House renovation means outside too

Hello all. We took advantage of some nice weather to tackle cleaning up the outside. Actually this was one of the few jobs we had planned to outsource. We have plenty inside to keep us busy. But there's almost as much of a labor shortage as there is a goods shortage, so this became an "insource" job.

The main things we wanted done were to cut back all the flora on the front and side of the house. It tends to trap moisture close to the foundation. We also wanted to change the walkway to the front door. It was concrete cobblestones that were uneven and awkwardly placed too close to the house. The front also needed some refreshing.

Clearing away the old left us a gap to fill around half the house. For now we added dirt to regrade a bit for water drainage and put down rock where we don't plan to plant (shady side of the house) and mulch where we do. Moving about one ton of stone made us grateful that the previous owner left behind an old, metal wheelbarrow. The border of larger rocks were all scavenged from other places on the property, such as the fire pit.

Some exterior (blue) paint and oil-based (red) paint did wonders for the front of the house. Talk about your curb (or kerb if you're British) appeal!

We found a temporary measure that helped improve the look and walkability of the front path. These are cedar planks sold in a roll about 8-feet long. We cut one apart to form a transition from the path to the steps.

Finally, we had both trees in the back and one in the front cut down. The big one was dying inside and they crowded the small yard. The company that did the work is in high demand, and we understand why. 

Five guys in five trucks needed only a bit more than one hour to take down that 100-year-old maple. We're sorry we don't have pictures, but the show was so mesmerizing we stood transfixed. One guy in a cherry picker cut, one guy with a crane lifted the tree-sized sections to the front where the others fed everything into a chipper.

They did a commendable job cleaning up after themselves, but we still had tons of cuttings from grinding the stump to remove. We used the wheelbarrow and tarps to drag everything to the front where we half-filled the second 10-yard dumpster we've rented (2x5x1 yards). This buys us time until the spring to decide what we want to do.

Until next time.