Dipping a Toe into the Garden Re-Vamp

As you saw in the outdoor space tour, we have a TON of landscaping to take care of.  It was beautiful outside this weekend, so I thought I'd give some gardening re-vamp a try while Frank cleaned the gutters (which were actually pretty clean so it was a quick job!).

Here's the before pictures of the space I wanted to clean up:

... and here's the after!  What do you think?

I know it's a bit bare for now, but at this point we're just trying to clean up and get the weeds out.  I'm sure down the road we'll either finish the entire space with brick/patio, put down stone, or maybe add some flowers.  We'll have to see how the rest goes first!

- Jess

Wildlife on the Homefront

We've only been here a week so far, but we've seen quite a bit of wildlife around the house so far (outside thank goodness!).  We have a robin's nest near our deck, we've seen fox, deer, snakes, salamanders, chipmunks, squirrels, etc. Here are a few pics I was able to snap.

Oh the joys of "rural" living! HAHA!

- Jess

Outdoor Living

One of the things we love about our house is all of the outdoor space!

 Here's the view if you're standing in front of our driveway and facing out.

There's extra parking to the left of the garage and driveway which I hope we can use during our many get togethers!

Here's the front of of the house... currently covered by the huge bushes!  We're hoping to transplant some of them since they are beautiful when they bloom (most are azaleas).

The one above and below are also part of the front yard...

Another front yard, facing the driveway from the side of the house.

Above and below are the right side of the house. The balcony is off of the upper level master bedroom.

Here's a view from our master bedroom balcony of the yard...

Here's the lower level patio...

Brick stairs up to our deck and upper patio...

And here's the upper patio and deck.  We'll need to replace the deck because the inspector deemed this one really unsafe.  For now it will stay, but we'll be replacing it sooner rather than later.

Here's a view from the upper patio looking into the sunroom/breezeway...

And here's a look from the breezeway looking out to the upper patio and deck... and a few more of the inside.

Tyson especially loves the outdoor space.  He's learning how to stay in our yard off leash and not chase all the forest animals out here.  I must say, he's been doing very well for the most part!

House Tour - Lower Level

Our house is a rambler, so the lower level is underground in the front of the house and a walk out at the back and sides of the house.  The first room after you walk downstairs from the upstairs hall is an open living room with a fireplace and bar...

Please excuse all of the cleaning supplies everywhere!  This was the day before we moved our belongings in, so we wanted to get everything clean before hand.  Next up is the laundry room, utility room and sauna.

Then we have two lower level full bathrooms...Right now, we use one and Kevin uses the other (while we leave the upstairs open for renovations).

Aren't those accordion shower "curtains" awesome?!  That is going to be one of our first projects since they're a little hard to work with and we will be using this bathroom for a while until our upstairs master bath is renovated.

Next we have three bedrooms.  One Kevin is staying in, one we're staying in and the last is open but does have some of our clothes in there for now.

Last up is the office.  Currently we're using this to store our extra boxes that we'll keep packed until the renovations are complete in each room.

That's the bottom floor and where we're living during the renovations... hope you enjoyed the photos!

- Jess