Little & Latest

Landscape Sunday 10 brought the spreading of our fourth (or maybe fifth) dump truck of mulch for the backyard, among other things:

 

You can see where this is going so I'll spare everyone more of the same — but suffice it to say that we were beyond dirty when done. I'm glad this is the last of the mulch for a while!

Mike's leg!

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In more fun news, here are some of my favorite new additions to the house:

Even though we are not yet to the screen porch, I decided on the dining set. We went with a Eucalyptus table and two benches from West Elm, and then two lime green Verner Panton chairs (limited edition color that we almost lost out on!) for accents. 

Originally I thought I wanted 4 Panton chairs (and only 1 bench) but I decided it would have been lime overkill. 

Loving how this turned out! The floor will get painted a dark carbon gray, and
a seating area will be added as well on the remainder of the porch (not shown)

We've been adding a couple of trees a week in the yard but this is our new favorite – a "walking stick" tree. Love how it looks like a piece of sculpture!

The new backdoors are finally in, and stained the same color as the front door on the outsides. The inside of the den is painted the color of the room (a light gray):

Door off the den

The most fun part of the door off the den was getting to place this birch wood mat which
we'd bought in Blowing Rock over a year ago— with no idea where we'd use it at the time

And here's the door off the kitchen, which was stained the same color as the cabinets

Given the upcoming holiday I thought it was fun to show the
photograph we hung on the wall here — "4th of July"  by Ellen Faircloth McCall
(a talented photographer that I also happened to go to grade school with!)

Close up...

Happy 4th to everyone! 

Landscape Saturday 7-8 (Maybe 9 too, I lost count!)

Even though I'm So.Over.Yardwork.Saturday I just updated the "Then & Now" link and I realized that our backyard used to look like this:

And now it looks like this:

This actually blew my mind. Don't get me wrong, we have been working super-hard back there, but you forget where you started, and it's NICE TO SEE SOME PROOF!


Just for fun, previously the front yard:

Currently the front yard:

:)

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The latest project in the backyard is kind of boring stuff but here are some pics of the LAST messy area of the backyard we are working clearing out before planting. This may not look impressive but this yard was so overgrown I don't even know how to explain. (Well, I guess I do, you saw the top picture.)

BEFORE – look how many vines and weeds are going up the tree, and on the right

NOW – cleared out on the tree, and actually some visibility on the right side

(getting there involved a ladder and a lot of vine-pulling —
these monster vines had just choked out the trees...)

BEFORE – notice all the junk in front

NOW – and how you can now see the stairs (not that they are great stairs or that anything even really
looks good right now -- everything still needs work -- but we are just glad it's clear so we can start over!)

As of now, I think we're pretty much on hold in the backyard until planting season comes back around again this fall and we can continue landscaping. Which is great, because I am 100% certain that my body is officially tapped out on the yard. I have poison ivy on both arms and legs, and to compound that, this is insult to injury (warning - not for queasy stomachs):
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Some sort of bug bite or plant incision - they couldn't even really tell at the doctor but safe to say I went on a lot of meds. This is me lying down on the doctor's table, about to pass out from looking at this gross thing.

Moving on.....

In indoor news, this is for those of you who remember this pink beauty of a bathroom:

We have made some progress in there lately and it now currently looks like this:

Will send more detailed pics once complete, but glad we're moving along.

Hope everyone has a great Father's Day weekend. We are taking a break from the house this weekend to spend some time with Mike's dad and family, and some good friends. Also sending a big huge shout out to my Dad (the one up there in the tree) for all his hard work helping us get to where we are!!

Lots happening on the decorating front in the next few weeks, so check back...

Landscape Saturday 6

First off, cheers to the LAST of our "old" backyard junk being dragged out to the curb! This is what our street curb has looked like, weekly, for a while:

This most recent set was coming from a bigger pile that was almost as tall as
our house and looked like...

...This.  It required being cut down into neat bunches and dragged to the curb every
Wednesday for city pickup...

What I'm saying is, if I never drag another tree trunk to the curb in my life it won't be too soon!

