Cool vintage pendant light I found at a church sale

Kitchen wall finish

Still have to paint the trim & beadboard

Chair reupholstry

Vessel sink project

Cottonwood tree #1 comes down

Improvements Spring 2nd Year

My mom is the garden design expert, so naturally I had to undo some of what I had done, but she could see the concrete 'S' path right away and where the various flowers should be going in so she pointed and I placed flowers! I love it - the garden really adds a ton.

I got ambitious early this spring and started painting the house. It is vastly nicer looking white, and the shutters were a lucky find. Added some window boxes and we will landscape this area once the cottonwood trees are taken out. All over it is becomming a much more polished presentation!

Spring the 2nd Year

The most significant improvement was the receipt of dirt to create a terraced front yard/ garden. This was supposed to be a first step, but due to the Mississippi floods last year, there was NO DIRT ANYWHERE. So finally we found a fella the following year and got 32 tons of dirt delivered!

We built a main terrace from the berm to the tree with about 2 ft of concrete and the majority of the dirt. Mom provided some plants - which I required her detailed instructions to get in place.

We also purchased a new storm door - actually the second (we had a utilitarian one on after the screen door). But this one really adds to the feel of the porch.

We also added additional patio space with pavers and some ornamental containers and hanging baskets. Oh and the window glass was a first year improvement that I never took pics of. Also I trimmed out the windows in grey to give some variation.

First steps

We defined the parking area with concrete blocks and enlarged it to a 2 space area. We built a 'berm' with old concrete to try to keep water runnoff from the two L shaped streets in front of the house that just dumped in our front yard (and consequently our basement). Some of the concrete came from the sidewalk-to-nowhere that we broke out. We latticed the bottom of the porch, painted it with several coats, painted the screen door, purchased poured concrete steps, and added an actual mailbox. Shortly after these pics we got gravel to fill the driveway.

Purchase condition

Purchase condition was pretty poor. The front door was a torn screen door, the two side porch windows were boarded over. The 'mailbox' was a slot in the side of the door with a box attached to the inside. The front steps were 3 concrete blocks. The front sidewalk went nowhere but into the ground about 10 feet out from the house, and the front 'drive' was a sloping gravel mess that landed on a propped up railroad tie. The gutters were drooping. The front 'yard' was demolished by a water main repair, and the side yard had a root cellar that they had caved in with a bulldozer.

I wish I had better shots of the porch. It was DIRTY. The walls were grey, the window panes broken, the floor slat wood that did not connect to the house, the door was a flimsy damaged screen door, and the 'mail slot' was a hole in the wood wall.

The inside however was not in too bad of shape!