When we bought this lovely little home, we inherited an insanely rundown property. As much as the hubby wanted to tackle the landscaping as soon as we had the keys in our hands, I made him wait. I wanted the inside of this crazy house in a mangeable state before he started doing work outside. We improved our backyard quite a bit but the front has been looking pretty cruddy. Now that hurricane season is approaching again, it is time to get the trees under control and plant new landscaping before it gets too hot.
This is what it looked like when we moved in. 
We had our wild orchid tree and the living oak trimmed down a bit to help avoid any major damage to the house in the event of a hurricane. We did not do this ourselves. Big trees and short, klutzy homeowners would not end well. We know our limitations.
Painting the exterior has been pushed to the wayside a bit but as you can see, the brick is no longer brick colored! We have that crazy house that is painted in various stages. I’m sure our neighbors love us right now 😉 Please don’t judge the half painted house – I’m just keeping it real.
Hopefully be able to show you our completely stripped down front lawn after this weekend. We will start to slowly plant new stuff in the coming weeks and I will try to keep track of that progress….as slow as it may go. I know our neighbors are excited that they will no longer be living next to “that house” on the block. And to be honest, I am excited to no longer be living in it!
PS – Thank you for your support on my goals for this blog. All the comments meant a lot to me. 
it is going to be a lot of work, but just think a few years from now when things you plant now are grown up a bit, and you can look back on these pictures and say “wow! look what we did!”
Your house looks fab, what a difference painting the brick makes!
I had to restrain my husband as well, after our initial clear of the junk in the garden he was so keen to keep going but I convinced him to wait until easter! Luckily we are in Scotland so there is no warm weather drawing us outside!
Alison
x
Love the painted brick! Want to paint mine too but Hubby and family are against it. Take it slow and easy and it will all look FAB! Love your blog and your “realness.”
Rachael
Looks like a big job, but those efforts always pay off big time as well. Good luck!
All that tree trimming made a big difference. I can’t wait to see it with all the old plants removed.
Traci
You’ve made so much progress already! And I’m sure moving those bushes and small trees will make an even great difference to what you’ve already done! Fantastic job!
I’m so impressed with your patience. And jealous, too 🙂 I am one of those people that wants to do everything nownownow, no waiting, just gogogo…drives the hubs crazy. I wish I could be more practical and patient; I tend to like the results better when I am! Keep it up 🙂
Wow, you guys are going to go gangbusters on that front lawn and it’s going to be awesome! I love landscaping, something about growing things is exciting. You’ve already done a lot, I’m sure your neighbors are happy to have people who care for their home living next to them. Looking forward to seeing your progress! Have fun this weekend. 🙂
haha I have “that house” too. I’m hoping to get some work in soon but trees are expensive (to take down and plant). I’m sure it will look great when it is done though!
It’s already looking better! You’ve done a lot of the hard work already.I wish my hubby knew his limitations. He thinks he’s going to cut down our trees himself. I feel sick every time he talks about it!