Sunday, September 27, 2009

Taking it outside – Part 2

When we first started our big landscaping project this summer, the front of the house was looking more ‘Vince Vaughn’ than ‘Brad Pitt’:
Exterior Before Front
Straggly, funny looking bushes, random daffodils sprouting in the middle of the grass, rusted railings, and a completely empty porch.  You can’t see it in the picture, but there was also absolutely no edging around the front planting area.  Now it looks a bit more A-list:
Front Exterior After
Here is a closer shot of the plantings.  I wanted something for the space between the windows while I wait for the rhododendrons to get big and fill in that area.  I got the sexy fiberglass planter from Sam’s club, and the metal wall art was a ‘half price special’ from Hobby Lobby:
Front Exterior After 2
The porch area has been decked out with a wood planter from Homegoods, an Ikea bench, a painted wood side table from Overstock.com, and a couple outdoor pillows from Pier 1:
Front Exterior After 3
Here is a nice shot of the freshly scraped, sanded, primed and painted railing, and the fun Liatris I planted on the side:
Front Exterior After 4
Those big green balls of goodness are mums. Mums hardly ever come back in Wisconsin, so those are almost miraculous considering I planted them with no winter protection last fall. The last pic was taken in July, this is what those purty girls look like now:
Front Exterior After 5
OOOOHHHH! AHHHHHHH!  Stunning!  I hope they live through this winter as well. 

Things yet to do out here:  paint the front door, replace the screen door, replace the house numbers, buy a hose reel to contain the ‘black anaconda’ hose, and address our outdated mailbox.  I can’t wait for spring to see all our hard work grow and bloom!

PS – My header is the front of the house earlier in the summer when I originally planted hydrangeas in the front.  They were getting too much sun, so I moved them to the back and planted the barberry and euonymus in their place.  I loved the picture with the hydrangeas, so I used it anyway.  Sue me!

1 comment:

  1. Hi Sara! I love your blog! Your exterior shots look great :)

    Re: your question- I played around with the html in blogger to change the width of my center column. (I wish I could explain how but I just googled it at the time and have long since forgotten!) Now everytime I post I change my picture sizes to 500 at the widest dimension (change the other dimension to "nnn" to keep them from getting distorted, and change where it says "s400" to "s1600" as well.). I also have a friend who does blogger redesign who helped me when I got lost in the html- her site is rainydaytemplates.com and she is a HUGE help! I hope that helps! :)

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Thanks so much for reading....your comments mean a lot to me!
Sara