Baby step projects

[annielinz]

Sometimes its the little things you accomplish that makes you feel as if you are making some kind of headway. We all seem to have so many overwhelming house/yard projects going on its hard to see the finish line.

I posted last week my list of projects to get done and I did accomplish some. It helped to put it out there. But I was getting the feeling from other threads that many (including me) are on overwhelm. So how about posting a small "baby step project" that you've completed.

It could be anything, like hanging a picture, planting some flowers, organizing your desk, you choose, no stress. If you want, post a before and after pic that would be great! Give yourself a pat on the back and cross one more thing off the list.

So heres my first baby step, the other is on the side of the house drying.:p

My very small patch of planted flowers, before and after.
Remember baby steps.......

[Heather]

Very nice!

[annielinz]

Thanks Heather. Like I said baby steps. Heres my other.

This poor chair has been a multitude of colors.

Wicker chair before and after.

[Zuzu's Garden]

I love this! Your projects came out so pretty, Annielinz!

This week, my baby steps project was to move more plants from the property up to the house, which included a lot of walking up and down the hills (aka exercise). ;) I planted wild strawberries, yarrow, alpine pennycress, artemisia, wallflower, daisy fleabane and lousewort (which has a terrible name, but beautiful fern-like leaves).

Sorry, no pics because we don't have the new smart-card hookup for the new computer yet.

Who else took some baby steps?

Zu

[annielinz]

Thank you Zuzu. Can't wait to see your pics. Your right, thats the best exercise!

Well heres my final outdoor project for the day. Its starting to heat up and I'm a sweaty mess. I trimmed the Oleander bush back, cleaned up the Nandina that had taken over and pulled the mess in the planter box. I think I'm going to add more soil and try to plant a few veggies and see what happens. Still a work in progress, but at least there IS some progress:D

I am not the biggest fan of creepy crawlers and just had about a heart attack with this little guy skittered by. But I saved him and moved him to a shady spot. All the while my foreman kept me on task while she lounged in the shade. Off to shower.

Come on, don't be shy, pick a baby step project and tell us about it.

[Gigi]

Lovely pictures Annielinz--truly inspiring!

[RoseMary]

Your projects look great, annielinz! You've been busy.


I'm working on a few projects and I'll try to get some pics on later this week.

[Evelyn]

Attached is a pic of an ongoing project. The area in the center had been a thick patch of not-so-pretty-bamboo. It was a project ripping it out. Then, I have been walking down to the beach near my home, selecting rocks and hauling them back in my back home in my day pack!!!!!

Evelyn

[RoseMary]

Evelyn, I love the little area~the rocks look perfect, too.

[CohenCottage]

Looks like a perfect spot to sit and enjoy a mojito!;)

[annielinz]

Evelyn I love the rocks, but hauling those baby's , wow you are good!

Can you stand one more of my stinkin' projects? :D

Well last night DH was gone and I had some time on my hands so I hung up these extra plates on the backyard fence. Is this lame looking? My DS is coming home this week so I'm already going to hear it from him.He thinks plates anywhere other than in front of him full of food is crazy :confused:

[yarborough house]

Annielinz-
I think the plates look great and heck they can handle all the weather that mother nature hands them..can't be worse than a dishwasher :)
Wow your son sounds like mine. Food food food. Must be a boy thing :)

I did some projects this weekend that are finishing up today and tomorrow so will have pictures to post hopefully tomorrow- cross fingers haha

[Evelyn]

Annielinz, love the plates!!! I don't think I have ever seen anyone do that on a fence.

Evelyn

p.s. Hauling the rocks is getting me back in shape!! My neighbors were nervous at first...maybe I was going off the deep end or maybe I was going to rope them into helping......so far they have not helped :p.

[Lynzee]

Evelyn ~ I cannot imagine hauling all of those rocks! What a payoff though. It looks great!

Annie ~ The plates look lovely! Great idea!

[Zuzu's Garden]

Evelyn - When I first saw your garden project, I thought of Wabi-Sabi. It looks natural and serene. Very beautiful!

Annielinz - I laughed when I read what you wrote about your DS. And, yes, that is a "boy thing"! My son would say the same thing! Your plates on a fence may be the next big thing in garden decor!

:)
Zuzu

[Breezy]

Annie & Evelyn - such industrious ladies! Love what you've done - looks great!

