Frank and his new Tractor

Frank's  been looking for a tractor for some time now.  Although it may seem a bit crazy, but I'll have to agree that the tractor is necessary for now.  Our yard needs some major help, and this kind of tool has definitely helped make the tasks easier already.  So without further adieu, here's Frank and his new toy!

Frank was on the tractor all day Saturday and Sunday!  I even gave it a try and have to say it was a lot of fun.  Tyson even took a spin with his "daddy!"

Things we accomplished so far are:

1. Grass is now cut!

2. The top of the ugly old birdhouse was removed (base to be removed soon):

3. We collected and moved lots of yard debris:

4. Started moving and collecting rocks for future landscaping projects:

So that's it for now...more to come soon. I'm almost done staining the fireplace, so hopefully soon I can post before and after pictures of that project.

Love to all!
Jess

Lower Level Bar - Before and After, Round 1

When we moved into our home, the lower level had a room with green brick on both the fireplace and bar! Can you believe it... mint green brick!  Here it is in all it's (now former) glory...

We did some research on our options to change this look.  Since we are focusing on renovating the upstairs for now, we didn't want to spend a ton of money re-doing the bar and fireplace downstairs right now.  We found that masonry stain would work and cover the color.  Since we aren't sure what exact "design" we want to execute down on this level yet, we went with a more neutral slate gray to change up the color.  At first I painted each brick individually, to maintain the grouted look.  This is how that turned out...

At first I wasn't really sure about it.  It's better than the mint and it's a low cost option.  I thought about painting the grout too, but I think this look is growing on me now.  We plan to replace the bar top as well since that grout is also mint green.  We'll look to paint and replace the rug down the line as well... for now, I've also been working on staining the fireplace brick, so look for an update on that very soon!  Let me know what you think!




What do you think?

Hydrangeas Galore!

Our blue hydrangeas have been producing so many flowers... they are just beautiful and I've really enjoyed cutting them and bringing some inside or even into work.  Here are a few photos...

Bye-bye bi-folds!

Stangely enough, we had bi-fold shower doors in one of the lower level bathrooms!  Since we're all living in the lower level while the main level is under renovation, we're using this shower as our primary shower.  The doors worked, but were absolutely hidious!  They also did leak some water, so they weren't ideal.  You may have noticed them in the house tour photos, but here's a reminder just in case...

Frank and I (mostly Frank though) recently worked on hanging one of those curved shower curtain rods.  We just hung the curtain we already have for now, until we do the main re-vamp in this bathroom.  What do you think?

After we finish the main level renovations we plan to work on the lower level.  So for now, this bathroom makeover is at a stopping point.  Functionality is much better, so for now that's all we care about. :)



Another Family Continued...

The eggs hatched!  I haven't gotten a chance to snap a good picture yet, but I did see the mama bird feeding her babies yesterday.  It was so cute!  If I can get a picture I will post it soon...

Another Family...

How cute is this? We have a mama bird and her nest (with eggs) by our kitchen window.  Can't wait to hear her little babies hatch! 

So many bushes!

We have so many plants and bushes at the house and are working to get them under control.  We're planning to dig out gardens around the border of some of the yard, and hope to transplant many of the large bushes and plants we currently have growing way to close to the house. 

This past weekend we also tackled trimming some of our front azalea bushes.  I know it's hard to tell from the pictures, but here are the before and after photos of our front garden along the driveway.  If you look closely, you can see that the bushes are much shorter now and somewhat thinned out.  We trimmed all the dead branches off the shortened things a bit.  Hopefully when we're ready to transplant that helps a bit!

These bushes bloomed earlier this year and were absolutely beautiful.  I'm sure they'll look great bordering our yard in front of the forest backdrop!

Cleaning up the Gardens out Back

Last weekend Frank and I wanted to do something outside since the weather was so beautiful!  We decided to tackle trimming some bushes and weeding the back gardens.  They looked like this before we got started...

Tyson enjoyed hanging out while we worked and chewing on many, many sticks!

This is what we finally ended up with!  Not perfect by any means, but at least all of the weeds are out of there for now.  This really helps reduce the bugs too... so we've been able to enjoy the outside and not be bombarded by bugs!

We also have so many pretty flowers in these gardens that we couldn't see through the weeds before...

The hydrangea are very hardy and I have cut a few for the house and my office. It's so nice having fresh flowers around!