Exterior Refresh
photo by David Opsvig photography
Exterior Update
Well this is our first home and we have done many upgrades but I’ll start at the beginning….well not the beginning to be very transparent we didn’t start with the exterior we did the kitchen and some other interior updates first and lived with the front yard as a dirt pile for about 2 years before we had the money to update it.
When we first drove by the house when we were looking it did look a little off putting but when I went inside I saw the potential. As far as the front yard my husband volunteered himself to take out the bamboo. I think he regretted it after starting because apparently bamboo is very stubborn and hard to get out. He worked on it and got most of it out and then we did have to hire someone to come help that was a professional.
After the bamboo was gone we let it just be dirt for I think about 2 years. In the winter it was a mud pit and in summer just dust (apologies to my neighbors but they thanked us for taking out the bamboo so they weren’t too upset) It saved us water and I kind of just thought about what we might want. We started with painting the house and getting a new front door. I knew I wanted a door that was a pop of color so I settled on the coral color (much like this font color actually) and I wanted it against a neutral so we went with 2 different shades of gray to compliment what we had already done on the inside.
With the actual landscaping I knew I wanted a horizontal wood fence across the front instead of the very odd grass gate that had no sides to it. I worked with a local landscaper I had an idea that I had just sketched out for him of some rocks and then adding some grass so that it would keep the dirt down and be nice for our kids to play on since our backyard has no grass either. We added a pathway from the backyard in decomposed granite so that my husband could bring the lawnmower and trash cans out to the front for yard work.
Since I know basically nothing about plants our local landscaper had free reign over the plants he selected for the black lava rock area. I still don’t know the names of the plants but they are all made to withstand the heat we get in the summer. By the front door he also put a plant that attracts butterflies so that the kids will see the caterpillars cocoon and then hatch as butterflies. We’ve actually caught one coming out of its cocoon which was really cool for them and just pure luck in the timing.
I guess the moral to this story is don’t judge a house by its exterior!
DETAILS
June 2022
Introduction
Interior Design
