Memorial Weekend {a front yard makeover}

7 years ago this weekend we moved into this house.  I was 4 months pregnant with Taylor and had just completed my first year teaching.  We closed on our house on the last day of school. It was such an exciting day to finish up one milestone (my first year of teaching) and begin a new one!  And then we spent all weekend moving in.  Dave says that this is the same day or weekend that we found out Taylor was a girl.  I cannot believe I don't remember that.  This was before my blogging days, so I can't look back, and I'm awful at recording memories like this other than my blog.

I'm finding myself reflecting on the 7 years in this house this weekend.  It is so incredibly humbling and amazing to look back at the sovereign details the Lord has worked out for us.

2 of the bedrooms in this house have been transformed to 3 different nurseries.

All 3 of our babies have come home from the hospital to this house.

We have walked or ridden bikes 3 blocks to Papa and Nana's house more times that we can count.

We have taken over the streets of the neighborhood with a 4 wheeler and sleds in the winter.

We have woke up on Christmas morning 7 times in this house.

We've had 12 birthday parties here for our kiddos.
And 2 of our kids have learned to ride their bikes in the driveway.

And who would have ever thought that the sweet teacher next door to my classroom for three years, would become some of our dearest friends, and back-yard neighbors at home too.  It's so fun to see the way that God has worked the details of that friendship out.  Our oldests both just finished Kindergarten.  Our middles will start Kindergarten the same year.  And our babies are 3 weeks apart.  There was a spot that we removed fence to be able to walk to and from our houses.  It was super ghetto and the dog and baby ran off all the time.  But now there's a gate, with a latch, that all the big kids can work.  Such a necessity when you have 6 kids running back and forth.  

 

All those sappy memories and reflections, just to say that for the first time since we've lived here, we are landscaping.  Neither of us really know what we're doing, nor have ever been into plants and flowers.  We do love having a vegetable garden, and love taking care of that.  But otherwise, we need low-maintenance. 

 

We spent a day last weekend ripping all of our old stuff up, just wanting to start fresh.  That was the easy part.

 

 

We got a plan, headed to the greenhouse and that's when things got tough.  We were so thankful for a very helpful lady there who walked us through, gave us tons of options and suggestions and helped us make decisions. Seriously, if any of you locals need to do any landscaping or gardening, we can give you a great recommendation of where to go and who to ask for.
 

 

It took quite awhile making our decisions and quite a lot of money - holy moly!

We got it all home, laid it out, and started questioning some of our picks. The next morning we re-designed one area and went back for more help at the greenhouse.  Thankfully we were able to return a few plants.
This corner is what I really struggled with.  The straight-a-ways were much easier.
We brought the big cast iron pot in to try to hide the well. We got the pot from Dave's great grandparents farm, and have had it at our house for a long time just collecting water and rocks. I'm glad to finally put it to good use.  But the area behind it is what stumped us.

We finally got what we thought we'd like and got everything planted, and re-mulched.

 

Both the kids helped some, but ran off to play a lot also.  Mason came back often and helped dig some holes and plant.  But his biggest motivation was finding worms to add to his cup.

 

To finish it off, I decided to do some flowers for the first time ever.  We've thought about doing something to our front porch before, but most of the time we don't care.  It's been hard to know what to do there, since it's so small. And honestly, I've always prioritized way more things than landscaping and flowers.  But I rounded up some things we already had, bought a few colorful plastic pots to add to, and now we have a much cuter porch.  I'm shocked at how much I enjoyed doing the flowers.  Maybe enough to do more with them in the future.  But let's see how these do first.

 

Dave just recently brought that mint green chair home to me.  It was free, just not being used by the previous owners, and he knew how much I loved that color, so he asked if he could take it.  I love it.

It's the perfect chair to sit out front and watch the kids play in the driveway. I've never had a good spot to sit out front. 

 

This evening I got the big wash tub and white dish underneath done also, but I had already taken these pictures and had this post ready.  So you just get the "almost finished" version.  But I'm proud of us for starting and completing a project in the same weekend.  I just cannot believe how much work it was.

 

I think the porch is definitely the finishing touch. And I think it will be my new favorite spot to sit.

 

After over 15 hours of work and way too much money, our home is newly landscaped.

 Maybe this will at least help the curb-appeal if we ever try to sell this place again.

If only I can keep it all alive.