As you may have seen in prior posts, our home had great bones, but required a lot of cosmetics updates right away, well at least in my mind...
During the winter, all I could think about was getting out in the yard, ripping everything out, and starting all over again. Our main focus this year was the front yard, because... well everyone sees the front yard.
We did do a lot in the backyard, too, but spent most of our efforts upping the curb appeal.
Below is the evolution of the front yard from when we purchased it, to now.
The Listing Photos
These are the photos that were on the listing for our home, to be honest, I didn't really notice the front yard issues until after we moved in... maybe I just saw the potential and was blinded by the home itself.
A Couple Months Later
I went away on a trip to my friends for the weekend, and my husband had enough of the front yard, so he went out and purchased some mums to help bring the front yard to life a bit. Nice touch, buuut that wasn't the end.
The Spring!
Yay, it was finally spring, and we would start to get to work. Our parents warned us that the instant we rip out the bushes, we will need to have something else to plan in it's place. We didn't really care, so my husband started ripping the bushes out, one by one until the entire front row was gone. OH! During the winter, we also replaced the large windows in the front, too!
Psst... notice the lights on the house, in Michigan, Winter stayed a little longer than anticipated. It was April when I took this photo!
And then there were two
My husband got all of the bushes out, and we were left with this... an uneven porch and dirt with no plants. We had a couple estimates on the cost of a new porch (across the entire front), but didn't feel like dropping $25,000 at the moment.
So what do I do?? Call my dad of course, and he says he's up for the job! Yay! My dad came out, measured the porch and gave us his plan of action to help the front porch not look uneven, AND add a little style to it.
Project: Porch Demo
My dad asked my husband to chip off the first layer of brick from the porch so he had enough room to put a concrete cap on top. My dad did the first few chips to show my husband,it looked easy enough, until I got calls every other day telling me how hard it was..
He came, he conquered
After a week's worth of chipping, he got it all done!
Forms, Concrete, Pouring Rain & Perfection
My parents came out, and they got right to work on the porch. My mom and I tried to just stay out of the way so they could work. As you can see, I tried to plant some stuff to help our front yard look, better but had to dig them out so they could work. (No plants were harmed during the making of the porch).
Porch Is Complete
Here is the finished product of the porch! Scroll back up to see what it was before... what a difference. My dad did a beautiful job on this.
Adding the details
So after we got the porch done, we added in a mailbox (our mail was being delivered through the door, and we hated that), planters, plants given to us by Ryan's aunt, AND planter boxes!
I get a lot of people asking where I got the planters and planter boxes, Amazon provided the planters and Wayfair provided the planter boxes.
The Semi-Final Product
I say semi, because we are looking to get a new door, and of course, as the years go forward our perennials will bloom and the garden will fill in. My mother-in-law came over when my husband and I were out of town and weeded the entire front, put some preen down and tilled the front. That next weekend she called me up and helped me put the beautiful red mulch down.
The Finale
Here is the before (top) / after (bottom)!