Curbing Awkward

Once again, I am plotting the demise of several bushes in my yard.  Considering that my yard is about the size of a postage stamp, 3 ousted bushes will be a pretty big deal.  If you recall, last year's de-bushification of the yard included removing 2 suffering bushes to make way for the veggie garden, and removing the offensive overgrown bushes from the front yard.  This year we have 2 more bushes in the side yard planed for removal to fit more planter boxes for our veggie garden and one bush in the front yard just needs to go away. From day one, the lone bush on the right side of the front yard has irked me (I really feel like 'irk' is a very underused word- I'm rather fond of it- its appropriate in so many situations).  Anyway, the bush- it's healthy, not a terrible size, but the placement leaves a bit to be desired.  I gave it a year and hoped that I'd forget about it (to save us the manual labor), but it still bothers me much more than it should.  It probably doesn't help that new episodes of Curb Appeal are on again, and I love seeing how huge of a difference just a few small changes can make.  Too many DIY ideas causes trouble & I'm totally going to get myself in trouble this summer (don't tell Hubby).

The front yard started close to this.  I don't have a FULL before picture of the front yard.  This picture was taken after we removed a few suffering bushes from the right side-yard right next to the house:

After we finished the last bush-ectomy, it looked like this:

See how the bushy guy on the right just looks a bit awkward?  There's nothing grounding him visually- he's just loitering out in the middle of the front yard.  Awkward.

Through the wonders of photoshop, here's what I want to do there:

I know its not a MAJOR difference, but it looks more pulled together and hides the side yard/veggie garden.  Cost-wise, it won't be a big investment, it'll just be a full day project (optimistically).  Once we get the offending bush out of the ground, I want to plant 2 or 3 arborvitae in line with the house, leaving enough room next to the fence (all the way to the right, unseen in this pic) for a narrow path to the veggie garden.

Last year, the yard and gardens were largely experimental.  We weren't sure what would grow or how things would work.  Now that we have a better idea of how we use the space and what grows successfully, we may go a little nuts.  I'm super duper excited.  I just want it to be truly warm enough so I can get started!

Do you have any epic yard/garden projects planned?

Patio Dreaming- 2012 edition

I'm a video game widow all weekend thanks to the annual arrival of PAX East (aka Geekfest Boston).  Hubby and all his friends have taken a 3 day weekend starting today and will be celebrating all that is nerdy.  I'll be adventuring without him, though.  Tomorrow, I'll be spending the day in NYC watching my amazingly talented sister-in-law, Lily Goodman in an off-broadway play, 13 Fat Girls and a Dead Cat- go see her!!!!! Do it!!  Shows are Tonight, tomorrow, and Monday.  Since I know you want to go, you can buy tickets here. Even though the weather is taunting us here in New England lately (is it freezing or summer-like?  who knows.  but don't worry, tomorrow'll be opposite), I'm starting to plot out my patio furnishings that I never got around to buying last summer.

Almost a year ago, I posted about my plans for some of the patio furniture here.  I almost had a patio crisis (yes dear friends who I know will mock me, its almost as bad as a shampoo crisis) when I realized that the red wrought iron chairs that I had my heart set on:

were no longer available from Kmart and they had a new style in its place that I didn't like so much:

The newer chairs are a bit too frilly for my taste. I wanted LAST year's chairs!! Waaahh.  After a brief internal temper tantrum, I got determined.  Lo and behold, Sears now sells my coveted 'last year's model' chairs- AND they're on sale!!  I wasn't going to make the same mistake as last year- ya snooze, ya lose, right?

For a total of $301 I have 4 of these babies:

on their way to my local Sears just for me (it was free to ship to store and I like free).  These chairs have an overall silhouette much like their new counterpart, but I MUCH prefer the linear pieces in the back to the scrolling of 'this year's model.'  If you haven't already guessed, those cushions need new fabric.  I'm hoping to find a punchy, graphic outdoor fabric to recover them.

