Curb Appeal Part 2

More updates on all our hard work from over the summer! 

Behold. The fruit...I mean SQUASH of our labor!

• Flower pots are the ones I got for free and spray painted earlier in the summer.
• Mums from Home Depot.
• All squash was harvested from our heirloom seeds. 
• Halloween wreath made using instructions from Martha Stewart's craft book (purchased during a time when Pinterest wasn't even a thing).

We put the most time and effort into our backyard area this year. I am ever so thankful for my sweet husband for building the raised garden beds for me. I think growing a garden is an important way to connect with the earth, and makes for wonderful lessons for children: hard work, chores, cultivation, birds and bees, etc.

Before

After

The biggest change in our backyard was made when we painted our fence. After months of wanting to paint this eyesore, I randomly stopped by Sherwin Williams on my way home from church and picked up some stain. They also happened to have a sprayer available, so I spent the $50 on that rental as well.

I don't think we have ever completed a project that has resulted in such dramatic change. The fence is old, but this breathed incredible life back into it. It took us about 4 hours to finish the project.

Jeff also surprised me this summer by making another area for my herbs. This is closer to the house and sheltered from the elements, so I can run out to grab some herbs while the kids play inside. The plan is to eventually rig this to be useful in the winter months too.

Finally, I decided that since we were updating the fence from brown to black, we should also do the same for the garage trim. This has given it a much more sleek, modern look, and it now matches the color scheme on the front of the house.

Why do I care what this area looks like? When I come home from work, I love parking in the front so I can admire all the flowers and trees out front. However, I prefer to park in the garage area, but the sight of chipping brown paint everywhere was a bit of a downer. Call me crazy, but this was enough to inspire me to work.

And now we are enjoying the harvest from our garden. 

Green tomatoes will ripen in a sunny window. We've been eating about two of these a day. What on earth will we do when they are gone?