Enjoying the warm weather

Sorry you haven't heard much from me, I've been out side enjoying this nice weather, it's like I live outside now. No new projects at them moment but, I did order two custom 20" steal planters from Joseph Papendick, one for each side of the garage door.

The yellow sculpture pictured above is also made by him.

It's being poured! Updated*

I can't believe my husband and I ever thought of doing this ourselves, pouring cement is one tough job! Now that I see the professionals doing this, I'm glad I get to sit back and watch.

The cement will be dry in 2 or 3 hours but it still needs to be left alone for a week. I will definitely need to rope off that area, I can so see my mailman hopping up those things.

The cement guys are still outside doing the finishing touches, I'll take more images when they are done.

*It's done!

I'm giddy!

Wednesday my husband and I cut wire mesh for the circle forms in preparation for the cement delivery that is getting here in about 10 hours. It felt like it was never going to get done and I'm giddy just thinking about skipping on my circles! I'll keep you updated on the progress.

Finally!

Image found on junk culture shop

It's finally going to happen! The circle forms are done for our walkway and we are going to get someone to pour and finish the circles in about a week. It's going to take about 180 sq ft of cement to fill all the circles! We got quoted $800, I wish it was cheaper but I'm so sick of looking at empty circles that I just don't care anymore. I hope it comes out looking fantastic!

Send me a landscaping angel!

Al and I have been slowly working on the front yard and walkway. I mentioned a few weeks ago that we had started to lay down the forms for the concrete stepping stones, and we have about half of them up already. The wacky wood is working out great, but getting everything in the ground has been tricky, since there's a massive rock the size of a van directly under the walkway! We've had to, um, get a little creative with some of our forms...

We're slowly getting there, though. I can't wait until they're done!

Walkway

No I didn't keep you out of the loop, I just haven't done a thing with my front yard. We finally decided on cement circles, but how to make the forms was another roadblock. We decided to get quotes from contractors but we weren't to happy with paying $2000 to get it finished. Then finally my husband found something called wacky wood, which is a bending plywood. I will keep you all updated on our progress.

It's here!

I love it so much! It looks just as I imagined it. My next steps are to paint the inside of the garage a bright white and get up some peg board. Currently all of my husband's tools are in the guest room; I'll be so happy to get that room back!

Front yard: I need to mix some peat moss and lime into the dirt to have some healthy grass growing.
Walkway: We have decided to put in 20" square cement stones for the front walkway. We still need to shop around for supplies.

Front yard

Now that the ground is thawing I've been spending my afternoons outside moving dirt around and my husband has been preparing the carport for the new garage door. Also we are starting to rethink the design for the walkway. Once the garage door is in place the front door will be the only entrance to visitors and that will need to be shoveled out in the winter. I'd like more of a flat surface than the cement circles with stones we were originally planning. I'm thinking of redesigning the walkway to have shapes like these with moss planted in the negative parts like this. We are still very undecided...



It still looks like a mess but hopefully in the weeks to come the walkway will be done and we will have a patch of grass where that dirt is.

I wish it was spring already...

I keep remembering the great time I had last summer removing all the old bushes and trees from the front of my home. I forgot how much fun it was to stick your hands in dirt. I just bought a vintage sunset book on Ebay and it has some good ideas for mid-century landscaping. I hope spring comes early this year!

Oh no...

We started digging out the dirt to put in the new walkway.
For good drainage we would need to dig around 8 inches deep to put in sand and pebbles. We dug down about 6 inches and we hit the original walkway that was buried up long ago. it's broken and falling apart so we will have to remove it.... I would rather work over it but my husband wants to do everything the right way.

An onion in the ointment

I've been hard at work in the front. I've removed all the old bushes and now I've been evening out the soil. I had some great plans, but a well cap is getting in the way. Why, oh why did they have to put it there?! :(. If we work around it, it skews the angle and looks a bit weird, but we are still going to try it.

*Check out the new flickr group I made! It's called modern landscaping

*Update: My husband and I finally came up with a design we like. I hope it turns out awesome!

Modern Landscaping

I've had a hard time finding examples of modern landscaping. I made a quick sketch of what I think would look nice in the front of my new house, but I'm still undecided. In the meantime, I've been working hard pulling out all the stuff I don't want.

I got inspired by these images of a front home makeover on Apartment Therapy. They removed all the old big bushes and replaced them with smaller ones. And I love the use of stone. Check out more images of this home on Flickr. The inside is even nicer!