Exterior of our house 15 months later

I had wanted to do a 1 year later post of our house exterior and interior but time has sort of gotten away from me.  So this is more like 15 months later but honestly we haven’t done much to the exterior except weeding, trimming and grass cutting since May when we celebrated a year in our fixer upper home.  So ready for some crazy before and after pictures?  Here we go!

So here was our home on the day we closed.   Of course this was about 6-8 weeks after we put a contract on it and it was now full spring instead of late winter so the yard and bushes had grown a lot – but I still look at that picture and say, what in the world were we thinking??   But we had a vision and knew that under all the overgrown shrubbery we could turn this house into a home.

So we got busy and pulled out over 40 bushes from the front/side and back yard.  We mulched it all with fresh dark mulch, but it stayed empty for a while since we then had a new baby, much more work to do inside, and the budget and time just didn’t allow for all new plants and landscaping right away.

We got the exterior painted late last fall and that helped a lot!

So I stalked lots of clearance racks for months and a made a trip to discount nursery this past spring and we finally had landscaping out front!

I have daylilies bordering the sidewalk and then Southern Living Sunshine Ligustrum bushes (the bright green bushes) and red Knock-out rose bushes spread through the beds.  They have grown so much just this summer!

I also planted 4 rose bushes under the crepe myrtles and look forward to them growing more next spring.

We trimmed the 3 massive crepe myrtle trees way back in the winter but they are still huge!  Hard to believe we trimmed about half of the tree back.  We had tons of roots and sprouts under them and that area had no real definition so I worked on that this spring and got the roots/sprouts ground and then edged and mulched.

Here’s another before view of this side of the house.  That a massive holly bush that had grown into a TREE!

This is shaded but here’s this same spot now.

This is from a different angle but here’s that side now.  I have a hydrangea in the middle and some azaleas and then some low growing perennials (that I got for $0.10 each at Lowe’s on clearance) on the border.  Next spring the hydrangea and azaleas should really take off!

Here’s a before view from the street.

And now   This spring/summer we really tried to work on the grass too.  We did several treatments on the lawn and plan to do a fall Scott’s turf weed/feed treatment again this week.  So many weeds!  But we are slowly getting it under control.  I’m not a huge fan of bermuda grass but if you can keep the weeds out it sure can be pretty.

Here’s this side of the front before.

And now!   I wish I had picture of the middle sidewalk going to the front door but this shows it some. When we got all those bushes and huge overgrown monkey grass out of there we uncovered a ton more sidewalk!

Once again before…

And now.

Now for the side of the house.  Here’s how it was when we moved in.  And you can see the crepe myrtles were so huge they literally almost overhung to the other side of the driveway.

We cleared out all the bushes.

And here’s how it looks now.  I will probably have to rearrange some things in this bed next year but it still looks so much better.  I love that we have a clean pretty line of lawn to flower bed.

Again after removing the bushes…

This was how it looked like in very early spring.

And now.  Leaves are already beginning to fall and some of the flowers have ended their season.  I will do more work in this bed  next year – thinking I’ll move those tall lemongrass plants to around the pool and put roses there instead 

I am not a professional landscaper by any means but I do enjoy working in the yard and I honestly just do a lot by trial and error, what I like or knows grows well, and what I can find that fits my budget.   Sort of my philosophy with how I decorate my home – not a professional, and I buy things where and when they fit my budget which usually means lots of yard sale or clearance shopping.  I just enjoy making our house into our home and making it beautiful for our family to enjoy.    I can’t wait to tackle more in the spring and hopefully then I can show you some updated pictures in the backyard too.  We focused so much on the front the first year but are starting to really tackle some things in the back yard this fall and in the spring.

You can find more details on the way our house has transformed at these posts:

• New home before pictures
• Bush trimming
• Bush removal and beginning landscaping
• Painted exterior before/after
• Adding character to the garage door
• Painted secondhand rocking chairs/swing on the front porch