Icicles

The winter storms just keep coming!

I looked out the window the other day and saw this...

HUGE icicles hanging from the front gutters of the house.

I'd guess they were 3-5 feet long!

They're pretty, but surely not good for the gutters- or the front porch roof if they fall!

Mike took a broom stick, opened the 2nd floor windows & knocked them all down.

I do wish I got a photo of the front of the house (from the outside) with them!

But it was cold... I don't like the cold... at all!

But with the rate of snow & ice that's been coming down this week, I may have another chance soon!

Then & Now #2

There are so many changes that have taken place since we moved in.  Some of them I completely forgot about until looking at the old photos from when we had the home inspection before we moved in.

Here's a picture of more fencing around the garage. You can see it on the left side of this photo taken from the front porch, the weekend we moved in... That little fence was just to keep deer out and was very easy to remove.  It's a good sun spot- so we put my picking garden here.

The other thing missing is the pretty tree in the field.  That came down during Hurricane Sandy.  I'm very sad about that.

This probably isn't the best comparison, since the top photo was taken in April, and the bottom in July.  It does point out that the forsythia bush is due for a trim!

Front Porch Fix- Part 1

Looking at the following photos, do you notice what's missing?  

(And I don't mean the greenery, or the seasonal decorations)

Some of the lattice work that covers beneath the porch was broken and/or rotting.  

Close up of one of the broken spots

This weekend Mike took them all down to fix them!

The first step was removing the four sections of the lattice.

While we had the lattice off, we took a good look under there.

Here's a photo...

I find it odd that the stone work that was visible wasn't just a pillar.

There are four mini walls that extend all the way back to the house (perpendicular).  

And there are basement windows under there...

I wonder if the front of the house didn't look completely different at one time-  

Why would they have put windows to the basement, just to have them covered up by the porch?  

Maybe there was no front porch?  

I wish I could find a REALLY old photo of the house...

Anyway, back to the porch... while the lattice was down, Mike re-graded the front flower beds, so that rain water won't run under the porch (and into the basement).

Next step...
Mike was able to salvage some of the lattice, but all the frames needed to be rebuilt, since they had been put together with ring shank nails that couldn't be removed without damaging them.  Plus, the originals weren't made of pressure treated wood, which we want to use since it's so close to the ground.

Thank goodness Mike now has electric in the workshop, and was able to do all of the building in there (especially since it was quite windy out last weekend!)

Rebuilding the frames

So, we're about halfway done... (left side of porch still needs to be finished)

Next we have to re-paint them, but it's too cold now.  

We added that to the list for spring!

We have another porch item on the list for the spring as well... hint: it's looking up!

Stone Wall- needs fixing

A couple of weekends ago, a car ran off the road and into the stone post at the corner of our front yard.  Luckily, no one was hurt.  The only injury was to the stone post, and two little bushes that were ripped out by the car...

Insurance is paying for repairs to the post & stone wall.  But it's one more thing to add to the list of things to do!  We've gotten a few estimates and all of the masons said they need to wait until the spring to complete the work.

We may take this opportunity to extend the wall down the side a little (just a couple of feet), so that it makes a nicer flower bed for the corner.  The masons said that big pile of rocks in the backyard will match the rest of the wall perfectly (we've already used some of them for the backyard flower bed).  But first we want to check with the town that we don't need additional permits/approval to extend it.

Spot the Differences?

What a difference a couple of weeks can make!

Here's a picture of the front of the house, taken a few weeks ago...

 And another taken last week... can you spot the differences?

There are a couple that should be easy, since we've already posted about them...
1- Fence is now green.  See how well it blends on the left side?  It also helps that the bushes now have their leaves.
2- Mailbox post is also green.  Minor, but looks much cleaner now.

The next few we hadn't mentioned yet...
3- The azaleas in front are now blooming (we can't take any credit for that one!
Just want to say "Yay, Spring!")
4- The Flag!

This is a 13-star flag, which would have flown at our house in it's early years!
(The house was built in either 1760 or 1790, we're still researching that!)

On June 14th, 1777, this design became the first official US Flag. It remained the official flag until 1795, when the 15 star flag was adopted (after Vermont & Kentucky became states).

My parents gave it to us as an anniversary gift this year.

Mailbox Post

It was looking a little icky... so while we had the stain out to do the backyard fence, we also stained the mailbox post.

BEFORE

BEFORE- Close up of the ugly!

AFTER

I didn't want the post to stand out- I think the dark green stain helps it blend better, yet still look fresh & clean.

The new flowers in the hanging iron basket also helped clean it up quite a bit.  (I had planned to put evergreen branches & holly berries in there for the Christmas season, but never got around to it... oops!  I'm embarrassed that it looked this bad for so long!)

This morning I forgot to take a photo from across the street, showing the whole house behind it... I will put that on my to-do list and upload it soon.

The backyard fence is also done, so photos of that coming soon!

A New Look in the Front

The front shrubs were growing like crazy. 

Since we live on a corner property, we need to keep the front shrubs trimmed to no larger than 2.5 feet high (so as not to obstruct a driver's view of the cross street).  We could see that they were going to be a lot of mainenance... plus we didn't really like the way they overshadowed & downplayed the pretty stone wall. 

So, Mike decided they had to go, and out came the tractor.  There had to be at least 40 of them!  Some will be replanted along the (soon-to-be) back fence.  Others, like the bunch with the big bee's nest in it, were not so lucky.  We left some of the ivy- because it looks really pretty with the stone wall, but had to thin it out to make room for some new plants.

Once the shrubs & excess ivy were cleared out of the way, Mike had to raise the dirt level to the top of the front wall, so that our new plants would be seen from the street, and not just from our  front porch.  More tractor work!

We spaced out the newly purchase plants:

Dwarf Holly Bushes- so there would always be green, and a touch of red from the berries

Sherwood Dwarf Abelia- an evergreen, with white summer flowers & leaves that turn purple-ish in winter.

Mums- for a splash of fall color

Tulip, Daffodil, and Crocus bulbs- for spring color

And finally, we added mulch.



Before

Along the side of the front yard, where the steps come up from the driveway, we did some more work.  



There were a bunch of little slates at the bottom of the steps that didn't really go.  We removed them & instead made a landing at the bottom of the steps out of a big slab of slate that we found under a bush in the back flowerbed.

The hostas on each side of the steps were getting huge & taking over the entryway.  So we defined a new flowerbed to the right &built a matching rock boarder.  We planted them here for now but will  move them into permanent spots next spring.

The deer are certainly enjoying them as evidenced in the "after" photo...

After

In place of the hostas, I planted daffodil bulbs (my fav) on each side of the bottom slate.  I think will provide a nice pop of color against the gray brick.

It's looking a bit bare,  but should start looking better once the grass seed starts growing where the tractor wore a path. 



And now that the hard-scape is done, it'll fill in & look really natural next season.

The best part about working in the front yard was all the people that stopped to chat as we were working.  In addition to meeting several of our neighbors, a couple of folks thanked Mike for pulling out the shrubs & another asked if we would consider boarding his horse in our barn (hmm... gotta think about that one!)