Landscaping Phase I

Maggie and I are taking advantage of our second summer in our wonderful home address landscaping. A huge *thank you* to the previous owners for giving us an excellent house. We decided to tweak a thing here or there... The majority of the more intense projects were completed by Landscape Designs, and they were great to work with and did an excellent job. Thank you to all our family, friends, and neighbors for physical labor, helpful insight and references, and tolerating the noisy work!

The old front breezeway area was all concrete, and it had settled down to the point where rain water wasn't cooperating, so we decided to do something about it.

Note: this isn't the most flattering picture. I promise it looked better than this before... and now it looks even better!

They weren't messing around

I have never been more terrified and anxious than when they were taking a gigantic saw to attack our concrete. And to think that they managed to make a precise arc with this beast...

Pavers coming together quite nicely

Quincy fulfilling his role as official site supervisor during the paver installation. Quincy gave them an A+

Designing the new planting beds.

Added new planting beds to the west side of the house. Phase II will bring more plants here, and Phase III next summer should bring us a patio in this area off the back of the breezeway.

We transplanted our strawberries from an old brick planter that was trapping water and was in a state of disrepair. We ended up finding a great deal on a half whiskey barrel for our new planter.

This striking planting bed was already here for us, but we placed some mulch in it.

Both downspouts on the east side of the house now go into a drain tile that disperses in the front yard. We are VERY happy with this after this past rainy period.

It was amazing how quickly they took the old concrete out. We had them place rebar within the thicker new concrete to try to battle the tree roots.

It was amazing how quickly they took the old concrete out. We had them place rebar within the thicker new concrete to try to battle the tree roots.

15 minutes later, our driveway is in the road

Again, supervising the work

Quincy keeping the riff-raff from putting handprints in his fresh concrete

Street view of the new driveway without gigantic bumps. The sidewalk and approach will also be replaced in the coming weeks after the permits are obtained.

Also, with the help from family, we cleaned up the shutters and painted them a great "calming depths" blue-green color. I think it makes the house look very sharp!

New driveway interfaces with old, soil graded away from house, mulch placed, downspout into the drain tile, and super-hostas split up into something more manageable.

Maggie and I love the final paver walkway to the breezeway.

Notice how incredible of a job they did cutting the concrete with a smooth arc.

Downspout now drains into a drain tile that disperses in the front yard.

Next phase (this fall) will include getting some greenery in there...

-Brad