Front Yard Pictures!

Finally - I had my parents (very nice!) camera and was in the mood to take some pictures of our work on the front yard...or should I say our ongoing work to keep it alive. We are on watering restrictions, so I (8 1/2 months pregnant) have to water everything by hand except on Wednesday morning and evening (involves getting up at 5:00am to turn on the sprinkler).

This is the front of our house...

This is the front porch where we sit and enjoy the flowers, doves, and hummingbirds.

This swing on the front porch is just big enough for my daughter and I to swing on and eat our yogurt and honey after her nap every day...

One of my birdbaths - right outside my bedroom window...a passion vine is climbing up the trellis behind it. I dug little mini-trenches around each flowerbed - I thought is gave it a more defined look. I plan to line the "trench" with river rock or crushed granite.

This is one of two flower beds I made on either side of the sidewalk going up to the house. I have knockout roses (best roses that will bloom and bloom in full to part sun) and lantana in these. To create a flowerbed where grass once was:

1. Outline the shape you want with a water hose

2. Use a shovel to dig around the inside of the hose.

3. Take up all the grass - you can either do this with a shovel/hoe or like I did, get on my hands and knees and grab the grass with my hands and shake out the dirt - I also have a little hand held garden rake type thing that digs up the grass pretty well.

4. Either bring in more dirt to make a raised bed or go ahead and line bed with either thick newspaper or black weed out plastic.

5. Plant your flowers by making holes through the plastic and then put mulch on top.

6. I usually line my flower beds with rocks.

This is one of my favorite spots! It was originally a huge flowerbed on the side of our driveway, that was so overwhelming. I carved out a little "room", lined with rocks, keep the original flowerbed around the parimeter, painted an old bench I got from my sister-in-law and bought a $35 birdbath in New Braunfels. I was able to save most of the plants (one rose bush didn't make it)...but lantana and plumbago transplants well!

What we have done around the house - KITCHEN

Since outside is so desperately hot and I don't dare plant anything right now...

I have decided to make a list of what we have done around the house...each room in a separate post (and then a list of what still needs to be done). I feel like there is so much to be done to our house still, so this will be good for me to reflect on our hard work over the last year and a half remodeling our home.

Before we bought this Beowulf house, we lived in a little 1920's cottage downtown for a year (and before that we lived in a huge Pulte built house in the Encino area). The downtown cottage inspired my remodel design of current home.

The Beowulf house was actually the first of 48 houses we toured when looking for our next house. Just driving up, we fell instantly in love because it is a custom home, it has a handsome limestone exterior with a huge front porch, it has a metal roof, and it has 14 Oak Trees in the front yard. Going inside, we were able to look past the dingy white walls, orange carpet, wall-papered kitchen/bathrooms, and popcorn ceiling. Because the current owners wanted way too much for the house in the condition it was in, we gave our offer, they countered much higher, so we walked away. They contacted us a few weeks later asking if we were still interested...and the rest is remodeling history!

Unless noted, we have done most of the work ourselves - neither of us have any construction background. We learned as we went by researching the internet, reading books/magazines, and talking to people at good ol' Home Depot and Lowes...

Kitchen - Before

The walls are already painted in these before pictures...you don't get to see the glorious wall paper!



Kitchen - Already DONE List
Everything was done on a budget...I haven't updated my spreadsheet with exact numbers, but the total kitchen was probably around $4000 including fairly high grade appliances.

- Took out middle panels of all existing cabinets doors, replaced with glass on top cabinet doors and beadboard on bottom cabinet doors...added a trim about the inside square.
- Covered section above cabinets with beadboard, trim, and crown molding
- Painted all cabinets a light cream color
- Replaced all the gold hardware with bronze knobs and pulls
- Built a wood hoodvent (light and vent underneath)
- Installed Travertine subway tile backsplash using a cheap $99 tile saw (did the best job and still using it for other projects!)
- Cut down bar counter to make a bigger counter
- Granite countertop (professionally installed)
- New deep double sink
- New bronze faucet
- Under sink water filtration system
- New bronze water faucet
- New slide-in gas stove
- New dishwasher
- Undercabinet lighting
- Took out recessed flourescent lights and replaced with three pendents
- Scraped popcorn off and painted ceiling white
- Scraped off wallpaper and painted walls a kacki green
- Notice the absence of a microwave in the new design...I don't like microwaves and didn't include a replacement.

Kitchen - REDESIGNED

The is our vent hood that we built without a plan...just starting building it...it turned out better than expected.

This is my design I did above the stove...in the middle of cutting all the angles, I was wondering why in the world did I need a design...but it turned out nice in the end.

