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| front yard and scarlet maple |
Many of you won't care about this minutia on home improvements but for those of you who are interested.... Since we've moved into this house, neither Aaron nor I have been very interested in doing much in the way of home improvement projects. I guess we always felt like we were going to be moving sooner than later and it wasn't worth all the effort. While this saved us money, it didn't really make the house feel like our home either. Last summer, hoping to sell the house in the fall, we did some landscaping in the yard. That was fun, but we didn't really do much over the winter. We were thinking of putting the house on the market this spring, but decided against it. The timing just didn't seem right. So with that decision behind us, it just felt like time to do some simple and fairly inexpensive projects to make our house a place we want to live. The first project I undertook this year was painting the living area and dining area. That turned out great. I also got a new couch cover and throw pillows for the living area. About the same time I ordered some trees from Gurney's. We got a Scarlet Maple for the front and three hybrid poplars for the west side of the house. We had planted a mystery tree that came up in the front flowerbed last fall and as you can see, it is doing great.
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| west side of house, mystery tree (sycamore?), and hybrid poplars. |
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| front flowerbed. I put in a couple of new plants because one of the perennials I had got killed in the ice storm. |
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| front flowerbed. Just because I think it looks so great right now! |
The next thing we did was get a couple of drawings I did three years ago framed. I had done the one on the left for a project in a class I took and then drew another one at home, always having in mind that I'd get them framed for the living room since I really liked the colors and the large size would be good for the monstrous wall we have in there. Finally, my dream came true for Mother's day. Aaron took me to Hobby Lobby and we got them framed. Aaron doesn't like abstract as a rule but he said that he does like these and likes them on that wall so score for me! (or he's lying but we'll just pretend he loves them).
The next project was to move some furniture around. I was really starting to hate the table in the dining room. A table on carpet is a bad, BAD idea with a kid. I finally persuaded Aaron to help me move the table into the kitchen and there is no going back. Aaron has never admitted that he likes the new arrangement, but it is wonderful. It also freed up the dining area to be a play area/office, which I love because the dining area seemed really crowded with Maddy's shelves, toys, and table when the dining table was in there and it allowed us to get the desk out of the living room which makes that area more spacious. WIN WIN WIN.
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| Looks like we just had a massacre in here. |
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| got tomatoes in the garden and that is about it. They are doing great with all the rain we've had though. |
This is the improvement that I am most proud of. I found a table, 5 chairs, umbrella, chaise chair, AND gas grill for $150 on our neighborhood email. It was a great deal and we literally only had to move everything half a block. We love being able to use the gas grill and love sitting outside when it is nice and eating dinner outside. It is really nice to be able to use our backyard space for us rather than a glorified dog pen only.
This is the wall in the living room the desk was on. It looked like a sore thumb after moving the desk so I painted it and it has really improved the look of the living area. I think we are pretty much done with home improvement stuff for a while. I'd love to get a lamiate floor in the living/office/play area, but I have a feeling that's a ways away.
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