Category: Glendalough

We got our first snow fall last night! I am so excited to have snow! Look at how cute the yard is!

Our grass and driveway have a nice coating of ice on them along with the snow from the sprinklers running last night. Whoops, sprinklers…whoops.

So on this day when you want to curl up next to the fire place and look at it from inside…guess what we are doing?

Planting trees! Obviously! Doesn't everyone plant trees after the first snowfall?

We bought a couple this morning and we are off to plant them! I'm so happy to have some trees at the house. It makes it feel more lived in and more like home! Hope you are staying warm and doing less strenuous activities than we are!

Yes, it was necessary to title this in all caps! It's THAT exciting!

We got trees planted on the boulevard. (I mentioned this last week.) The ones they gave us are HUGE. They are really nice looking trees. I am so excited!

There are two on the side of our house (Sugar Maples):

And one in the front (Linden):

The best part is that Chuck sent me these pictures while I was still at work. It was such a fun surprise email from him!

Now we need to hurry up and plant one more this fall in the back! I think we are leaning toward a Crimson King Maple. We love the way they look. There aren't many of them around either. And they have such a gorgeous deep purple color.

There are so many things that would be funny and fit this title better than this picture does. But too bad. This is what you get!

I found this in the yard. Of course, since it's a weed (the unwelcomed guest), I had to pick it. But it was cute, so I also had to snap a picture of it. It's a nice bonus to find something pretty mixed in with all the ugly weeds!

I should really stop using my iPhone as my primary camera. Then I could zoom in on the cuteness of the flower. But until I stop being so camera lazy…this is what you get!

I just found out what trees we are getting on our boulevards. These are ones that we don't get to pick, but I emailed the landscaper to find out what they were putting in.

On the side of our house we are getting two Sugar Maple trees.

And in the front of our house we are getting a Redmond Linden tree.

This is exciting! I am so happy to have some more trees. Plus, I was waiting to pick what tree/trees to plant in the back yard until I found out what were going on the boulevard. I didn't want too many of the same tree. So now I can start thinking about what I want to plant. And expect some pictures of the trees when they are all planted!

Look Look Look! The house next door has grass! YES!

That was all!

I am a bit behind posting about the house next door. They are flying and I'll post some more pictures of the progress in the next couple days (after I take the pictures). But let's get caught up with the pictures I do have!

The house now has a driveway and a walkway with steps leading up to it. It looks very nice. They have more steps than we do. We have one step then the porch steps. We really have a flat lot!

Here's a view of the steps/walkway.

Here's a view of the whole house and driveway.

I got home from work one day and was so excited to find landscaping! The landscaping is exciting because that goes in before sprinklers and GRASS!

This is the side of the house next door that faces our house. Note all the grass that is already there. That is ours. Before we got grass we thought our lot was smaller than it really was and thought the grass was on the neighbors lot. Turned out that we had a bigger lot than we thought and have more side yard! Yay. You'll notice the house next door doesn't have much side yard. It's also nice that there is a good distance between our house and the new one. Then we aren't right on top of each other. Ok. Ok…here's the picture.

This is the same side of the house, but including the corner of the house.

Continuing to move around the house…

The front.

The far side of the house.

The tree on the far side of the house. There's another one like this in the back yard. I think these are Honeylocust trees.

The whole house.

So now you are all caught up with all the pictures I have taken so far. Next for our house, we have to get some trees planted this fall in the back yard. I was hoping to wait until I found out what trees were going to be planted on the boulevard. I don't want to plant the same thing in the yard.

Chuck also built some shelves. Some in the garage and some in the basement. I should take pictures of those! I know you are dying to see pictures of shelves!

I haven't done a post on the house next door in a while. They have been working on the inside so much that I haven't been thinking about making updates.

They finished siding the house and did some painting. I think the peaks (the triangles at the top) might still be a different color. They are a different color on all the other houses in the neighborhood, so I don't know why this one would be different. They also put the sidewalk in.