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In other landscape progress, we addressed the really expansive brick wall in front of our house (as you can see from the top pic on this post). The brick is driving me crazy because it doesn't connect to the house at all. You can't paint a brick wall — at least can't paint it well — because it gets so dirty.

And while this would be my dream replacement wall, it just isn't in the budget anytime soon.

We decided the best thing for now is to let small-leafed climbing fig grow to cover the brick wall.

Here's how we started with the fig:

Purchased 9 pots of climbing fig like this...

My dad helped us knock out strategically placed bricks and insert the fig in them.
(Warning: The brick knocking-out part is not as easy as it looks.) 

We then used an auger bit to drill into the soil over the wall and connect the holes.
This is so the water will easily flow down to where the climbing fig is.

We did this in 9 places down the length of our wall.
There is currently not much to see but eventually it will look like this:

If we keep watering :)

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And finally, right before Memorial Day weekend we got a big pile of mulch for the newly cleared backyard:

Almost as tall as our garage doors, this really put a damper on parking in our driveway!

Saturday started at about 8:30 am with us cutting landscape fabric and staking it in the ground.
We got around the whole yard and called it quits around 2 pm — mulch untouched and exhausted.

My dad shows up about 2:30 and unannounced, starts wheeling mulch out onto the fabric.
Not ones to deny the help we went back out again. Ended up getting about 2/3 of the yard covered. 

And the rest to come this weekend... 

We're seeing the light at the end of the backyard tunnel for sure.

Love for Outdoor Living

Happy Memorial Day everyone~

Well, Landscape Saturday  (Landscape long weekend) continued at Norton Road. I will post pics of the progress later but I'm honestly a little tapped out on mulch and grass for today so instead I am posting some inspiration pics for what I hope our outdoor living space will become.

Our next 'big' steps in the yard are to screen in our screen porch and add a platform deck off the back of the house.

Here are some deck pics I love:

Nice low deck with seating area, great lighting pods

Love the built in bench seating

Our deck will be a low modern platform deck like this –
about 1-1.5' off the ground 

Fantastic lighting, again a great built-in bench
makes for an instant lounge section

Like all the grasses and succulent plantings around the deck. 

Reminds me of California.
Super minimal and beautiful.

On our deck I'm thinking of keeping it super minimal as well with some built in deck bench seating and then only:

2 lounge chairs (these from cb2)

And the most modern-fab sunshade ever!
From DesignWithinReach

We might re-think that for entertaining, but I love the idea of keeping it minimal.

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The adjacent screen porch would do the bulk of the entertaining work because I want to have dining for at least 6 out there. Even though this is open-air, I love the feel of this:

Ambience + atmosphere. Great lighting,  love the bench
seating on one side of the table and the cubes on the other.

I've had in my head the mix of something rustic yet Cali-cool like this
Big Sur type Parsons table, with the bench on one side....

Paired with the super contemporary looking shapes of the Vitra Panton chairs

I can't seem to find the Parsons table made for outside (using wood glue) anywhere except DWR, and theirs is too large for my screen porch space. The super clean lines from tabletop to legs are important to a Parsons style, and that's where the others I've seen are falling short. I've probably spent 15-20 hours searching tables with no luck :(

So, the second choice:

Alternate: this Inox metal table if the Parsons doesn't work out.
Kind of disco fab.

Or this table from CB2 is super well priced and seems to be solid steel
which should fare ok outside I think

This contemporary picnic  is also one of the coolest things I've seen in a while

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Thinking farther out past the screen porch and deck, here's the wish list: 

A modern twist on the Adirondack chair in recycled-plastic ...

...right by a great fire pit

Somehow have to incorporate the pavers we love into our yard

...more pavers...

Pavers AND firepit area – love

Nice touch on wood storage for the fire pit

And art:

Would love to work in a water feature-slash-sculpture

Saw these modern colored trellises as well (or you could paint your own) which almost
work as sculpture

Although nothing really beats the real deal, does it?

(Long-term wish list!)

Have a great week...