before & after: landscaping part 2

I have a ton of pictures for this one, so let's dig in.

Starting off where my last post left off, we're turning the corner into our backyard from the east.

The "nook" under our great room windows

With knockout roses, a dwarf butterfly bush and a maiden grass. This is another example of how small our baby plants look.

Looking up at the house

 

After -- can't wait to see how the bushes grow in!

Although not an exact angle from the before, you get the idea

Looking down into the yard

During install - the outline of the patio

Concrete is poured and plants are being installed

After with everyting in. Don't mind our little spot of dirt.

Looking a little west at the other side of the patio

The original covered patio

After with the expanded patio

A great view of our new patio and west side of the yard

On the west side of our house

After with sky rocket junipers and lilac to help provide some privacy

Ta da!

Backyard before



The best view of our backyard. I seriously can't wait to see it in bloom!

 

 

before & after: landscaping part 1

Apologies for being MIA for so long. But I'm back and with my first before and after post!

As I mentioned before, costs aside, we were thrilled to be able to design our own landscaping with the help of the phenomenal B&D Landscaping. As I previewed in my Landscaping Adventures post, we approached landscaping with a lot of excitement ... and a lot of trepidation. Making some very large, expensive decisions before we knew what the neighborhood would look like was intense. Now that it's installed, I think we made some really smart decisions like adding an extra patio and spending more money on the front than in the back.

We also made a couple of questionable decisions. Due to our budget constraints, we had to purchase very young plants. As you'll see in the pictures below, they're teeny. I know that they'll grow, but I wish that we would have found a little more room in our budget to purchase larger, more mature plants so we wouldn't have to wait as long for the yard to take shape.

We still have some additions to make -- we have a ton of perennials being installed in the spring -- but the majority is in and looking great.

Because I've taken so many pictures I'm breaking it into two separate posts, starting with the front yard. So, without further ado ...

West side of house



Before - look at all that dirt!

Halfway through install

Ta da!

There are a couple knock out rose bushes and a dwarf globe spruce

Front of house

Before -- not very welcoming

Looking down the yard

Halfway through install

The finished product!

The area right in front of our front door -- a dwarf butterfly bush and dwarf globe spruce

In front of our office window -- moonshadow euonymus. This is a great example of where more mature plants would have been better

Looking at the far corner of our front yard -- more of the same with some blue mist spirea

 

Looking back into the yard from the east

 

 

East side of house

 

We installed a breezway to have an easy walkway from the front to back

So there you have it. Evan also added some uplighting and lanterns along our entryway. We love it and can't wait to see how it grows and matures.

moving forward

First, thank you so much for the outpouring of love and kindness after my last post. It's been a difficult month for sure and has impacted me a lot more than I thought it would.

 

Beyond our grief, we've been working to turn our new house into our home. Most of our furniture has been delivered and the landscaping has been completed for the season (although there's still more to do in the spring). We're still hanging art and accessorizing, so more on that later. But the landscaping ... it looks amazing!

 

Sneak peek of the front of our house during install

 

I'm glad that we opted to add the extra patio in the back now as we're really able to see how the yard will come together. This past weekend we moved 15 tons of rock and 4 tons of mulch into the front and back yard and Evan installed lighting. The lighting has really made all the difference, especially at night. Around the neighborhood, our neighbors have also been installing landscaping and lighting and I love how everything is coming together. The lighting at night really makes the block look special and it's wonderful to not drive up to a street full of dirt -- helps with that whole "homey" feel. 

 

About half of our 15 tons of rock

 

I've been working to get some good pictures and will do a before and after post soon. And then I can't wait for spring to show what it looks like blooming and growing!!

goodbye sweet dudley

It’s been a tough week at Here to Home, and it’s been something I’ve dreaded writing about. But I think there’s a level of comfort that comes from talking about it and at this point, I’ll take any comfort in whatever form it comes in.

A week ago, Evan and I came home to find our sweet puppy Dudley had passed away. He was 7-years-old, very healthy and hadn’t given any indication that anything was wrong. The best guess the vet can give us after performing a necropsy is that he died of a stroke. 

Dudley enjoying his favorite pastime, squeaking his toys

Dudley’s sudden and very unexpected passing has absolutely rocked our world as he was such an enormous and important part of our family. We loved him with our whole heart, and he was loved by many of our friends and family – it was tough not to love him as he was the happiest, cutest puppy I’ve ever met. 

