Home Sweet Home: The Exterior

As I mentioned earlier, Gunter and I bought a fixer-upper two years ago. When I say "fixer-upper" I mean it! When we first pulled up at the house to look at it, this is what we saw....

I think my first words were "Where is the house?" We had driven by this house several times before, and I had never noticed it. Pictures just do not do it justice. The trim of the house was army green. There were a ton of azaleas in the yard, very overgrown azaleas. Pine straw everywhere. Squatty windows. And a yard FULL of pine trees. Plus, notice the lovely sliding/ railing on the far right, covering the carport. 

But I knew the house had potential. A little yard work could go a long way :) 

This picture gives you a better idea of the number of trees. We had 8, i repeat 8 pine trees cut from the front yard alone. Later we decided to cute down the magnolia tree as well. In the picture you cannot even see the tops of the trees. They were so incredibly tall. I know they have been in the yard for at least 50 - 60 years. 

This picture was taken after we had the 8 trees cut from the front. Looking better already, huh? The magnolia was still there at this point. We didn't decide to cut that down until recently. The hard part is getting grass to grow in the empty spaces. 

This is the front of the house now. The trim is painted a bright color. We have just a few pine trees for shade. We have been working on the landscaping. Bigger windows. No more enormous azaleas. Green grass...

 

This is where the magnolia tree used to be. We were sad to see it go, but the problem with this tree was that it was so BIG! We couldn't get any grass to grow underneath it. Plus it continually dropped leaves, big leaves, all year long! So after a great deal of consideration, we decided to get it cut down. It has opened up our yard so much! Now we are working on grass. This picture was taken after we laid a palate of sod this summer. It is looking great! 

Now for the really scary part... the backyard! 

Yes, those are weeds! They were as tall as the roof! The sliding doors in the middle of the picture lead to the master bedroom. The sliding doors on the right side of the picture lead to the dinning room. It was terrible! That was a HUGE undertaking for Gunter. I am so proud of his hard work. 

This is a better shot of the dinning room. We painted the trim, cleaned up the weeds, and replaced the sliding doors with french doors. The sliding doors leading to the master bedroom were replaced with 2 windows. Here is the back yard now....

What do you think? I think that it looks wonderful now! We have done a little landscaping. Those are 4 o'clocks on the left (they bloom everyday at 4 o'clock), cannas from my great-grandmother's yard on the right, and a trumpet vine growing along the roof line. It is so beautiful when it blooms! And a few swamp daisies mixed in there, which I am so happy they are blooming now! 

The weeds are gone! This is the view of the master bedroom now! 

Finally, this is the shed that Gunter built. He needed some extra storage for his lawn mower and tools, so he and his dad built this one weekend. I am sorry that the hydrangeas are all dried up. Please disregard them. They are usually blooming and full, but with the drought this summer and fall, they have not had a good year. We'll hope for rain and better year next year! 

It's my Fall Break  this week, so I am looking forward to relaxing and catching up on some reading. I just bought Emily Giffin's newest book Heart of the Matter. Can't wait to read it! More pictures of the house coming soon!