Curb Appeal

When we first moved into our home it was a big blue box.  Not much going on in the way of curb appeal.

I love farm houses with big front porches and rocking chairs to relax in with a glass of sweet tea or colorful cottages with flowers peeking through a white picket fence.  This house had neither of those and neither of those could be added.  I just had to work at making the house charming with the basic tools and woodworking skills I have.  It has taken me about six months of working here and there, but I finally have the house to where it makes me smile when I pull in my drive.

First I made the shutters.  There are tons of tutorials on how to do this.  I chose a simple board and baton style.  I measured the height of the windows and chose a width that looked like it was somewhat to scale.  I cut the boards for height and used glue and my Kreg jig to attach them together.  Then I put two boards across each one and screwed them in.  You can screw from the back to get a cleaner look, but I like the screws being seen on this project.  I then painted them all Durango Blue from Behr.  The next color lighter would have been good too, but it was called Skinny Jeans.  Those are not a good look for me and I do judge colors by their names so I went with the darker one.

These things are heavy so Ben did the majority of the work hanging them.

Next came the window boxes.  Those, too, were a simple build.  I measured the length of the window and built long boxes out of cedar planks with some bracing in a couple places to make it more sturdy.  I really didn’t want to have them all full then get too heavy and bust a seam.  I also made the brackets that they sit on out of the same cedar planks.  I stained everything in a natural cedar stain.  It turned out a bit too orange for my taste.  I would like a more brown color, but I wasn’t willing to buy any more stain, so orangy they remain.

I hung these all by myself.  This was a big challenge for me because I hate heights and ladders.  Wait, that’s not entirely true.  I don’t hate heights.  I have no problem with Denver.  It’s a mile high and I have no anxiety there.  I can walk around the viewing platform of the Space Needle with no hesitation.  It’s the reasonable fear of falling that sets me into a panic.  I have plenty of reason to fear falling off the ladder at this house.  Our yard is sloped to the side.  Because of that, no matter where I put the ladder (which my kids named Mr. Dangerous) it will tip to the side.  By the time I had all the brackets screwed in and the boxes hung for the second story windows I had broken into a cold sweat.  I got no help or sympathy from my husband with this task.  I could have taken offense, but at the time he had strapped himself to and climbed about sixty feet up our fir trees to limb them with the chain saw.

It finally got warm enough in these parts to plant the boxes.  Our house faces North so I had to find shade loving plants.  Lowe’s did not have a very big selection for shade.  As pretty as moss is, it’s not what I was wanting.  So I got what looked pretty and hoped for the best.  I picked out geraniums, petunias, marigolds, larkspur and some other vine thing that I didn’t think to look at the name of.  I used a combo of Miracle Grow and an off brand potting soil and mixed in water retaining beads.  Then after they were planted I spoke blessings over them to be fruitful and multiply.  Sun loving plants planted in the shade need all the blessings they can get.  They do get about two hours of sun in the evenings.

The flower bed in front of the big window was rather empty.  There are numerous flower beds on our property that are stuffed full of plants, but not this one.  I couldn’t figure out why it had been so neglected.  Then I remembered.  There must have been a sale on juniper bushes at some point because it’s hard to look anywhere on our property without seeing one.  I do not like junipers.  They smell like cat pee.  So shortly after we moved in we ripped it out along with one that you would brush up against while using the walk way.  Mystery solved.

I wanted this flower bed to be full of plants.  I thought about what I wanted in there and how I would arrange them.  Then reality struck when I looked into the prices.  So I went shopping in my own yard.  Remember I mentioned the stuffed flower beds elsewhere on the property?  I dug up a hydrangea from the back, a variegated leafed bush from closer to the road, and three hostas from the side bed.  You can’t even tell that they are missing from their original spots and this bed got filled for free!

I had saved most of my packing paper from our move and laid it in bed as a weed block.  I read that it works and wanted to give it a try.  We shall see.

I then hooked up the trailer and headed to The Bark Store.  Any guesses as to what I bought there?  Yes, bark!  To get enough mulch from the hardware store would have taken many many bags and over a hundred dollars.  I got enough to do this flower bed and most of another for just $25.

Somewhere along the way I painted the door Quite Red.  If you can’t tell by the name, it’s quite red, like crayon red.  I love it.  It started out a brownish red like the pumice or lava rocks people put in flower beds.  It was not the most welcoming color for a front door.

I also used a pressure washer to clean up the walkways.  I’m not sure if they have ever been cleaned in the 45 years this house has been around.

It was a dirty job, but if you love what your doing it’s not really work.

So here it is.  It took a long time, but with the addition of simple builds, paint and plants it has come a long way.  It’s not a farm house with a porch or a cottage with a picket fence, but it does make me smile.

So how are those window boxes looking, you may ask?  They are doing just fine on the North side.

 

Now for the side by side before and after.

 

 

 

 

 

Hmm. That front door looks like it needs a wreath or something.  I’ll have to think about that and let you know what I come up with.