Evan and I have been struggling this week working through a lot of emotion. At the top has been heartbreaking sorrow and a lot of grief. We feel so guilty for not being home and staying out later than normal that night. I don’t know if our being home would have made a difference or if we could have prevented his death, but it breaks my heart to think that it could have. We also have a lot of guilt around him dying alone. We desperately hope that he wasn’t in pain or afraid, but instead passed very quickly and painlessly. 

More than anything though I miss him, I miss him so much. Moving into our new house, we had so much excitement about Dudley finally having his yard, about where Dudley’s new favorite spot would be … it’s been devastating realizing that he lived there for approximately 2 weeks. We’re doing our best to work past our emotions, honor his memory, remember the thousands of amazing times we had together and figure out what it means to suddenly be a family of two. I know it takes time to heal, but I hope it comes quickly.

I know these posts are never fun, but if each of you could think of us and him, we’d appreciate it.

Our sweet Dudley bear

the awesomeness of backsplash

It's been an insane couple of weeks here as we're moving into our new house and I'm starting a new (dream) job. I finally feel like we're starting to make a dent and with our final major delivery being this Saturday, may feel encouraged to unpack my dozens of accessorizing boxes. 

As I get ready to do a couple of before and afters, I realize I've been horrible with taking photos -- both before and after. This is completely counter to my normal disposition to grab my camera every time Dudley, our dog, strikes a cute pose (which is pretty darn often). I'm a little sad and a lot shamed that in my desire to document here to home, I've lacked some critical documentation.

Our kitchen is nearly done, but I'm excited to post some in progress photos as I try to catch up with life.

Well that's a lovely white fridge

This picture is from closing day and shows the kitchen as it looked when we moved in. It's also 'exhibit a' of delivery disasters ... because white totally matches our whole look.

Yep, those are pizza boxes. We'd hate to actually cook in our brand new kitchen. 

This photo is taken at the end of our first week, after the backsplash was installed. In my opinion, it's made all the difference between a kitchen that screams builder grade vs. gourmet kitchen. We debated long and hard about what backsplash we wanted. Originally, it was 100% subway tiles. But, as you can see, our cabinets aren't exactly white -- which made finding a tile that matched exactly (per my husband's mandate) a little difficult. We then ran the gamut between glass, stone, mosaic and stainless and lucked out in finding a gorgeous tile that combines stainless steel, brushed steel and a couple different colors of glass.  

Also, if you look closely you'll notice some paint smears and a peek of our lovely pendant lights.

There have been a couple other changes; some are documented, others I need to get on. But I hope to soon be able to post a before and after on our kitchen.

beautiful views

I snapped this photo while waiting for our painter to arrive this morning.

Clouds rolling in over the foothills

I continue to be completely awed by two things. The first is how insanely close we are to the foothills. The second is the incredible speed at which houses are built. This photo was taken from the same place just over a month ago. Crazy.

I also realized while I was downloaded this photo that all of my plans to take a load of "before" photos of the house flew right out of the window when they delivered the wrong fridge on closing day. I'm a little sad that a majority of my "before" pictures will now include some furniture, etc. Oh well, I guess it's better than nothing. 

overwhelmed

Walking into our new home, I knew that I'd feel excited and proud. The feeling I wasn't anticipating was overwhelmed. Having lived in our townhome for 9 years, we knew where everything went, had a home for everything, and had a system for mail, cleaning, etc.

We're starting fresh with our new place. On one hand it's great because it means we can try a new system without the constraints of habit. On the downside (and I'm feeling a lot of the downside now), it means that nothing has a home and that we have piles of mail, trash and orphaned items all throughout the house. It also means that our house is a mess. I know, it hasn't been a week since we moved in, but everything still feels very temporary ... and messy.

I think after all of our planning I expected to walk into our new house knowing where everything should/would go and that after a couple days of unpacking, we'd be good to go. That hasn't been the case. Top that off with a slew of delivery nightmares, puppy problems and some unplanned expenses, our move-in week hasn't been as exciting or smooth as we thought it might be.

Hopefully over the next week things begin to fall into place, until then I'm going to go be overwhelmed on our temporary couch with a glass of wine.