[Danske]

Annielinz & Evelyn you both make me realize just how little I don't accomplish...I have such great plans but they certainly don't get done sitting on a chair...Evelyn, your bamboo comment scared me - just bought a pot that I want to plant next to this little Asian cement garden thingie and on the tag it said 'behaved bamboo'. Do you believe there is such a creature? My dh doesn't think so but I've read that there is now bamboo that won't eventually take over the neighborhood...

[Evelyn]

The bamboo I had (still have some in pots) was a clumping bamboo, supposedly not a running bamboo. Well, it really, really liked the spot in the photo. It wasn't running exactly, just expanding in width rapidly on a regular basis.

I also have a very nice tall bamboo that is well-behaved.

I would probably suggest checking in a garden book or online garden site and see what the comments are for the species that you bought. If it gets bad reviews, just put it in a pot. Then you are safe!

Evelyn

[mac78]

I love the plates on the fence and the whole little corner. What a neat idea. I so wish there were little shops around my area so I could go "shopping" for things like this. We have virtually nothing locally. And working 55 hours per week, I just don't venture out too far.

[Lisa S]

You guys have been busy! Nice work.

[annielinz]

Well, I hit the nursery last night and picked up my veggies. I planted them in my prepared box in the cool of the evening. I haven't planted any veggies in years so I have no idea if they are going to crowd each other out, but I'm giving it the good ol' college try. I planted one of each: Ace tomato bush, yellow squash, lemon cucumber and burpless cucumbers.I guess we'll wait and see.

[CohenCottage]

Here are some photos from our recent exterior painting adventure. Don't y'all think the brown looks MUCH better than the black did? The rest of the windows and front door are still waiting to be painted. I'm not so sure about the color for the door. I will take a photo of the back door and see what everyone thinks.

[Gigi]

Yes- Love the brown! There are lots of colors that would look terrific with that color.

Very charming. :)

[yarborough house]

Love the brown but I feel you should paint the door a different color so it stands out. It blends in too much with all the brown trim. And well your door should say - WELCOME and be noticable.
But wow you all did a great job..you must be tired.

[CohenCottage]

Don't worry Yarborough, the door is next!! Can you believe it was stained almost exactly the same color as the trim. Yuck! We were thinking of painting it a "hip" green and have tried that on the back door (photos to be posted later tonight). Not sure how I feel about the green yet. A friend that is a designer high end builders suggested a slate blue too. She also suggested doing barn shutters and a window box on that front, left window. Do y'all think that would look good (they would be whatever color the door ends up)? Would we need to do shutters/boxes on the side windows too?

Here are two pics:

1 is of the shutter/planter combo
2 is of the true barn style shutter

Which one do y'all think would look best?

[vintage girl]

I was thinking that a blue door would look great. Your house is adorable and the paint looks fantastic. I have shutters on all my windows and I love them. I also love window boxes. I was thinking maybe a robins egg blue, but maybe that would be too bright. I am always partial to bright colors. Either way, so far it looks great and I am sure when it is done it will be beautiful:)

[Lynzee]

Your house is absolutely adorable, Cohen! It's so charming! Love the brown. I am partial to the barn shutters, but I think either would look great! The window box would be perfect...and I do like the idea of slate blue.

Can't wait to see pictures when you're finished!

[RoseMary]

I love your house! I think the brown was a perfect choice for it, too. A blue door would look terrific!

annielinz, with the raised beds, you can plant them close together and they should do okay. By the way~I love lemon cucmbers! I have some seeds, but don't have them planted yet.

[CohenCottage]

Ok, so here are some photos of the already painted back door. What do y'all think of the color (Grasshopper)? It turned out lighter than we anticipated. We were going for a darker, more avocado color, but it might be good. Not sure yet. The other option is to abandon green altogether and do slate blue...:confused:

The plan is to paint the front door the same color as the back, so if this isn't the right color, we would like to figure that out before we sand and paint the front door.

[Heather]

Hey CC GREAT job on the painting! Your house looks so fresh right now.

Is that your backyard???? Looks fantastic! I really like the river rocks up front too, did you do that? I wanted to do that but a 3 yr old would have a hay-day with that...

I did some mockups. If you want more done, email me the pics (those other ones were too small to work with) and some colour choices!

[yarborough house]

Love what you have done so far...I think - just my opinion - that shutters and a window box only on the front window. The window on the porch is a bit crowded with the door there and if you add shutters it will look so busy and lose it's look. Also, flower box on the window on the porch will be difficult- they won't match as that doesn't get sun and the water would constantly drip on the porch floor - believe me a pain in the butt.

