And just like that, a month goes by and the blog is silent. I promised that we weren’t done with the house renovations yet! Oh, this poor front yard. I’ve definitely given it some love in the past. But that love, my friends, was merely renter love. I weeded a little, painted the door, even planted about 4 plants that soon died after I planted them because my renter love quickly faded. But now this is homeowner love. I’m serious now. We need to kick the curb appeal up majorly and really put some effort into getting this front yard up to par with the inside. So here’s the game plan:
Landscaping – No More Grass
I mean, obviously we’re gonna landscape, right? At the very least get rid of the dumpster tracks in the yard. But really, we’re going to get rid of the grass in the whole front yard and landscape the whole thing. Is that crazy!? Will we keep it alive? Gosh, I hope so. Homeowner love, right? Get ready for some plants and lots of mulch.
Hardscaping – Rebricking
The walkway is beyond simply weeding it anymore. So many bricks are all broken down and there are huge gaps between them. It’s time to dig them up and start over. We’ll also extend the house walk to the street to give street-parkers a way to get to the sidewalk that won’t be trampling through our new plants and mulch.
Add a Stoop
We’ve wanted to give a more proper entry to our front door even back when we were getting initial renovation quotes. I had plans for a big porch with a roof and everything, but those got nixed as soon as we saw the 5-figure quotes coming back. So our scaled back version is now a brick stoop, sans roof. Here’s a sneak peek:
We’re not going to have the concrete tops anymore and it will be all brick, but you get the gist. It’s going to be so much better! This project is currently under construction right now so if you follow B on Instagram you’ve probably seen a bit more.
Add an Awning
I never thought I would put an awning over our door. When I think of awnings I think of the candy cane striped ones with scalloped edges and one is always falling down. Not really part of my vision. But during many dog walks we conducted a very scientific survey in our neighborhood about which houses had covered porches and which had awnings. We probably said “Awning” at least half the time. So there you have it: at least half of the houses in our neighborhood actually have awnings over their doors 🙂 And very few were striped. We’re going to do a simple brownish-gray awning with a straight valance over the door. Simple, but it will get the job done.
Add Street Numbers
We need numbers on our house! The numbers used to be on the rotting wood fence that lined our yard, but when we threw out the fence, the numbers went with it. Our temporary fix during the renovation was printing the numbers on paper, laminating it with shipping tape, and then taping it to the dumpster. Clearly a temporary fix. We don’t have that anymore. Luckily we are the only house on the street that doesn’t have numbers, so when I’m giving directions to the house I simply say: “it’s the house that doesn’t have numbers on it.” I probably can’t get away with that for much longer–we’re getting real numbers.
Sounds doable, right? I think so. We’ve actually already made a ton of progress. Hopefully I’ll be a better blogger and actually share it with you all. No promises, though. 😉
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