Kitchen - Needs To Be Done

- I have had it with the ugly, chipped, never can get clean satillo tile (would be beautiful in another house, but in my hill country looking home, it isn't working. So one day (probably in a year or two) we will install 16x16 beige color travertine tile.

- Radio/Intercom system main center is located in the kitchen...it still has a tape deck. It is a big eye sore and doesn't work very well...replace one day!

Some front yard beginnings....

It has been a while since I have posted and my camera is still broken without the budget for a new one in sight...so I will just have to describe as best as possible...

Our beautiful oak wood stairs are complete...which means we can now concentrate on the outside!

We decided to begin by redoing some flowerbeds in the front yard.

We just finished carving out a little sitting area in the middle of our huge flowerbed at the front right of our driveway - it looks like a little room with a flowerbed snaking all around it. I was able to transplant the three Irises, a Lantana, a Rose bush, and two Plumbagos. We put a salvaged wood and metal bench that my husband painted a bronzish-brown color and a bird bath (my mother's day gift) in the little "room". Soon, we will change out the white lamp post that is in the corner of the flowerbed to a bronze post (I already have it picked out at Lowes).

Our other big project in the front yard was digging little trenche-like gaps between the rock lining the flowerbeds and the grass (I haven't decided whether to line with mulch or crushed granite). I feel like it gives a definite ledge between the flowerbed and grass and also will be easier to weed-eat. We also did the trench around each tree - which was a pretty big task since we have 14 oak trees in our front yard.

At the gates to the back yard and at the water hose areas, I also redid the flower beds a bit to make a little parted paths. These paths, as well as the "room" are ready for crushed granite and the flowerbeds are ready for mulch (already picked out and priced at Hill Country Soil). We buy by the truck loads which is way cheaper than by the bags.

Before we get the mulch and granite and if I feel up to it...I would like to create a flowerbed around the mailbox and each Crepe Myrtle (3) that are lined up between the sidewalk and the street. I love the look of white rock and roses and/or a vine climing up the rock (our mailbox is made out of white limestone).

So that is what I have been up to in the last two weeks. My husband is so tired of making trenches and moving rock that he dared suggest we just put grass in the whole back yard - gasp! Actually, it isn't sounding like a bad idea!

More about bees...

My dad is a beekeeper (among the many other hobbies he has). He has had honey bees since before I was born. Recently he has started rescuing bee swarms from people's homes - that would otherwise be killed by a terminator. Honey bees are actually becoming a little scarce and a law was recently passed making it unlawful to kill a honey bee.

Yes, the female honey bees (regular looking bees) sting, the male bees (drones that are a bit darker than the females) do not, and the queen bees (longer body that looks like the females) rarely do, but can. Sometimes, there are some rather mean and aggressive bees - these could be related to the African bees and should be killed (law or no law).

Eating the local honey from the local pollen around you is the best way to keep yourself rid of allergies. There are all sorts of ways to rob the hive (get the honey) - one that I prefer is to be wrapped from head to toe in a thick suit, gloves that come up to my elbow, and net bee hat. A smoker can be used to blow smoke on the bees that make them fat and hard for them to sting. My dad on the other hand can walk up to a hive, lift the top box, pop out a frame and grab some honey comb. He doesn't mind being stung - bee stings are actually really really good for your circulation and joints. The bee stings are actually being used to help MS patients! I have yet to purposely sting myself like my parents do!

My dad has a certain way to attract local bees (with a cone type bee catcher with a queen bee) for a backyard hive. We are currently working on his web site and hopefully have it done soon for all the other beehive hopefuls out there! I hope to have the hive in the backyard once the yard is complete...I don't want to scare off my husband from completing the yard with a bunch of bees flying around. Oh another tip...point the opening of the bee hive up against a fence, so they will go up and over the fence (and bee the neighbors problem)! : )

Not much...but something

So, although I have vowed not to do anything to the front or back yard until the stairs inside the house are done (they are not even started yet), I have taken some of Janet's advice from her post and decided everything didn't have to be perfect for me to do something...although I didn't have my truck full of top soil or mulch ready, nor even a shovel handy...I decided, as I sat in our front yard throwing the ball for our two dogs (Kady-Golden Retriever and Mason-Dachshund), to go ahead and make one of my flower beds bigger...I just used my hands and took away the grass and then moved the rock around a bit in preparation to bring more rocks to line the bed (we have piles and piles of white limestone rock either left over from building our house 25 years ago or they just come up out of the ground?). I plan to do another matching bed on the other side of the sidewalk hopefully today as I throw the ball for Kady and Mason again (our daily ritual).

I am also desperately trying to find the "before" photos of our back yard and suspect they are on an unlabeled cd mixed within a stack of cd's.

