Curb Appeal

One good thing about this house is that it's a pretty blank slate. There haven't been any real updates in a few decades but everything is in good shape and fairly neutral. This should make it really easy for us to fix things up.

The front and back yard are no exception. There used to be a huge tree in the front yard that still shows up when you look at the house on Google maps. It must have been cut down earlier this year and now there's just a big stump. The backyard has one little tree. The grass is in pretty good shape. That's it. No bushes, no flowers. Nothing.

And to that I say: AWESOME.

Even though it would be nice to have some mature plants in place, this also means we get to pick what we want. Some of you may not know but I absolutely HATE roses. Rose bushes are like, the most popular plant for people to have in their yard and I am so grateful I don't have to deal with them. I hate the thorns, I hate the way they look, and I would have hated knowing I had to pull out a bunch of them.

Anyway. Here is what the house looks like now:

Pretty sad looking, huh? This is my artistic rending of what it could look like in the future:

Photoshop is not one of my best skill. What I was trying to illustrate was the following changes:

• Repainting the lower brick that is currently white. We were thinking a grey would look nice.
• Repainting all of the trim that is currently forest green, probably in the same color as the brick.
• Painting the front door and mailbox bright red. I've always wanted a bright red door!
• Building brick flower boxes along the front of the house. We talked about doing flowers or shrubs but aren't sure. I personally like the idea of shrubs because they won't die in the Fall and Winter. We could always do both!

Here is what the backyard currently looks like:

Not too bad. The backyard is actually L-shaped because the garage cuts into it. This is the bigger portion. Here's what it could look like after some work:

Photoshop skills! What is supposed to be illustrated here is:

• Berry bushes along the garage. We'll have to see where the sun hits it to see if we can plant anything there. 
• Garden boxes towards the back fence. 
• Flowers and bushes along the perimeter. I'm partial to hydrangeas!

Here's the only existing tree on the property:

If we move into this house I'll probably walk around the neighborhood and take pictures of other people's front yard to get more inspiration and make our yard look similar to what's going on around it. Unless there are roses bushes, of course.