Green Front Door & Landscape "Plan"

My inspiration for our (going to be, hopefully today!) new green front door. I snapped this picture last summer while out shopping yard sales with my girls. They colors on their home are almost identical to ours (except for their beautiful brick walk way and porch, I am SO jealous) so I knew this would work for us. And did I mention I LOVE green? I love green. A lot. I mean really, who doesn't love green? Green is awesome.

This is my landscape "plan" or actually just a sad little drawing of most of the things I'd eventually like to accomplish with our front yard and driveway. Right now we pretty much have a gravel parking lot for a front yard, not so pretty. If you're wondering where our house is, it's at the bottom. This is a view from the front porch looking out.

And here is a view of the front of the house from the driveway. I am clearly NOT an artist so ignore my mad drawing skills and focus on the plan. Notice I don't even have any bushes or plantings along the front of the house? That would be because I have NO idea what to pick. I know what I want high and low plantings with room for some annuals but not requiring them in case they aren't in our budget for each season. 

You should know that I am not expecting to get all of this done this year. The work on the driveway requires equipment and money that we don't have right now. So we're going to start with the things that cost less but will make a big improvement and that we have or have access to the tools required to complete the job. First on the list will be painting the front door, filling the baskets on the front porch railings and replacing and painting the bannisters going up the stairs. They have rotted and they look terrible. I'm also going to look for a new knob handle set for the front door. I'm thinking aged bronze to go with the window hardware I'll be installing later this week.

Today I'm going to the paint store and the big blue home improvement store and we'll see what I come up with. That front door will hopefully be getting a coat of green during nap! And hopefully it will be dry by the time all of the 3 year olds come over for play group. 

Happy Monday!

Big Change and Spring Break To-Do's

I hope you're having a great weekend and are enjoying the last little bit of it like I am!

This next week is spring break for us and that means the hubby works constantly while I'm at home with the kids who don't have school or any activities... This could really go either way but I'm hoping it will go the way of good and happy kids and happy and productive Mama. I'm hoping to take advantage of the time we have at home. Since I didn't win the lottery this weekend, I'll be doing the work myself (bummer!).  I have lots of projects planned and high hopes for getting this house in order. 

Here is my list:

Landscape plan for front yard (yay! one thing done!)

Purchase plants/supplies from Lowes (for our house AND the kennel)

Put down crabgrass preventer

Weed flower beds

Put down Preen (or alternative)

Install plants (for our house AND the kennel)

Purchase mulch

Install mulch

Order/replace filler for window baskets 

Replace top rails on front porch

Paint/seal top rails on front porch

Paint front door green (woohoo!)

Remove ugly storm door

Purchase and replace hardware on front door (no more brass!)

Paint pots with house number for front porch (been meaning to do this for 2 years...)

Purchase hardware for dining room curtains

Purchase document print fabric similar to this

Make dining room curtains

Install hardware and curtains 

Drywall backsplash in kitchen (if we can't find someone willing to do it, so far it's looking like me)

Paint and stencil backsplash in kitchen

Install shelves over sink

Install pendant light over sink

Host play group on Monday afternoon

Take girls to dentist on Tuesday morning (super fun right?)

Do laundry and put away all of their clothes in drawers (not just in baskets thrown in closet to be then thrown on the floor...)

Play date with cousins on Wednesday afternoon (yay!)

Workout Wednesday night

Hosting Easter cookout Sunday afternoon

And somewhere in there I guess I'll need to be cooking/preparing for that cookout? We'll see what actually ends up getting done this week. 

And while I'm busy doing all of that, Blogelina will be busy transferring my blog over to WordPress and setting up my official new fancy site. As far as I know it's all supposed to be seamless and you won't have to make any changes or re-sign up for email delivery or anything. Things may look a little weird in the meantime but hopefully only for a few days. Once it's all set up hopefully I'll have some of these things crossed off of my list and some fun pictures to show you.

Happy Spring break!