a bunch of them. There are lots of community activities here, and after being here almost eight months we’ve met lots of awesome folks. We love our neighbors! But we definitely don’t talk about them by name or anything (and we do our best to keep their houses off the blog too, just out of respect for their privacy). You’ll notice that a lot of shots of our house or the street are usually taken from angles that don’t look straight into someone else’s house, just so they don’t drop in on our blog and jump because they see their house in the background. Haha.
xo,
s
Rachel says
I’m all about yard critters so non-poisonous snakes are OK in my book. Saw a black racer not too long ago…and named him Tomas. He was even cool enough to let me snap a few pictures before he slithered off all snake-like. :)
Megan says
I have a neighbor that is apparently so appauled by my lawn care skills (or lack thereof) that she has actually taken to mowing, fertilizing, and weed whipping my lawn for me…I was kind of ashamed at first (I’m just a girl who can’t manage to keep weeds DEAD), but I kept everything well maintained. I tell her every time she comes to mow that I can handle it (i kind of like mowing…jammin’ to some tunes, and catchin’ some rays), but she insists…and who am I to argure with a military retiree woman with a passion for lawn care? What can ya do? : )
Jennifer says
We only lived in our newly-built house for 11 months when we were moved overseas and rented it (to three different tenants) over 2 1/2 years. When we got back, the front yard was a wreck. So we tackled it one project at a time, DIY as much as we could. First went in limestone retaining walls for the lower and upper garden (we outsourced this). Then we installed four limestone planter boxes under the four front windows and transplanted the hedges that were on the lower garden to the planter boxes – my husband has lovingly restored these guys, who were in a very sad state, and they are thriving. We put in new “Fiji” hedges that are a brilliant red right now. We also had the front lawn ripped up and put down synthetic lawn. We live in Western Australia and are on strict water restrictions, so synthetic lawn in strategic areas is fantastic. We had to unfortunately rip out all the roses in the upper garden and get new ones. Also put in a water fountain in the corner, and re-stained our wooden slats on the fence.
Because I’m detail-oriented, the last thing to do is rearrange the stones around the fountain. My hubby thought it would be good to mix black and white stones for a dalmatian effect, and we ran out of crisp white stones so bought some off-white ones. Looking down from our bedroom it just looked horrible. So so far I’ve removed all the black stones and I need to get out there (when it finally stops raining) and basically separate the big white stones from the smaller off-white. I plan to put a bottom layer of off-white and black and then strategically place the crisp white ones on top. He thinks I’m nuts, but I figure we’ve spent all this time and money doing it all up, why do I want to look down and think “yuck” every time I see the stones!
Erin says
Our house is planted in the center of a half-acre lot. The house changed hands four times in three years (scary), and the yard, which was once beautiful and manicured, had gone into disrepair.
I’ve been working at taking out a mulch bed on our side yard that’s underneath a big pine tree I want to take out and am planning to plant grass once I have all the mulch and landscaping fabric pulled up. Our other side yard, well, I have no clue what to do with it. Our lot is oddly sized (we live on the inside of a circle), so it’s difficult to fence and to plan landscaping that makes sense or ties in to the house.
I feel your pain with your sideyard. We would love to go “natural” with some of our yard, because, blessing of a mature neighborhood, there are TONS of leaves in the fall, but our lot doesn’t allow for it. So, lots of mowing and raking for us!
Rachael says
If I could afford it, I’d hire someone to gut our entire lawn. We live on almost 1/4 of an acre and the back yard is completely covered in weeds. We tried spraying 3 times, they still came back. This year, I spent several days pulling weeds anywhere from 2-4 hours a day and they have STILL come back and with a vengeance. I’m honestly about to give up. Oh, and had I found a snake in my yard,I would have wet myself and fainted!
Tania says
Lucky I live Hawaii, no snakes. We have sharks though.
Amy @ this DIY life says
I was just writing a blog post for later this week and used ORB as a verb. That’s okay isn’t it? I first saw it on Karl’s legs then I saw that Rachael at Lovely Crafty Home used it on so many things and I developed the addiction. When one can starts to feel remotely empty I have to go get another one…just in case. You really never know when you’ll need to ORB something, right?
