Day 14, Ogden Enterprise

Today marks two weeks that we've been in our new home! And there have been a whole lot of changes goin' on! I'm especially excited about the change in curb appeal. The front yard has been cleaned up, trimmed, weeded, and watered--and it's starting to really green up. There was a flower bed along the front, but it was filled with wildflowers gone wild! I really love wildflowers, but I'm pretty particular about how they should be planted in a home garden. By all means, plant the tallest varieties toward the back. And keep them in neat-ish clumps, don't let them tangle together. Here's what we started with:

I applied weed & feed, and spot treated some of the hardier weeds. I've been watering daily, and the lawn has already started to green up:

What I decided to do in the front was take out most of the perennials and widen the bed. I moved all of the rocks back and dug up the sod. Then we used a small cultivator to turn the soil and fertilize. I added 6 bags of garden soil.

Notice how dirty the cement is? Once we got the vegetation out of the way, it was really obvious. So we picked up a couple of gallons of Valspar outdoor paint in a light gray. We hosed it down and scraped it with a wire brush before painting. The weather cooperated by dropping down into the high 80s. While not exactly comfortable, it was tolerable working outside. 

The best and most exciting change to the outside of the house was that our new door arrived. I was really shocked at how much it cost to buy a new door. We wanted a new one, because that is one's first impression of the house. We spent a little extra to have it installed, which turned out to be really fortuitous. When the old door was taken off, there was very little frame to work with. In between the brick and the sheetrock, the masonry had crumbled away. Our workman had us pick up some insulation to stuff into the walls and he basically built a new frame, with very little to attach it to. It took him about 8 hours to get that door hung. The difference is amazing!

From outside, it looks like this. I am so pleased, I think it's looking so much more homey.