A little here, a little there

This is what the outside of our house looked like when we bought it.  Okay, not quite because it was winter when we bought the house, but you get the jist. 

You can see that our house doesn't have the most desirable curb appeal.  It's not horrible, but it's not that great either.  There is zero landscaping, the tree out front is over 70% dead, the lawn is dying, and I hate the front door (plus the color of the house, but that's for another day).  J actually didn't even want to look at this house because of the lack of curb appeal, but I talked him out of it and boy am I glad I did that. 

We've been so busy with the inside of the house, that sometimes we forget about the outside.  We'll tell ourselves things need to be done ever time we see the outside, but then we scurry into our house and enjoy our lovely living room and forget about the front yard once again.

We both decided that no major outside projects would be taking place this year, but I was determined to at least dress up the house a bit, even if my budget was very limited.   

First to go was that tree.  It practically fell apart when we were cutting it down.  It was so rotten and probably diseased.  And I don't want any tree disease spreading to the rest of our plants.  The neighbor across the street even told us it was time for that unsightly tree to go.  Unfortunatly this was as far as we have gotten because the chainsaw crapped out on us and we're waiting for J's uncle to come and help us finish.  Hopefully that will be soon.

 
I planted some "bargain" plants beside those awful stairs (they will be replaced eventually with a nice little front porch).  These were some of the cheapest plants I could find, and most of them cost me less then $1 a plant.  The white fuzzy plants are slowly taking over and the bunnies are eating a lot of the others, but it still looks nicer then before.  I also added our solar lights to give it a little something more.

I then added one of those plastic boarders to the front.  This replaced a boarder of patio blocks turned on their sides.  This drove me nuts and I couldn't wait to rip them out.  Once they had settled, they started to fall over and become uneven.  The plastic's not the most desirable, but it's better then what was there.  I didn't even take a picture of the before because they were so horrible.

We plan on putting in raised beds eventually, so I needed to keep my plants simple and moveable.  The pots in the foreground were picked up at goodwill for under $10 for the set.  Less then $10 for three ceramic pots, awesome.  The larger pots in the background are those resin cheap pots, so if they only last a few seasons, it's okay.  I also snagged some hanging baskets and shepherds hooks at Menards when they were on sale last.  I have some gladiolas planted as well as a bleeding heart plant.  Not really much to look at right now, but it's something.  And ignore the white garbage bin, that's the extra soil for when the tree is taken down.

I picked up some window boxes on a run to Jo-ann's.  I can't wait to put those up.  I'm not sure where yet.  But we got them for 70% off, so we decided that it was too good of a deal to pass up.  We'll find somewhere to put them.  I hope :-)

Okay so it's not much, but it's better then it was before.  Hopefully the tree stump will be removed soon and then in turn, the white trash bin will be long gone.  Then I can figure out if I want my flower boxes up front or on the back porch.  Slowly our house is becoming ours.  :-)