Morphing

c. 2012

Awhile back I posted a picture of our landscaping job after our kitchen remodel and someone requested a picture of how our house looked before all of that started. I'm not very good about taking pictures before I start a project, especially one that is a long term project like the exterior of our house has been. But in this case I was lucky because before we actually bought the house, I walked around it taking pictures so we could mull it over. It was pretty hideous but after sleeping on it a few nights, we thought that it had potential and we made an offer that was accepted by the owners, who happened to be our realtor, who was living there at the time. Above is one of those pictures taken almost exactly nine years ago.

c. 2014

This picture is an intermediate picture. The old landscaping was torn out and replaced. It was all mature and starting to show its age plus smelled of urine from a lot of dogs using it as their urinal. The sidewalk had harbored a colony of moles, had sunk and was uneven. With aged grandparents who frequently stopped by to visit, it was a tripping hazard and so it was replaced along with the driveway and garage floor, also in equal disrepair. Another project had been to reside the house. The old Masonite siding had been neglected over the years and was water damaged and falling apart in many places. The fake columns on the sides of the windows were also rotted and falling off. The house was very drafty. So all that was torn off, I wrapped the house and resided it with cement siding. The picture shows all of this after it had happened. I hadn't yet painted the siding (it came pre-primed) nor had I built the trellises yet.

10 Jun 2021

Above is the most current photo. The kitchen addition has been added on along with the front porch. The roof eyebrows are gone (they were half rotted and a potential leak hazard) and the roof has been replaced along with new gutters added. The landscaping is in place and my grass seeding job is starting to look better. You can see that I have painted the siding and the mentioned trellises built and installed. The center landscape bed with the large pot in it will eventually have bulbed flowers of some sort planted in it but my wife didn't get them planted in time for this year. On my to-do list yet it to build a porch swing and perhaps some porch furniture and maybe a fence in between the porch columns. We are still undecided at this point. Our initial plans had one and it would kind of give us a bit of privacy but with the landscaping installed, there isn't the dramatic step off the porch anymore. It is just a regular sized step down to the gravel which I kind of like versus having to walk around if a fence were there. 

10 June 2021

Here is one more picture of the front from the road out front. It shows a bit more of our front lawn and two of the five trees planted to shield the front of our house from the road that leads off down the hill and into the neighboring valley. These two trees are apple trees which produced a lot of apples last year and taken by the squirrels. They are fenced in to prevent the deer from eating them until they get a bit bigger. Not pictures and to the right of this photo is a sour cherry tree, a serviceberry tree and some sort of plum/apricot hybrid tree that my wife got somewhere. These trees, when mature, will provide a bit of a privacy screen and also why we are still on the fence about putting a railing on our porch.

Comments

  1. It looks great Ed. You have improved the place so much. I must make sure that my wife does not see this blogpost!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do the same with other blog posts I have read!

      Delete
  2. Looks awesome! Does the fencing around the apple trees work? Deer are pretty clever and my neighbors, who have tried similar tricks with their garden, seem to be fighting a losing battle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It has worked well. The first night we didn't fence it and the deer literally pruned the new tree to half of what it was. Since fencing it in, the deer only eat the shoots that escape the fence. It doesn't however, work on squirrels, who made off with last year's crop of apples.

      Delete
  3. What an amazing transformation! You saw potential and you were so right. I love before and after photos.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, but it has paled in comparison to what you've done with your place.

      Delete
  4. What a treat! Landscaping news while I enjoy my MOW chicken mandarin orange salad! Vast improvement.🍀👍

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wow. That looks like a different house! I love the landscaping, though.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ed I think it's amazing what you guys have accomplished--even moreso when you read the accompanying text! I especially like the front, I wonder what your realtor thought of all this? She probably could've made a better profit if she had your touch!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know what "he" thinks of all this but due to living in rural America, I'm not sure we'll ever see a profit on it. But we do enjoy the finished results and think it was worth it.

      Delete
  7. "Roof eyebrows". You know, I don't think I ever noticed them in the photos you shared before, nor remember you mentioning them. Aptly named. I don't think I've ever seen any around here.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure I've seen many if any elsewhere either. When we bought the house, I made a trip up there soon after to tack up some loose trim and found they were nearly completely rotted out. I tacked it together as best as I could but knew that eventually they would just be a leak hazard. It was slightly afterwards that I made a trip up to the attic and noticed it was completely sheathed making those nothing but adornments and easily removed when the time came to reshingle the house. The addition made that time arrive and I have never missed those things for one second.

      Delete
  8. Wow. It is a completely different house. You have done a wonderful job and it looks amazing. Nicely done, my friend.

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's a huge improvement - and did you do it with your own hands? Really looks great and the trees will be a living frame when they grow and spread.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A mixture of both. I've done most of the interior work and a lot of the aesthetical outside work like painting.

      Delete
  10. That is beautiful! I love seeing the transformation. You've made so many improvements and made it your own unique home. I admire you so much for your construction and remodeling abilities.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh wow! That’s really gorgeous! You guys have done a spectacular job on renovating/beautifying your home. I love seeing the trees you’ve planted and the trellises are so pretty. It really was a lot of fun to see the transformation through the years.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment