This is what our house looked like on any given day. It's a great house, but we have outgrown it and it is time to move- on!
It is our personal goal to have it on the market by the end of May. That means there is a lot to do between now and then! So I know I have been a little MIA- here's why.
Our realtor said we need curb appeal. So I started with that! The gutters have been emptied, the house pressure washed, and flower beds installed.
Can we say BACK BREAKING work?!! No really!! I do not know how people do that kind of work for a living! I have to admit, I think these projects could have gone a lot faster and smoother with power tools......but I'm not allowed to operate those without my husband. He handles the heavy lifting......and all this work I did was on my days off during the baby's nap time!
So first I did the gutters. My husband is still mad at me for how I went about it, but my argument is "well it's done". I have never had to clean gutters before- so I really did not know how to begin. I looked around the garage for a tall ladder to easily get up there......and I could only find a six foot one....and it was buried under a pile of work scraps my husband has. I get it out and take my rake to the front of the house.
There are only pine needles in there so I climb the ladder and have to stand on the VERY top to barely reach the inside of the gutters. It's cold and wet under the top layer of needles. I tried not to imagine what was crawling around and how long this wet dirt had been in there and empty them as fast as i can, tossing all the debris to the ground. It is very windy on this day I decided to do this, and for those familiar with ladders, apparently your not suppose to stand at the very top because that's not really a step. That's why my husband is still mad, because I was so unsafe! He cares- he just a funny way of showing it.
Next I moved to the back where yard work got really exciting. Our garage gutters had little trees growing in them. It's amazing how plants can grow anywhere under the perfect conditions. One tree was totally taking over the gutter! It had roots taller than me!! I have never seen anything like it! I know this all sounds like we just let our house go- but I promise we do not. It is just the gutters have not had a lot of love since our 1 year old was born. So
we are catching up! I also decided that I needed to put on my dish washing gloves to clean out the remaining gutters and I have to say they held up SO much better than i thought they would considering I got them at the dollar tree!!
I cut down this tree that was growing through our fence. First I had to pull all the ivy that was trying to take over it, then bent the tree, held it down with one foot, and started hacking at it with a pick axe. I would not suggest anyone else chop down trees this way. A chainsaw or any saw would have worked a lot better, but like I said before... my husband does the heavy lifting and power tool handling.
I used another day off and baby nap time to wash the house with a product called house wash I ordered on Amazon. I just sprayed it on with my hose attached, let it sit for 15 minutes, then rinsed it off. It worked wonderfully!
Now its time for the flower bed!! I got some killer deals on hostas and landscape trim at a yard sale. I got two boxes of trim that retail for twenty dollars each for three dollars each. The hostas are eight dollars each at home depot, I got fourteen plants for eight dollars!! WINNING!
So i used a hand tiller to breakup the grass and tear up the soil. I had to water the ground to soften
it but this part took most of the work. I did one side and half of the other before my blisters were bleeding and I had to ask the hubs finish it for me. He then measured out and installed the landscape trim for me too!! I wanted to get this project done in one weekend so I tried to beat the rain on Sunday to soil, plant and mulch. It did not go as I planned. The boys had a blast running around the yard in the rain while i gently untangled roots so I could split up my new babies and get them in the ground. It was tedious but watching the kids giggle and splash in the rain made the work tolerable.
I chose to plant hostas because the fill out nicely and are tough. I need a tough plant, because gardening is NOT a strength of mine.
I cleaned up all the leftover debris and it is done! We have checked some big things off our to do list with these projects done. I would say we have definitely created some "curb appeal". What do you think?!!
