The Changes to the Outside of our House.

We have been busy making changes to the outside of our house.  We started the front of the house in May and we still are not complete, but I wanted to go ahead and share the changes we have made.

 

I hate to share how bad the outside of our house has become.  I have lived here 10 years and we have not done much with the outside at all. So here goes with the changes to the outside of our house.  Here is my to do list:

Changes to the outside of our house to do list:

Paint the entire house

New sidewalk and walkway

Extend existing flower bed, before the new lawn

New lawn

Rebuild rock wall

Paint the front door

New mailbox

New house numbers

New light fixture

New Door Knobs

New Door Bell

Tall planter boxes for the sides of the doorway

Power wash the driveway

Flower Window Boxes

Replace screen on front bedroom window

Point Tuck the Chimney and get a cap

Plant perennials in the extended flower bed

Mulch(entire house)

Paint and seal the front step and porch (using Restore Product)

You can see from the above picture how bad the lawn had become.  We knew last year that we wanted to replace the yard, so we let it go and this was the outcome of letting the weeds take control.  (this was actually 2 or 3 years of neglect)

 

They removed the old walkways, graded down the hill, placed the sidewalk forms, poured and stamped.  I decided to have a decorative walkway and chose a stamped concrete walkway.  I LOVE, LOVE my walkway.  I love the colors and the pattern and I no longer have steps on the walkway.  If you are local (Canton, Ohio) I can recommend a great concrete contractor.   Next is the lawn.

 

First steps were grading down the front hill.  I wanted as much of the hill removed for 2 reasons: 1. It is a bear to mow and 2. I did not want steps on my walkway.  Before they came to seed the lawn, we extended the existing flower bed and rebuilt the rock wall.  We decided to cut down the pine tree next to the driveway since it was getting bigger and we were already hitting it with our side mirrors as we backed down the driveway.   What a great difference this made, you can see the side of the house and my new flower window boxes.   I will be sharing another post about those next week.

One of the hardest decisions was the front door and the trim around the door.  Here is the pictures of how many times we changed it.

I knew having it all black was too much, so I added in some white to break up the amount of black.  The second picture had too much white, so the last picture is where I added some black around the top section of the side windows.  I am happy with the final outcome.  I am sure my neighbors were thinking what is taking so long to paint the trim and door.

So here it is, the house with the red door.

 

I Love It!   I purchased a fancy black door knob and deadbolt.  They did not fit, so I am off to look for a fancy door knob with an adjustable latch.  The latch and deadbolt inside workings were not long enough the where the existing hole is for the doorknob.  I know that does not make sense, but for those of you that have replaced door knobs before, you know exactly what I am talking about.  I never knew this until now.

I will update once I get the final few things done on the front of the house.  So how many pictures do you see my sweet Cinnamon in?  Leave me a comment to let me know how many.