Project Curb Appeal: Removing Overgrown Bushes

In our last curb appeal post, we completed a super easy mailbox makeover. Today's project required a lot more manual labor.

Yet again, the hubs took on this project all by himself. He's my hero. Seriously.

Here's what we were working with when we moved in:

Kind dreary in winter, huh?

It's a little less dreary in the summer. And definitely more lively with some adorable kids:

We just were not feeling those giant bushes. So, we decided to rip them out and replace them with some azaleas and other perennials.

The first step in this process was to remove the bushes. Justin took his sawzall to the bushes...

And yuck, things look pretty messy here. Then came digging out the roots which proved to be even more difficult. Justin spent almost a whole day digging those root balls out with a shovel.

But of course Justin got it done and planted new baby azaleas and begonias. We have a little bit of an adorable bunny issue in the neighborhood, so I did a little research and found that begonias are supposedly bunny resistant. We will see!

Awww, so pretty! Thank you to my wonderful husband for all of his hard work.

Now, to address those brown colored shutters and trim :) 

Tell me, what recent curb appeal projects have you been up to?

Project Curb Appeal: Easy Mailbox Makeover

The vacation (or staycation) is over. A whole week of relaxation and fun is over and I'm feeling a little grumpy to be back at work this week.

I had all of these plans to be productive and get a lot done last week, including writing a few blog posts, but it just didn't happen. You know what they say about "best laid plans" and all... So here I am today with a project that my husband completed last week during our staycation!

As I outlined in this post, I had hoped to tackle our Curb Appeal. We didn't get everything done that I had hoped to achieve, but we at least got a few outdoor projects checked off the to do list. The first of those projects to improve our home's curb appeal was to improve our mailbox.

It just looked kind of sad, and droopy, and worn.

Now, this will honestly be a short post, there's not much to this simple project. And it didn't cost much either.

First, we removed the post topper. Then, we simply painted the post with a white interior paint that we already had on hand. The mailbox got a quick spray with our favorite Rustoleum oil rubbed bronze spray paint...

Then the flag got hit with red spray paint.

Voila.

Beautiful!

Okay, so maybe it could use a few flowers or something planted around the base, but you have to admit it's quite an improvement! Tell me, what curb appeal projects have you been up to?

Staycation Plans: Learning to Just Relax at Home

I am currently counting down the hours until my vacation from work. I mean, let's be honest, no mom ever gets a real vacation, but few days off from commuting and office work I am definitely looking forward to. I have decided to take the whole week surrounding the Fourth of July off this year. And what are our plans you ask? Staycation!

We'd like to take the time just to relax. We rarely get even a weekend where we aren't running around like crazy people prepping/cleaning for guests or traveling out of town. We finally just get to chill.

So, I got to thinking, what fun things can we plan to cross of our Summer Bucket List? Surely an outing to hike is in order. Easy peasy. What about a trip to the neighborhood pool for swimming. Maybe!

Then I got to thinking about all I could accomplish around the house in a week. Deep cleaning. Putting away clean laundry where it's supposed to go. Tackling more of the girls room. Improving our curb appeal. Organizing toys in the basement/playroom.

I asked my husband, Justin, what he wanted to accomplish next week and he just shrugged. "Go for a hike?" he said. I responded with, "How about we tackle a few projects around the house, too? Maybe paint Oaken's room and work on curb appeal? Those can be our two goals for the week."

And so, I started making a list, trying to determine the details of the aforementioned goals.  Before I knew it, my list looked like this:

Curb Appeal
- rip out bushes
- paint shutters
- power wash siding
- paint trim
- paint door inside and out
- new light
- new numbers
- plant azaleas, hostas and perennials

Oaken's Room
- paint
- Lego organization

Basement
- organize sewing stuff
- organize toys

Master
- bed skirt and headboard
- stripes or grid moulding?
- window and closet trim
- refinish nightstands?
- paint closet?

Kitchen
- big b&w frames
- banquette
- build table

Other
- sew something
- go hiking/camping
- put away all clothes
- post stuff to Craigslist
- get Cullen's 12m clothes out

Half Bath
- ORB hinges
- paint trim work
- make artwork

I would have kept going too, wanting to renovate the upstairs bathrooms and laundry room. I mean, I included building a new dining room table on that list for Pete's sake. And that was me trying to be conservative! What happened to a relaxing week?

I love working on projects around the house. But I also need to remember the fact that this is supposed to be vacation. It might be a staycation, but it is still an opportunity to spend some quality time with my husband and kids.

In an effort to actually relax, I'm going to try some of the following tips.

