Curb Appeal: Growin' Grass

A nice green lush yard is hard to come by here in Colorado.  It takes A LOT OF TIME AND EFFORT to get nice green grass to grow.  That's why there are a lot of rock yards or xeriscaping here, it's just a lot easier to maintain.  But growing up in Iowa, both Craig and I appreciate yards overflowing with green grass so a rock yard wasn't an option.  (even though some of our yard resembled a sandbox)

We have lived in our house for 2 years and our first summer in the house we realized that the front yard needed some desperate help.  There were spots of grass, spots of sand, and spots of weeds- majority of the later.  Craig was gone in Georgia for the spring and early summer, so it was all on me to get the yard in shape!  I had no idea what I was doing : )  My next door neighbor fixed my sprinkler system and got it up and running.  Because it's so dry here a sprinkler system that runs several times a day is an absolute must if you want a lush lawn.  I spent a lot of time pulling weeds, raking dirt, spreading seed, fertilizing, laying top soil... but after two summers of hard work we still didn't have the grass that we desired.  Every year it's like we started all over again.

Desperate times call for desperate measures... it was time to start completely from scratch!  Craig rented a rototiller and up came the front yard...

Craig is supervising our friend Rodney who came to help

After laying grass seed and fertilizer there was a lot of this...

And whala....!

It's not perfect but we are getting closer to the lush green grass yard that we can be proud of!

The Deck: Project Complete!

After devoting many weekends and spare time here and there, I am happy to say that the deck is complete and up for business! 

Here are some pictures of the final touches:

Putting up the railing and making sure it's level

Putting in all the balisters... it's tedious work!

We re-used most of the wood from the previous deck and unfortunately, it was painted red.  So my major contribution to the deck project was sanding all the wood.  I'm bummed that there are no pictures of this, but trust me, it was hard and dirty work! 

It's starting to look like a deck!

Staining is finished

Yippee...the deck project is complete!!  Now it's time to concentrate on getting our grass to grow.  Since the backyard was our workshop for the past couple months, we didn't have our sprinkler system on so a lot of our grass is still dormant.  Time for some TLC to wake up our grass!  Fortunately, Craig has spent a lot of time on our front yard grass so stay tuned for that post!

Deck In Progress

We have been working on the deck for the last couple weekends and when I say we, I guess I really mean Craig!  He has been such a harder worker dedicating his weekends to building us a new deck!  Our old deck was two levels and part of it didn't have a railing and just kinda dropped off into our yard.  It looked unfinished.  Our new deck will be all one level which makes it look so much bigger even though it's the same, it will have railings and a new set of stairs.  It's gonna look fantastic when it's all done, which will hopefully be this weekend so we can enjoy it! 

Here are some pictures of the new deck in progress:

Building the frame, being sure that it's square and level so the deck won't be lopsided.

Putting in the support joists.  Making sure they are sturdy and level!

 

Craig's dad Kevin was in town and got roped into helping lay the boards : )  The two of them made quick progress!  I made chocolate chip cookies to show my appreciation for their hard work.

The deck is almost complete!  Stay tuned for pictures of the final product!!

A New Roof

When we moved into our house just over 2 years ago we were told that we needed to get a new roof because it was old and had hail damage.  The roof was tan and our house is a blue-ish gray color with green shutters and door and white trim.  Let's just say that the light brown roof did not blend with the color of the house and  it stood out like a sore thumb.  So it other words, it was ugly!  Even though it would be expensive to replace we knew that it would help the curb appeal of our house when we go to sell it.  Did you know that in the first 15-30 seconds of a potential buyer viewing your home they have decided weather or not they want to buy it... and the first thing potential buyers see is the outside of your house!  So the curb appeal of your home is extremely important because if it doesn't look good from the outside no one is going to even look at how beautiful it is on the inside.  So we finally got a new roof on the house thanks to a hail storm last July.  I'm apparently really bad at taking before pictures but here's the after picture of the beautiful new roof: 

NEW ROOF- PROJECT COMPLETE!!

The Guest Bathroom Remodel

As I referenced in an earlier post, Craig has been working on our guest bathroom remodel.  It has been about 4 weeks since he completed the demolition and every weekend since has been dedicated to the bathroom.  I am excited to tell you, IT'S DONE!!  Completing a big project like that gives us such a sense of accomplishment, especially when you compare the before and after.  Unfortunately, we don't have a picture of the before because Craig started the project as a surprise for me when I was in LA, but we have some great pictures taken throughout the project.  But just envision in your head 80's blue and white linoleum and 80's light fixture, vanity painted goldish yellow and a mirror. 

First, Craig tore out the old vanity and toilet and ripped up the linoleum.  Ahhh, a clean slate ready for new tile floor!! 

To finish the floor, we put in grout, sealed it and put in new floor moulding.  Craig also took out the medicine cabinet that was recessed in the wall so he patched the wall and textured which means it's ready for a fresh coat of paint.  We chose the neutral brown that we have in the rest of the house because, although I love color, we are going to sell the house in a couple years and neutral colors are better for resale.  Also, notice the new light fixture in the background. 

My primary role in the bathroom remodel was picking out the new vanity, light fixture, and decor.  Craig installed our new toilet and vanity, making sure that the sink was level before it was permanently placed.

The vanity sink didn't come with a backslash so we chose to use glass tile to add a little sass to the neutral bathroom.  This was Craig's first experience installing glass tile, and like always, he's a pro!

Craig hung all the towel rods and toilet paper holder so all it needs now is the faucet for this project to be complete.... but wait.... no project in the Coder Home Renovation is truly complete without fixing unexpected problems we find along the way.  The pipes under the sink were leaking so Craig became a plumber and put in new water valves and saved the day!

We hung the mirror and put the finishing touches on the bathroom just in time for our guests, the Brubakers, to come for a visit this weekend.   

GUEST BATHROOM REMODEL- COMPLETE!!