Writing an updated post about our big landscaping project has been on my to-do list for several weeks (months) but hey, life is busy and I rarely make it to the bottom of a list. I didn’t think I would be posting anything today but when I saw that the Daily Prompt was Progress I realized I was out of excuses. Here is a look at what we’ve been working on this fall.
I know my last project post said we were postponing painting until the end of September due to weather but our surprise stretch of heavy rain was followed by weeks of unusually heavy fog and as a result we couldn’t finish painting until early December. I couldn’t believe how much moss grew on our roof in just one week. The short days and cold temperatures left a very small work window in each day but Hans kept going as long as he could and I’m happy to say most of the body of the house is a clean, fresh gray and our newly trimmed windows are sparkling white. Our front and back door will soon be a beautiful navy blue and the porch is complete with a new set of stairs connecting to the driveway.
Our drafty old car port is now officially a garage with insulated walls, garage doors on the front and double sets of French doors on the back opening to a patio. We still need to paint the interior walls, hang shelving and apply frosted panels to the glass for security but it feels great to have a covered place to park again and somewhere to securely store all of the outdoor tools.
Most of the landscaping is finished in the front and you can see John’s favorite little sub-alpine fir-tree at the top of the pictures above. This tree was harvested by permit in the Cascade Mountains and will slowly grow to a relatively small 20 feet. It’s planted off the front corner of our new porch to add a foundation point and a little screening from the street. We spent another very wet Saturday driving from nursery to nursery picking out the last of our plants and one October weekend was the time to get the fir, 12 compact laurels for our new hedge and several flats of heather, bergenia, dwarf mugo pines and viburnum. We selected winter, spring and summer blooming varieties in hopes of some year-round color and I can’t wait to see the full effect as everything settles in and starts to grow.
The side yard was an unplanned project but when our excavator said he could clear the brush and boulders so we could access the back yard without going through the garage we said “ok”. We were able to reuse the huge granite boulders in the front yard as focal points but we didn’t have time to figure out a permanent landscaping solution for the newly cleared side of the house. As a temporary fix I ordered a few yards of crushed rock to spread along the side of the house and under the front porch for the winter. I though sod was heavy and now I know 8 yards of crushed rock is heavy too, especially after a rainstorm. We have a little more to shovel but the mini-mountain is almost gone…
We have a good list of details to finish in the spring when the weather warms and a winter worksheet that includes more lighting and new door hardware but I am really happy with our progress so far!
If you are new to Northwest Frame of Mind and want to follow this project from the beginning please take a look at my earlier posts in the series:
The First Days Of Our Landscaping Project
Our Landscaping Project: Week Two
Our Landscaping Project: Week Three
Northwest Frame of Mind 