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- it’s true. Just last night I was telling John that I usually pronounce it O-R-B, but when I get too excited I say I want to orb (all-one-word) something. Haha.
xo,
s
Amy @ this DIY life says
“So the handles were ORBed – yes, I just used ORB as a verb, just go with it.” http://thisdiylife.wordpress.com/2011/08/05/just-add-paint/
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, love it!
xo,
s
Chrissie says
Our front yard is pretty dismal at the moment. All of the rain we’ve had this winter has meant the grass (and weeds) have grown nice and long and thick.
For awhile we were in good company, because the same thing happened to all of our neighbours, but now they’ve all mowed their lawns and we still need to borrow my sister-in-law’s mower, which she won’t lend to us unless the weather’s good, and all the dry spells seem to come when we’re at work!
I’m counting down the days until my next door neighbour starts passing comment *cringe*. He’s lovely though, and once loaned me his mower because I couldn’t get my sister-in-law’s started… and then started it for me! He even apologised that he couldn’t mow it for me because of his heart problems!
But our back yard is a desert of sand, so the long grass we have back there in part of it is a welcome change from grey sand!
B says
The house we bought a few years ago had owners that went to their cabin and did absolutely nothing with their front and backyards. So we tilled up the entire front yard and planted a hedge since the front lawn with our neighbour was joined and also a dandelion patch. Then we planted potatoes in the entire front yard and a few in the flower bed in the back. This improves the soil and all of our gardening friends thought this was fabulous. I am sure our neighbours thought we were nuts when my husband brought home a baby tractor from work to till up the entire front yard. The thing was as high as my car and is not usually seen in front yards in the city. Some neighbours pulled out their lawn chairs and sat and watched in their driveway. The next year we planted all trees and some annual flowers according to a landscape architect’s plan. Cost me $40 bucks thanks to a fund raiser at a greenhouse and a lucky draw ($20 worth of tickets).
Before planting our trees we had to remove a few stumps and no company would do it unless they were 3 feet from the house because they did not want to be liable for causing foundation problems and such. So my husband brought home a small excavator with a claw over the scoop. He just about tipped the thing in the mud. Scared the beejesus out of me. Anyway we measured before planting the trees and they are all more than 4 feet from the house if we ever have to get them out. One day our will be the nicest low maintenance yard on the block but for now it is a lot of rototilling between tiny trees.
Marla says
My poor mom has a seriously legit phobia of snakes. When my parents moved into their new house a few years back she was greeted by one dangling from a tree in the back yard (dramatic!) their first week in the house. How scared was she? She called 911. The police came but they were like, um…. (I think they felt bad for her). She’s still freaked out by them but hasn’t resorted to calling the police the couple times she’s seen once since – she just runs into the house and stays in for a couple of days. Oye. Not to freak you out further, but when we moved into our house and were remodeling, my hubby discovered a snake had crawled into the eaves and made a little place for himself to snack on some little winged critters and left his skin behind. Yuck. Let’s just say he wasn’t so nice to the snake he found in the back yard later that week. Didn’t want him coming back in. Ok, that’s nightmare material and I need to go to sleep :)
Rachel says
Unfortunately for me, I get in the mode about something and jump right into a project… even when I don’t have a clear game plan. For instance, we had a huge sad droopy tree right smack in the front of our house, blocking the view of the cul-de-sac from our porch, so being that I have two young kiddos, I cut that sucker down myself the first weekend we lived here. The neighbors were all supportive of seeing the ugly tree go, but then I realized it left a big square of stinky bark in its place that I have yet to decide what to do with (apparently the neighborhood cats used it as a litter box – EW!). I’m sure the HOA letters are on their way… dang. BUT! I can see my kids ride their bikes while I drink beer on the porch! Yay!
my honest answer says
Hey Sherry,
Just wondering how you get along without a sidewalk out front. I remember when you were house hunting that a ‘walking neighborhood’ was pretty high on your list, since you often stroll with Burger and Clara. Have you found some nice routes to go, or is it quiet enough to just walk on the street?
Great work with the yard, phew, I got hot just thinking about all that you’ve done in this weather!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, it’s a super quiet neighborhood so there’s always at least a few people out there jogging or pushing a stroller or walking their dogs (and often many people around 6-7pm when it’s cooler) so it’s great for walking (and John can get in a good 5 mile run in the morning if he’d like- sometimes even with Clara in the jogging stroller).
xo,
s
Eva says
I admire your patience and being able to tackle these things step by step! I am one of those people who just dive in and go all crazy, wish i was more like you guys ;)
My husband and I bought an apartment and got the keys exactly one month ago. Since then we have built a wall, painted every single wall and ceiling, had all the electric wires replaced, refinished the hardwood floors, removed and repainted the kitchen cabinets and installed them again and built some parts from scratch as we needed to change the layout to fit in a dishwasher, today’s task is to glue natural cork on the kitchen floor… It has been so much work and crazyness but we are very happy with the results so far. We’ve done everything ourselves except we had a professional in for the electricity.
