We loved pretty much everything about our new house when we moved in ... except the landscaping. It wasn't necessarily horrid, just really, really overgrown and unloved. Overgrown to the point that spending an afternoon trimming or cutting back was worthless. We found out after moving in that two owners ago had done pretty extensive landscaping, but the previous owners hadn't kept up with much of anything. We had good bones to work with in that the beds were laid out nicely and there were a few plants worth saving, but we really needed a major overhaul.
If you know me, you know that I like to knock things out pretty quickly if it's on my radar. Since it was late spring / early summer and the outside of our house was the first thing visitors and neighbors saw, I wanted this project done ASAP. Mike, on the other hand, was in a bit of sticker shock from the new home purchase, new furniture purchases and was delusional in thinking we could do it all on our own. This led to our first real exercise in compromise, aka our first big round of arguments, aka WWIII at the Kelly household.
In the end, the quote we received was extremely reasonable and the compromise was that Mike could "Mexican labor" his way through the yard up until the professionals started work. The lag time between us the initial meeting and the start of work was about 6 weeks and Mike did make some decent headway, kudos to him and the Kelly genes of strength.
I've been working from home about one day week and my schedule is relatively flexible, but the day they started work I had to be in the office as my boss from Indianapolis was coming in to go over my annual review and raise/bonus. I was a little bummed that I wouldn't be there to see the progress in person, but man, was I in for a surprise when I got home that night. It was like Christmas! Other than a few plants left to put in the ground and mulching, they had whipped through all 3 areas of the yard in a matter of hours. And, on the hottest day of the year, no less. They finished up the next day and we were thrilled! The best money we've spent in a long time .... and the ultimate reward was Mike admitting (1) it was totally worth every penny, (2) it was the right time to do the project and (3) the professionals did a much better job than we as a team could have done. Victory, errr, compromise has never felt so sweet!
The hot summer was not been kind to our new plants, but they have powered through and we are excited to see how they look next Spring after a fall and winter to really root into the ground. We hope you can come see for yourself sometime soon! Click on any of the picture sets to enlarge.
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Side Yard Before and After
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Back Side Yard Before and After
(please excuse the wilty, on their side plants, they were re-plants are still getting their footing)
2 comments:
The landscaping was the first thing we redid when we moved in as well. Like you said, it's the first impression people receive and I wanted it to be a positive one. It's certainly not cheap but it's totally worth it. It looks 150x better! There's nothing like a well kept, neat landscape.
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