And this is a picture of our house, the one next door and the one next to that (which has sold…just waiting for the new owners to move in!)

Chuck and I went in the house over the weekend to see how the progress was going. They have the walls and trim done, but no hard wood or carpeting yet. The lights are installed and working, and the appliances are in the house, but not installed yet. So it isn't livable…but it's getting there!

We also got some new neighbors across the street. We haven't met them yet. I should really do that. I know when I moved in I really didn't want to meet everyone right away. I was too tired and overwhelmed. So I will give them a little longer to settle in before I drop by!

Yesterday we finally got around to finishing the landscaping in the yard. We just needed a bit more mulch and to remove a little dirt in one area. It didn't take too long and we were then able to bring our trailer to storage instead of leaving it in the driveway. I am sure we were thought of as the hick neighbors for a while. Now we are back to a clean driveway!

Here are a couple pictures I took today with my phone as I was walking around looking inside the houses that are for sale in the neighborhood.

This is the front of the house near the garages. There's a Hydrangea Tree (which I posted a picture of the other day because it is turning pink now.) There are also some red Day Lilies that are blooming, Black Eyed Susans, May Night Salvia, some Karl Foerster's Reed Grass, and Magic Carpet Spirea bushes.

This area has similar plants as well as our Pink Spires Flowering Crabapple Tree.

And this is on the side of the house. There are some Burning Bushes, some Crimson Pygmy Barberry plants around the tree and some bright yellow barberry bushes near the burning bushes on the side of the house.

And finally, this is the corner by the back side of the house that faces the street. We decided to hide the egress window a bit. This corner is going to be so pretty and colorful! There's reed grass, yellow day lilies (that just keep blooming!) and Russian Sage. I love the way they look and they will be so pretty when they all grow really tall and fill up that corner!

Please excuse the blue tote we haven't moved yet.

By the back door, Chuck added some steps so we can walk out to the grill. We added a couple large pavers to stand on when you are grilling and to step into the yard without stepping in the mulch.

Next year we want to build a paver patio. But…one thing at a time! And it's best to let your yard settle a year before putting one in since the ground can shift a bit…and you don't want that on a patio.

Oh…and note the orange thing in the yard (two pictures up). Thankfully, that will be gone soon since they are getting closer to finishing the house next door. (I'll show you a couple pictures tomorrow.) Once they do landscaping and get grass next door, we will be without that ugly orange thing. It will mostly be nice because there will be grass next door instead of dirt and weeds!!!

On the far side of the house we also have a lilac bush and some more reed grass. Since the bush isn't flowering right now, I didn't bother taking a picture of them. It just isn't that interesting.

This fall, the city will come and plant trees on the boulevards. We don't know what we will get, but I can't wait to see what they plant! I am so excited to have more trees. We are also going to plant at least one tree (maybe two) in the back yard this Fall. So I guess we aren't completely done, but the tedious mulch is.

That's, I am sure, more than you ever wanted to know about our landscaping. But now you know it all! I was afraid that I would forget to take any pictures of the landscaping this year. So I am impressed I remembered. I can't wait to see how big everything gets in the coming years! (Don't worry…I am sure I'll post pictures of it!)

I haven't done a post about the house next door in a while. So here's a little update. They are still plugging along with all the drywall inside the house. They also started to do some of the trim on the house before adding the siding. They beefed up the posts on the porch and added a garage door. It's coming along nicely. I am waiting for the day that I know what color the house is. But that will probably be a little while yet. I think we are mostly excited to have all the dirt gone from their yard! Ick!

Now we just need someone to buy it so we can have more neighbors! Because the ones we have already are so nice. A couple of them stopped by the other night to invite us to a gathering they are having this weekend. Unfortunately, we already had plans. But they invited us to hang out right then! They were hanging out and eating leftovers from a party the day before. It was straight out of a sitcom! I loved it. All the neighbors gathering around, kids running around, drinking wine, chatting with friends….I love our neighborhood!