October 08 - FLOORS!

Two days before we left for Michelle's wedding we decided to have our hardwood floors refinished while we were gone. This meant we had two days to pack for the wedding and to move everything we owned into the kitchen and garage! We took our plants to Chad's mom's house and Grandma and Grandpa Morris watched Nali while we were away. It was a lot of work at the last minute (literally), but it was absolutely worth all the work and the money! Have a look:

Before - Corner in one of the bedrooms

After - Corner in one of the bedrooms

Before - Hallway

After - Hallway

Before - Livingroom

After - Livingroom

Sara - showing off the beautiful floors.

Out of all the projects we've done on the house this is the one and only one we've paid to have someone else do for us. We debated beforehand about weither or not it was going to be worth it, but after coming home and seeing the beautiful floors (and smelling the intensity of those refinishing chemicals - yuck!) we decided it was well worth every single penny (and really nice to have a break from at least one of the projects...)

Front Yard Yardwork!

So, I know I've been bad about posting yard pics, so... here's some before and after pics of the work we've done on the front yard up to this week. We've added a lot of plants to fill out our Xericscaping and we put some bark in the plant areas. It'll help hold in the water and it really makes the plants pop out. I'll add some more of the backyard soon hopefully.

First, here's a couple of pictures of the original front yard for anyone who never saw it. There was a huge arborvitae bush that blocked a good third of the house on the South side. This was the first thing we ripped out (Chad had to use the winch on the jeep to get it out!) Also, notice the huge unhealthy pine tree that we had to rip out. We've since replaced it with a beautiful Corkscrew Willow (I even named him 'Corkscrew Willy').

This picture of the front was taken after the arborvitae bush was removed. The arborvitae bush extended from the left hand side of the house, covering the first set of windows!

Since we live on such a busy street we decided to Xeriscape the front yard. This makes it both very beautiful and incredibly practical. Xeriscaping is a form of 'dry landscaping' that utilizes little water and emphasizes the use of native plants to an area, or plants that have the same characteristics as native plants. It is also low-maintenance (no grass to mow!)

The above pictures were taken from the front steps looking towards the road.

These pictures were taken from the sidewalk looking towards our house.

And finally, here's adding the bark! Don't the plants just pop out!?!

(That's Corkscrew Willy behind me. Isn't he cute?)

Since these last pictures (taken on Friday) we've added a couple more plants to the corner behind me in the last photo and we finished barking the other plant areas. As nice as it looks, we still have quite a bit more work, but we're getting there. I'll try to post pics of the backyard when I get a chance.