I don’t have many pictures of when we first moved in. We were moving from a basement into our first owned home (we were just a little excited to get our things out of boxes and storage!), so we waited just long enough for the carpets to be cleaned. We moved everything as quickly as we could, and for months, we just kinda shifted things around. It was not effective. Or pretty. Bottom line, most of my before pictures have our stuff in them, in various stages of “unpack and put away”.
I do have some pictures from our home inspection. In fact, I think the inspection picture of the front entrance is my only picture of how the front looked for the first few months.
Upon first glance, it doesn’t look too bad! Actually, it isn’t bad, but there were a few things that needed to change immediately. See, the doorway is set back into a really narrow alcove. Those massive bushes made it really dark and kinda creepy! I could just imagine someone hiding in them at night… *shudder* If someone did hide in them, I would have to give them props. I mean, those things were pokey! They’re almost like holly bushes, but I’m pretty sure they’re not. My daddy came by one day and chopped down all of them except the one on the far left (we left it so the front wouldn’t look so bare). Turns out, they were trapping moisture against the window and causing it to mold inside the casing. My paranoia was good for something! =)
We rounded the flower bed out to meet the walkway so it wouldn’t look so plain. Momma brought nandina bushes, lilies, daffodils, and sedum from her garden to fill in where the bushes were. Since then, she brought an azalea bush, some monkey grass, and a few little grape hyacinths.
Oh, see that lonely shutter? The other one was/still is propped up in the garage. We’ll get to it eventually!
We scrubbed the gunk off the brick where the gutter was stopped up, planted some daffodils around the mailbox, and the for sale sign came down, obviously. The only other major change has been the sidewalk. See the little narrow strip between the driveway and the walk to the front door? It’s really tiny!
Whenever it rained, it was almost impossible to carry groceries or anything else without stepping into the grass there. So, my parents (you will be hearing about them a lot!) helped me pour a little fan shaped concrete pad there while Garan was at work. It’s so much better now!
In the next few months, we’ll hopefully be adding some rock and plants in the front bed to fancy it up a bit. It doesn’t look too pretty right now, but once everything starts filling in, I think it will be quite lovely! =D
xo, Amanda Marie
xo amandamarie 