I do plan to take pictures of our retaining walls, picket fence, and patio that we have done so far...alas nothing planted as of yet. I have to say, it is a bit difficult revealing the "coming along" stages...I am such a "big reveal" type person.

Stairs, stairs, stairs!

The Beehive and Goals

Bees and honey has always been an integral part of my life. My parents had a beehive on their place all my life...yes, there are a few bees buzzing around here and there and when other kids came over, there was always the standing dare of kicking the beehive without getting stung...but what I remember most is the rich honey that we used on fresh bread and the sweet honey comb we chewed on like gum.

So, much to the Penny Pincher's (could also be called the Bee Hater) dismay, I insist that we have a honey hive incorporated somehow in our garden. I can already see it - painted a pale crisp yellow...five boxes neatly stacked with the honey bees busily working to make our honey. The Penny Pincher is sure that we are going to be slapped with a lawsuite. However, a beehive in your garden is now the hottest trend - Michelle Obama just announced the other day that the White House will be making its own honey from the beehive in the new vegetable garden (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090320/ap_on_go_pr_wh/white_house_garden)!

Our plans for the back yard our currently on hold for two reasons: A) The Penny Pincher and I MUST finish the stairs inside the house before starting any new projects (repeating this matra over and over); and B) All the leaves from the Oak trees need to finish falling before we bring in new mulch and dirt.

However, we already have a couple of big backyard projects underway:

1) All the rotten trees have been cut down and taken away
2) We leveled off the top half of the yard with a 2 1/2 foot white limestone retaining wall and brought in 13 yards of fill dirt. On top of that, we built a nice little picket fence to divide the yard and put down sod on that half of the yard. This top level is our dog's paradise.
3) The wood deck has been torn down and they are putting the finishing touches on the our stained and stamped concrete 300 sq. foot patio raised 2 1/2 feet from the ground. We still need to install the French doors in place of the windows that lead off the sunken living room of the house (instead of the big step down from the dining room).

Backyard/Garden Wish List

• Pale yellow beehive


• Gingerbread playhouse (preferably out of recycled materials)


• Limestone retaining walls


• Area secluded for dogs


• Compost


• Retractable clothesline (does one exist?)


• Pebble paths


• Stone 3 foot high patio with surrounded flower bed at same height


• Pergola with wisteria


• Herb garden


• Vegetable garden


• Double french doors onto the patio


• Bougainvilleas


• Climbing rose covered pergola


• Bird bath


• Fish pond (after all, this is a wish list)
• Sprinkler system

The following is one of my many sketches of plans for the backyard...

The "Before" State of the Backyard

My vision for my backyard is far beyond anything I expect to achieve. However, it does give me something to dream about and plan to the best of my ability with our meager budget - that is actually about to be cut again by Mr. Penny Pincher (my husband), who does not see the importance of perennials or any type of "pretty" plants for that matter.

When we moved into our Beowulf house, not only was the inside of the house in dire need, but the backyard was a desolate pile of dirt, dead termite-infested trees, and an abundance of ivy - which was actually pretty, but overwhelming. The prior home owner's dogs had made sure that there was not one blade of grass alive and the back 8 foot fence was so rotten, it was about to fall over.

The 150 sq. foot deck coming off the house was painted a dark red and although was somewhat stable, I disliked the 4 feet of space underneath it that quite possibly harbored skunks, snakes, and rats.

There are quite a few salvageable trees - four very tall Mountain Laurels, three Kumquat trees, a Peach tree, an Oak tree, two Red Buds, and one very tall shady tree that I think may be an Ash (junk tree). I do like the "might be an ash tree" because it provides so much shade on one side of the yard.

The trees that were not salvageable - HUGE Elm tree and three Oak trees - all rotten and eaten out by termites. It killed me not to be able to save them.

As far as plants, there is one salvageable Lantana. Otherwise, there are tons of fallen leaves, a few holes, lots of washed away soil because the yard goes down a slope, and tons of large limestone rocks that will prove useful in the future I am sure (we live on top of limestone and they just pop out of the ground from no-where!).

The yard is home to several squirrels, a few nests of pigeons (that Mr. Penny Pincher threatens to shoot down because of all the white poop on EVERYTHING), a skunk (but that is ok because I don't mind the smell), lots of bees, and our two dogs (Golden Retriever - Kady and Dachshund - Mason).

Poem by young Jessa Marie

The Flower
Sits
Alone
In the field,
Drinking
The sweet air.
And thinking of those days
when she
was born
and thinking
of the children
while they laugh
and play.

August 29, 1983
Poem by Jessa Marie (6 years old)

My parents recently found this poem in their stuff and gave me a copy of it...I thought it was a perfect start to my gardening blog!