House Work: Stripped

Minh and I (but mostly Minh) have been hard at work around the house. I’m amazed at how much work there is to do around the house. It’s not that the house is in a huge state of disarray.. it’s just that there is so much that we want to do to fix it up (paint, new kitchen, landscaping, etc…) on top of usually up-keep of the house (sweeping, vacuuming, steaming the floor, laundry, making sure we don’t create clutter, etc…). It always seems to take longer than we anticipate, and things pile up, and we never seem to get as much done as we want to before the weekend is up. ::le sigh::

One clear sign of progress that I can share, though, is the front yard. This is what the front of our house looked like when we first moved in:

Front of the House - BEFORE (a.k.a. The Jungle)

The three palm trees on the side hadn’t been trimmed in YEARS. They were being used as housing for two owls (so our neighbor across the street said) and were presenting a huge fire hazard. The large tree by the front door was almost as tall as the house itself, and the branches were starting to damage the roof. The “flowers” and lavender bushes in the front were not maintained for a long time, and the dirt underneath had a soggy, swampy feel to them. The tree in the front corner (what Minh called “the alien” tree) had completely killed off the grass in that area of the lawn. The smaller palm tree next to it was just bothersome. Everything was overgrown, roots all over the place, and just ugly looking.

And.. after months of hacking away at trees and bushes (both in the front, in the back, and on the side of the house), and after hiring a company to trim up the palm trees.. we have this:

Front of the House - AFTER (a.k.a. Striped Bare)

It looks so… naked! Of course, this isn’t how we’re going to leave it, but it’s at least a clean slate to start planting what I want out front. Right now, I’m thinking berries (blueberries, blackberries, rasberries, currants), lavender, hydrangeas, and saffron crocuses. Maybe some daffodils, lilies, ranunculus, and other colorful spring flowers.. we’ll see.