On the door color- I like the idea your designer gave you with green..but I am seeing more of a brighter green- lowes has one that is asparagus green and that would pop. Your house is white and has brown neutral trim so the door should pop. I won't vote for blue but that is just me as my mom only decorated our houses growing up in blue so I am totally a non-blue person.

But if you did blue I would not go with slate blue as then it has the same value tone- or hue of the trim..you need something that is eyecatching a bit brighter- also because it is under the porch it needs to be brighter so it can be seen with the shadows. I like the idea of a robins egg blue- or maybe a periwinkle would be great..but I still vote for a bright green. It would be cool with plantings and such.

just me though,
:)

[CohenCottage]

Thanks for your input Tammy! We would definitely only do a window box/shutters on the front left window b/c there isn't enough room on either side of the porch window (plus all of the other reasons you listed).

The green we were looking for was more like the asparagus color you described. In fact, the tester we painted on the door before we did it was much brighter, so that's what we thought we were getting.

[Zuzu's Garden]

Wow, CC, your house is great! Love your yard too.

Shutters would look awesome. I agree w/ YH's advice - no planter box on the porch because of the mess it would create. Perhaps a bench under the window w/ a few container plants?

The current back door color looks like a light celery color, and I agree that it is too light. Are you going for a more woodsy green like a gray-green, or a Painted Lady green, like lime green?

EDITED: Oops, looks like we were posting at the same time, CC!

[CohenCottage]

I think we would go for a 70s bright avocado green...

Here are some pics of the side of the house...notice the windows have NOT been painted yet...Do y'all think shutters and a window box on the left window and a planter box under the smaller window (kitchen) or nothing at all? Those raised beds will be herbs and messy, cottage garden flowers.

[Zuzu's Garden]

Do y'all think shutters and a window box on the left window and a planter box under the smaller window (kitchen) or nothing at all?

I vote for the shutters and a window box on the left window and a planter box under the smaller window (kitchen)!

Zu

[CohenCottage]

Hey Heather! I just saw this post, somehow I missed it earlier...Thanks so much for the mock-ups!! I will definitely take you up on your offer to do some other ones when we pick some colors.

Yes, we did all the river rock beds and paths (and entire backyard) ourselves. It was hard work, but I must be blocking the memories b/c it doesn't seem like it was that bad now. With all of the shade and the 4 dogs, there was no way we could do any grass. We just got a bunch of new shrubs/ferns, so I'll post some garden photos when we are done planting.

[Lynzee]

I love the color, Cohen, but I don't think it's dark enough either. I definitely agree with the shutters and the window box on the left window.

Your yard is beautiful! I can't imagine the amount of work that went into it, but the payoff is incredible. WOW!

[Breezy]

Cohen - your house and yard are wonderful!!!

[RoseMary]

Those rocks are great, Cohen! I love the way your yard is landscaped. It looks very easy care~I know it took a lot of hard work to get that way!

[CohenCottage]

Gosh, y'all are making me blush!! Well, at the advice from the decorator/friend, I went by the paint store to look at new colors. She suggested picking a Pratt and Lambert color and having it color matched by Benjamin Moore. They didn't have all of the swatches for the colors I was looking for, but they do have nice big tester jars available in most colors. We are going to narrow it down and then paint some swatches...

[CohenCottage]

Ok ladies, painting is almost done. It was going to be done today, but it rained sideways last night, so we have to let things dry out.

We would like to do shutters on the big front, left window and the side single window. Then add window boxes like these () to both shuttered windows and the smaller kitchen window on the side.

Which of these two shutter styles (barn or v-groove) do you think would be best? They will be the same color as the front and back door (soon to be revealed).

[yarborough house]

I like both shutters but feel the barn type go with more rustic homes and think the vgroove would look better on your house. Can't wait to see the door color- the suspense ..... :)

[CohenCottage]

That's what I think too, Tammy, but I didn't want to bias anybody! I think it looks kind of dumb to put rustic shutters on GINORMOUS houses.

I forgot to paste the window box link... http://www.grandinroad.com/jump.jsp?item=15877&maincatcode=null&subcatcode=null&itemID=2574&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C166%2C4874&iProductID=2574

[yarborough house]

OH yeah I love grandin road..here is another link for window boxes and they have the ones that have the self watering system too in many varieties..
http://www.hooksandlattice.com/