Outdoor Beautification INSANITY

Okay, m’peeps.

The time has come to purge myself of all of these random and strenuous and lofty outdoor projects I’ve been doing for the last three weeks, because I’ve finally reached the end of my rope—er, list—and my body can’t take no mo’!

So I’m done.

Like, put my body in a full cast, everything hurts kind of done.

So...a little background to kick things off:

First, around back-to-school time every year, I go through this insane-in-the-membrane nesting phase. 

In part, it’s mental prep for the school year.

In part, it’s mental coping at its best. If my babies have to age and begin school and I can’t control any of it, at least I can control some house projects, ha.

And in part, it’s just a little bit of my obsessive focus that’s heightened to an extreme at the moment, since this is our first Fall in this casa. And, let’s be real here—we moved into a house that sits on nearly an acre of property, and that’s a heck of a lot more than we ever planned, and it’s overwhelming.

I mean, we’ve steadily removed or tamed a ton of landscaping that was overgrown, unhealthy, unattractive, or just obstructive for months now, just so we could even see what we might truly need to be done.

And that was a lot.

Which brings me to my plotting and scheming to tackle more of an aesthetic phase of the landscape “freshening,” as well as some minor painting in the front.

Now...I have lots to recap, but lemme just give you an adorable shot of my now-happy porch, as of yesterday, so you don’t get bored and stop reading, ha. :)

I mean...I adore my little yardwork buddy. He’s been a total trooper these past three weeks through all this craziness, and I love him to bits and pieces and bits for it.

So...starting back at the beginning. 

My original goal was to spruce things up a bit by digging up all of the metal edging in the flower beds and replacing it with stone.

Sounds totally manageable, right???

Ha. Ho. He. Nooooooo.

First off, this metal edging existed in these beds for twenty years and wanted to stay there, oye. And second—I sort of blocked out the fact that we have a lot of flower bed square footage with metal trimming, so I ended up excavating about 200 feet of this stuff. I mean, this shot here is just one teeny area near the porch. There were sections many many times larger than this, and my back just hurts reliving it.



But once it began, I was committed. (Or maybe I needed to be committed??? Potato, potahto.)

And Little Man and I made it worse by accidentally excavating about 500 rocks that were buried underneath this one area of our grass, where there apparently used to be some sort of rock landscaping.



So, of course, that widened the scope of our work to include digging out new sections of flower beds to account for said excavation—and that had to be done in symmetrical style, on both sides of the front sidewalk. (You feel this spiral as I’m reliving it???)

Lemme just say that, around this time our pool guy showed up for the weekly chemical balance, and he got out of the car and just started applauding for me, ha. And he and I have now become buds, because three weeks straight, he’s shown up on a Thursday while I’m sweating away, and we chat and he boosts my self esteem by making me feel like wonder woman, ha.





So...plug away we did, little by little (and by “we,” I mean my morally supportive but physically unable-to-help Little Man and I, ha).

I mean, there were days I was like: nope, not gonna survive. But...we just trudged along for a few hours every morning, and eventually we got all of that metal edging up, and placed 300 stones throughout the front flower beds of the property. Here’s a sort of aerial shot of one section, taken from Little Man’s bedroom. Ahhhh...deep sigh of relief.

It should be said—again and again and again—that this was tough stuff in hot heat. I mean, I broke one shovel and some shears, and I gave myself many many wounds (and I currently have 14 mosquito bites on my legs alone, ha).



But, dang, is it wonderful to hack out a giant pile of stuff to get the heave-ho! (Photo credit goes to Little Man, ha).





There was just one Saturday that I finally had to drag the hubby out there for some backup with some small tree and giant shrubs trimming, and that was when the chainsaw arrived.

I mean...I’m all for women empowerment and all, but I wanted some help with that particularly frightening tool, ha.

Oye, oye, oye...the work.

Now, around this time, any normal, mentally reasonable human being would be like: job done (for now), let’s stop.

But nooooooo. Not this crazy woman. Who stood and stared at the porch that was just in sad state, and decided to tackle that, too.

It started with the rod iron railings that were just weeping for attention...

And once that mother fudging black tar-like paint job (that took three days and three coats) was complete, I knew the door had to be done, right then, or I would lose my willpower, because that oil-based paint was just the worst, and I wanted to be done with it forever.





Ahhhhh...look how fresh.

And again, this would have been the time to stop he insanity.

BUT.

I had just one ridiculous, terrifying, sort of crazy idea that involved the brick of our porch that was in a very deteriorated state that wasn’t salvageable through power washing.

So, heeeeere was the brick before:

This poor brick was just really hurting. Major crumbling issues, mortar that was just in pain, and the price to resurface or utilize pavers, or do anything to make a substantial difference was just daunting.

So...I did a bunch of research and made the really scary decision to paint, utilizing a special porch and floor enamel that’s uniquely made for a job like this...and then I crossed my fingers and prayed hard.

And...look!

I mean...crazy, right???

Here’s another before shot:



And...after.





We decided on a color (SW Cast Iron) that was basically the same as some trim accents that already exist on the house, but punched up one notch.



It was definitely a bold move that I really fretted over to be honest (I mean, it would be a pretty insanely difficult thing to reverse).

But, in the end, I’m just so pleased with the result—for the cost of just two gallons of paint!—and my fears of neighborly judgment have already been alleviated by a couple of really wonderful and timely comments of positive feedback. :)

I mean, people...this has been three weeks of insanely laborious work, that I really never intended to spiral as it did, ha.

But I’m so grateful for every single stride we’ve make toward reviving this house and property in a way that feels like us. 

And I’m insanely happy to have this marathon phase come to an end (much more yardwork needs to be done—hello, back yard!—but I need a break!).

And, look—Nanna arrived today!

So let the sweating ENDETH.

(For now, at least.)

Over and out.