Front Wooden Fence

I had a old wooden fence in my front yard which was ok, definitely made mowing harder.  But it slowly kept having rails break from rotting and to replace the size of the wood would be costly.  So I decided ro get rid of it and take it down, which my truck had no problem doing. 

Before

Before

After.  I think it really opens up the yard.  I think taking this fence, the pine tree, and the back tree out has made the yard look a lot bigger.

After

New Dwarf Burning Bush in Front

I finally decided on one part of the front area of the house. I went ahead and made a little bit of a flower bed in the front right area of the house. I tilled the area, which I found had a lot of small rocks. I added 3 dwarf burning bushes, whichI went ahead and paid a little more for th bigger 3 gallon size at Lowes, they should look kind of cool during the winter when they turn red.

I still need to finish it completely with adding a little border to keep weeds out and keep the mulch in the area and not washed away since I put a weed barrel sheet down and put mulch on top of it. And I think I am going to put 1-2 hostas in front of the burning bushes to help make the bushes stand out more when they turn red.






Before


After


Before


After


I added a couple of plants here and there and I have had some good luck in this area. The Salvia and Hostas have gotten big and are about 3 feet wide each.

After.  I think it has come out better then I thought it would.

Backyard Planter

After tearing down the dog house/play thing I have put the wood around the concrete block left over. I didn't tear down the concrete block because I am going to put a light pole and hat is a good base and also their is electricity already ran there and I'm not sure how deep in the ground it is so I don't to do something and have a big issue later.

I am going to put a light post near the back and right in the middle maybe put a box and fill it will gravel and put a container on the gravel and put a solar powered water fountain, just a small one nothing big. Then I can put plants all over the sides and let them flow over the other areas.

Before (just moved in)


Gtting the area cleaned up


New frame of planter






Just filed up with dirt and now I can start to think about what plants to put in it.




After getting 3.5 Tons of dirt (free from Craigslist) and filling up all the planters I have done so far, this is what is left. When I make the other planters I will use up all of this.



Two weeks ago I got a trailer full of mulch and filled up the two flower beds, extended the front flower bed and add the front flower bed around the trees.

4,000 lbs of mulch


Filled planter with mulch. Now you can't see the concrete.


Cleared the mulch out of the way and hand to hand out a couple of rough spots for the new light post.


Connected the electrial plug, that was designed to be on top of post but I moved it down closer to the bottom for easier access. Then I add the dusk to dawn sensor and added the light


Drilled holes in the concrete and added a post holed with anchors to the concrete. I still don't feel 100% with that post holder. It seems cheaply made. So When I finish the fire pit I will used some of the brick mortar to hold the light light up better and make it stronger.


Post light done. Now I just need to add plants.

I added the water fountain first and I was going to make it the main focus, but you couldn't hear the water from the patio unless it was quiet so i moved it and the plants took off.

After

After, this is the second try on the strawberries in the front and this time they are shooting everywhere.



Backyard

The back yard When I bought the house


Now some upgrades.

Before during winter

Before During winter 

 I added some small planters to te fence that I got at Dollar Tree.  Also the tree in the picture was slowly dying and I was lucky enough that I was about to get NES to cut it down for free.

Tree gone really opens up the area

Then I had some extra lumber around and I decided to use a stair brace to make a planter.  I cut it donw to the size I wanted and added a 2x4 to keep it together and help keep the grass from getting to the area.

 

 Put in the conrer of the yard and added leaves and compost I had from the year before

I added a bamboo bush and two vines plants and the vines have taken over.  You can barely see the 4ft bamboo bush that was 1 ft when I planted it.

Then I added mulch to the groun all the way around the outside and right now just the street side back side.  Then I hit Lowe's off and on and got the $1-$2 plants on clearance and added some plants here and there.  I added more color on the inside because that is what I see from the carport area.

View from the street side.  I planted a bunch of blubs but they didn't do so good this year.  So I was some plants on clearance and cleared them out by getting a bunch of rose type bushes that will or should cover the fence and be about 5-7 ft tall, I'll keep them trimmed.  I also added some dwarf butterfly bushes along the neighbors driveway side. So hopefully next year the outside of the fence will be covered by the bushes. 

Taking Out Inside Wall (95% done)

I had some family over during Christmas and my small house there isn't a lot of room. I decided to change that. I have been thinking for a while but wasn't sure. Then after Christmas I decided to finally make the change. You did have the dinning room/kitchen area and then a wall and then the living room. It's not the best for guest. because you would have 2 groups or crammed in one area. That wasn't good enough for me. So I decided to take our half a wall between the dinning room and living room. I didn't want to take it completely out because I still wanted a slight difference, but still have people feel together.

The wall before from the living room


Wall before from dinning room


I took out one side slowly slowly so I could see if their was any wires or anything behind the wall. I knew about the electrical plug midway but wasn't sure how it was ran.


Started to take out the other side


Took out all the dry wall


After Step 1


Then I took the door off and you can really see it open up more


As I was taking out the studs each by each double checkingt o make sure it wasn't a load bearing, which I looked up in the attic and double checked and didn't seem like it was, but still need to be safe. I was going to come down to the chair rail but I noticed that may be to low. I decided to go up a little higher so you dont see the back of the fireplace and if I ever wanted to put a couch or anything over there you wouldn't see the back of the couch. I would rather see a little higher wall then the back of a couch. It just doesn't look right if it is higher.


Now you can get the idea of the open space now. I still need to work on the little things to finish up but the big stuff is out of the way.


  I added a 1x8 on top to give it a nice size to put things on. I was going to go with a 1x6 but didn't seem to be wide enough.
 

Filled in the side wall and had to keep going over since the walls from the different rooms weren't the same depth. The dinning room wall stuck out about 3/16th of a inch farther which doesn't sound like much but it is
.

  95% done from living room view
 

95% done from dining room area
 

It really opens the house up now.