Notice that I said I just have 4 chairs on the way- I did NOT order the matching table.  The table is not fully metal, the top is a plastic and got some pretty dismal reviews.  My first thought was that I would just buy a regular wrought iron table and either paint it to match the chairs or paint the table and chairs all another color.  I wasn't convinced with my plan, though.  I kind of had my heart set on a vintage eclectic patio scheme and too much wrought iron would be in danger of getting too matchy for my tastes.  I had looked at wood farmers-style tables last year, but since I'm not willing to pay an arm and a leg for something that's not revolting, I had pretty much abandoned that idea.  Enter IKEA.

This new-to-this-year wooden outdoor table I think has the perfect mix of rustic, vintage, and clean lines to play nice with my red wrought iron chairs (and it doesn't hurt that the price is kind on the wallet at $139).  When I first showed it to the Hubs, he asked if the sides were a design feature or if they raised for more room.  BOTH, and that's kind of why I'm in love.  I really like the look if them down (it feels very architectural that way) and I love the versatility of being able to put them up if we have a larger gathering.  I'm pretty much sold on it, but I do want to see it in person to make my final assessment.  Good thing I'll be taking a trip to IKEA very soon to pick up frames, floating shelves, and other misc for my nephew's room (just over 3 weeks 'till he's due, I need to get to finishing his space!).

Phew, that was verbose!  If you've made it all the way down here you deserve a prize!  So, what do you think of my chair/table combination?  Am I'm nuts or will it look amazing?

*photos via sears, kmart, sears, & ikea

Curb Appealed

I would be doing a happy dance right now if I wasn't so pooped from the weekend's projects. Saturday, the house got a facelift in the form of a bush-ectomy.  Birds chirped in happiness, the sun shone in approval, and the choruses in my head were singing "Halleluiah."  Ok, so I may be exaggerating a little, but the outcome was well worth the effort and I couldn't be more pleased!

Here's what the unsuspecting front yard looked like in the morning hours:

Let the games begin!  The helpful parents made the trek from CT with all their tools to help.   I learned long ago: If I don't have the tool I need, don't go out and buy it, Handy Dad probable has 3 extra. (and often times, borrowing tools leads to helping hands too- win-win!)

First step of a bush exorcism?  Expose the roots and start hacking away at them:

Next step?  Attempt to yank it out with my parent's mighty CR-V.  The irony is that Hubby and I have an 8 cylinder Jeep Grand Cherokee that has no trailer hitch or any place to attach any towing assembly to, making it as useless as our other car (a convertible) for towing.

Well, the mighty CR-V let us down this time (shocked? yeah, us too).  Indiana Jones, uh..I mean Handy Dad and Hubby continued hacking at the roots of this bush while Mom and I got started on the lesser of the two evil bushes.

All the while, my furry project buddy was supervising.

Once we hacked out the roots as much as possible, mighty CR-V  did prove useful as a big heavy object to attach a ratcheting pulley to.

Eventually the evil bush forfeited and Hubby celebrated the victory with bad Braveheart impressions (I'll spare you).

The lesser bush was far less climactic of an extraction after the excitement of the first bush.  Once we excitedly had both bushes removed, Mom and I sent the men to dispose of the bushes while we plotted the beautification of the 2 new dirt holes.

Better already, right?

Mom kept busy with Hosta relocation (since they were previously squished in between the gigantic bushes and the stairs), while I worked on creating a stone border on the right side to match the one that already existed on the left.

Soon enough we were ready to start figuring out flower location, although I saved the actual planting and mulching for the next day.

Ready to see the outcome?

Have I built up enough anticipation yet with all the pictures?

Maybe I should make you wait until tomorrow to see the final product....

Just kidding!!  Here's what our front yard looks like now!

The new stone border might need some more love when I get up the energy to quik-crete it in place (like the other side), but it is good enough for now.

Isn't the front yard pretty?  Now can you see why I was feuding with the bushes?  They were in the way of my lovely garden!