Tips for enjoying your staycation:

1. Spend some time cleaning. It's vacation and I want to relax, why would I clean? If you are anything like me, a disorganized, dirty house can drive you nuts. Devote some time (a day? two hours?) to cleaning the house and getting organized. This can help you to actually relax and enjoy the rest of your staycation by creating a more restful environment. It's going to be your vacation lodging for the duration of your staycation, make it feel that way! Then try not to spend anymore time on chores than what you originally planned/allotted besides maybe just some general pick up, tidying or dishes.

2. Get out of the house. Just because this is a staycation doesn't mean that you have to be stuck at home. Pick some activities that your family will enjoy together like swimming, hiking, fishing, visiting a museum, going to the movies, etc. Create an itinerary if you want, or just play it by ear.

3. Set a reasonable project goal. This applies to you DIYers. A staycation can provide a great opportunity to get some things checked off that big ol' to do list around the house, so set some resonable goals, and stick to them. Don't try to bite off more than you can chew. Maybe pick projects that the kids can help out with as well to keep them involved.

4. Plan some down time. No vacation is complete without some relaxation time. So, if you have to, schedule it. Grab a glass of wine, or a beer for yourself, make the kids sundaes and/or popcorn and have a movie night!


5. Have fun! And don't over do it. Pushing yourself to the point of exhaustion can make everyone grumpy and that's no fun. Just remember, it's technically a vacation, and it's supposed to be enjoyable. Stop yourself if you get frustrated, tired or grumpy and switch gears. Be flexible and remind yourself to have fun if need be!

Tell me, how do you manage the work/home life balance? How do you ever turn off your brain from needing to get organized, clean the house, etc, and just relax? It's a constant battle for me and I would love to hear your advice!!

Girls' Shared Bedroom: Progress Continues

Painting the girls' bedroom made the biggest impact in the space. I feel like everything from here on out is just a matter of adding the finishing touches.

In our initial mood board post for this room, I mentioned that I had wanted to install a picture ledge around the room in order to divide the two wall paint colors. When I really got to thinking about it, I could just imagine the girls trying to hang off of it with their full body weight and managing to tear it off the wall. Bye, bye hard work. Then, I thought the simple color division would do just fine.

Until this happened...

Please excuse the flash orb...

Do you see the little blue line? I guess the paint was still a bit tacky when we blue chalk lined the room to help us tape straight lines for the two-toned paint effect.

So, we decided that we would go ahead and add a piece of moulding after all. We're still forgoing the picture ledge idea, though. I think it will add a subtle touch of architectural interest to the room. Maybe the blue line incident was meant to happen so that we'd be forced to take the easy fix route? (Easy for me, not so much for Justin who made the cuts and installed the moulding while home alone with 4 kids.)

This is the stage we are at right now. The moulding still needs caulked and painted but least we're still making progress! Slowly but surely...

Tell me, what mistakes have you found just easier to cover up?

Family Summer Bucket List

It's officially summer. It's hot and sticky and the Fourth of July is literally right around the corner. Wowzers.

Which brings us to the question of the [every] day: What to do with the kids?

Now, granted, my husband is the lucky one who watches the kids during the day while I'm at work. Sometimes, I think about how lucky is that he gets to spend all that time with them while they are awake. Sometimes, I think must be the most patient person in the world, because if I were at home with them all day, I would probably have no hair hair. You know, because I'd end up pulling it all out. Because kids can.make.you.go.crazy. I digress...

This is the first summer that Justin is home with four kids. Since baby Cullen was born in October, none of the kids have been home for more than a day or so without both parents home with them.

Our kids are 7 ,5 ,4, and 8 months; and more often than not, they need some sort of direction on what to do for entertainment. If it were up to Oaken (7), everyone would play Mario Kart on the Wii all day. Including the baby. We needed to come up with fun things for them to do this summer that we could do not only as a family, but things that my husband could easily do with them during the week as well. I recently read this post from Me Plus Three...Today, and was inspired to come up with our own Summer Bucket List. In fact, Skylar even came home with her own list that she had made in school. Um, what better way to figure out what your kids would like to do then ask them?

Eat Fruit | Play Outside | Go Swimming | Go to Ocean City | Go Ride Bikes | Go to Beach | Make Fruit Salad | Drink Water

Don't five year olds say the cutest things? To follow Skylar's lead, each additional member of the family (except Cullen, sorry baby) tried to come up with at least 8 things that they wanted to do this summer.

I know, I know, my list is slightly ridiculous. Can you tell based on Clara's list that she loves her My Little Ponies?

But as a family, we came up with this:

There were definitely common threads among everyone's lists, so we will try to make those a priority. If we're able to get through these and need additional ideas, we will be sure to refer back to everyone's individual lists for activities.

Tell me, what are your summer plans? Has anyone else developed a Summer Bucket List?