Skipping Rocks: Outside Project #3: The Front Island

We have issues. Once Hubby and I have a project in mind, we can't help but push forward and get it completed. We always have good intentions to pace ourselves and space it out over time, but in the end, we determine what we want to and go for it. It's been that way with many projects with the house.

So it shouldn't surprise us that when we started talking about remodeling the outside of our house this year, that we would take it on in full force. Project #1: The Garden, was supposed to be planted in a week's time and ended up being installed by Hubby in 2 days during CB's nap time. Project #2: The Rock Garden, was originally Project #5 on our list, but we started weeding one afternoon and couldn't stop.

So now we were ready for Project #3: The Front Island. This landscaping monstrosity had its moments of beauty throughout the Spring, but because of how the previous owners had set it up, it looked horrible during the winter and crazy-disorganized during the summer months. It was high maintenance. I don't do high maintenance and I definitely need order and structure, even in my yard. So we started planning...

But wait... we couldn't start looking at the outside of the house, without talking about how horrible the exterior house siding looked. So we called up three painters to get bids last week. It took 3 days to collect bids, we negotiated with the highest bidder, who had the longest warranty, got a fair price and within a week of contacting the painters, we had the house painted. Did I mention we have issues?

Okay, now we can get back to Project #3.... this island needed serious help. It sees full sun, is the first thing people see at our house, and needed professional help on a limited budget. So off to a local nursery we went to see if they had anything unique that would spark some ideas. I'm so thankful we went, because for no extra charge, they had a designer walk through the nursery with us to help us map out our front island. Was the nursery a little more expensive? Yes, but not by much with their July 4th specials. And it was totally worth the recommendations, since as you know, I don't have a green thumb and we could use all the advice we could get.

CB helping with purchasing woodchips

Being true to our personality, we spent the next day ripping up the landscaping in the front island and installing the new plants. So now we are done with Projects #3, plus have new paint, a new porch light and house numbers and we only have one more project to go - Operation: Animal Plants (P.S. I'll explain soon.)