Jeni says
I just moved from a tiny apartment in New York to my first house out in the country–I’ve never had a potted plant, let alone a yard! I paid two guys to rip out the insane ivy that was taking over the yard and growing up the front of the house, but now I am kind of clueless. I am telling myself I will come up with a plan for next year…
Melissa says
How do we tackle the yard? We’ve been in our house since April 2010 and have tons of plants in our 29X131 lot. Thank goodness our lot is small, it is plenty of work as is. It is also a touch overgrown.
We pulled up a koi pond last summer, seeded the backyard, moved a ton of rocks in the process and removed poison sumac and poison ivy. Some ivy has come back and needs to be removed. We tried to remove some ivy and then realized the ivy was covering a massive tree stump.
It is a work in progress, bit by bit looking nicer. I have to remind myself that this is your full time job.
Nikki says
I hope we get an update of the leyland cypress before fall…I’m betting they are growing already!!!
YoungHouseLove says
I’ll have to get out there with a camera in the fall for sure! Right now they sort of look the same- maybe a few inches taller? But we hear they don’t do much growing in the summer and shoot up in the sprig and fall. We’re just happy nothing is dead though!
xo,
s
tracey says
Yikes! Snake!! I am terrified of ANY snake. We have an understanding in our house that my husband can not ever tell me if one is spotted. We would have our house up for sale the second I knew about one.
steph says
Hey guys, the yard is really coming along!! I have a slightly off topic question for y’all. Sherry, as master of the white spray paint, what is the best brand that you recommend? I don’t want them to be super high gloss as I’m using them for picture frames, and I also don’t want it to be super smelly since I have a little one. Any suggestions would be most appreciated!!
Thanks!!
YoungHouseLove says
I like the Rustoleum stuff with the trigger pull (I think it’s called All Surface) and it comes in gloss white. Hope it helps!
xo,
s
drew says
Put some exterior shutters on those bare windows on the natural end of your house. It will dress it up so much. The side of the house is just as important as the front.
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yeah- it’s definitely on our long list. No idea why they’re just on the front.
xo,
s
Janke says
My husband and I have been house and yard owners for about 6 weeks now. The people who previously owned the house didn’t longer take care of the yard as soon as it was clear we’d buy it. Which was February. So from February until June all the plants started growing like crazy, at least they must have considering the size of some. The neighbors didn’t tel us to mow the lawn (which my hubby does frequently) but they did tell us to cut back some of the shrubs because they were blocking the light for their plants. That was like 2 days after we moved in. Um, talk about more important things to do after you just moved in…. But since I definitely inherited my mom’s black thumb I’m gonna take care of “cutting back” those shrubs in my own way, I guess. Oh well…
Meredith @ La Buena Vida says
I don’t know what’s in our soil either, but weeds like that are COMMON in our backyard. Ugh.
We’re definitely the step-by-step, one thing at a time type people, mostly because that’s the only way we can AFFORD to say, bring in half an acre of topsoil…
Tara says
LOVE the closet!
As for the yard, we just moved into a real fixer-upper in april and while the yard is out of control, we’re just doing small jobs during the summer. We’ll really get our hands dirty in the fall when the “jungle” starts to chill out with the cooler temps. Plus this way it gives me a bit of time to map out what to plant and where!
AarthiD says
Wow! Nicely done. As someone whose job description once unofficially included, “Mulch the community garden once a month,” I can definitely appreciate the kind of yard-tame-age you’re looking at! But breaking it down into manageable chunks is totally the right move, and it looks like you guys have a Master Plan for the whole thing. The yard is going to look simply AMAZING when it’s all done!
Lauren says
Have you guys seen this? It’s pretty hi-larious. Can’t see a snake without thinking of it.
YoungHouseLove says
Hilarious. We’re both dying laughing over here. Of course John had to come over to my computer to see what I was watching. Haha.
xo,
s