Project here...Project there...Here a Project...There a Project...Everywhere a Project!

The REAL Housewife had a house...with a million projects to do! **Please sing that to Old McDonald** :) And each of those projects has a purpose! R-H-O-S-C! With a project here...and a project there...here a project...there a project...everywhere a project!

Okay so you get the point! If you have found yourself on my Facebook Page you know that I've been a busy little housewife the past few weeks! And let's be honest...these are what one might consider to be "normal" housewife projects. But as we've already established a long time ago...I'm not your ordinary housewife! :) So my projects include landscaping, woodworking, and everything in between!

Last year when we moved into our home we focused on the backyard. We put in the garden, added chickens to our lives, as well as trees and bushes and tons of flowers! This year we've been able to focus our efforts on the front yard and other spaces in our home. My first projects of the year were the front flower beds. I use the word "flower" loosely there. These beds were so over-grown with "decorative grasses," which have become the bane of my existence! It seems that the builder of our house must have gotten the "builder's special" when it came to plants that he used for landscaping. And I'm sure they all looked fabulous 6 years ago...but here we are today, and things aren't as "nice" looking.

So bed by bed, I made my way through the front yard and pulled out grasses, cut down trees, pulled out bushes...and then added the edging between the beds and the lawn to help separate them and make mowing easier. I started with the bed that is at the front corner of our lot...and this one proved the be the worst! Because of the tree that is in there...I had to cut through roots and everything else just to get the edging put in! But four hours later...I made it! I added some new shade and sun loving plants and flower...and here's to hoping that it looks much better!

This was the front bed when we moved in. See all the "decorative grasses" YUCK! LOL

In this picture I've already pulled a few of the clumps...but I have 5 more that I'll pull before the project is over!

 

I hauled this rock from across the yard...I should have given up after this! LOL

Starting the edging!

 

Here it is done! :) With a few of the new plants in :)

I added some hosta.

As well as some impatients :)

 

And some pretty pink flowers LOL

After doing this bed, it took about a week for me to muster up the desire to continue on to the other beds in the front yard! :) The next one that I tackled was the one in front of the house with the "S" shaped hedge in it. This one didn't take nearly as long, but I still had to tend to some roots from the tree, but not nearly as many as in the other one!

You can see the "S" shaped hedge...this is right off the driveway...

I'll be pulling out these clump grasses SOON!

Edging done! :)

Just looks so much nicer!

After this one I didn't need to take but a day or so before I felt the burning desire to tackle the "bergenia bed." I love the bergenia that are in our front yard, they have such big green leaves and get the prettiest pink flowers in the early spring! :) This one only took me about an hour to do! :)

Aren't they pretty!

They are just too close to the grass!

Much better!

:)

So much better! (and easier to mow!)

Yesterday I decided to tackle the last bed in the front yard. (Mainly because I wanted to start on my work bench...and I told Michael I'd do this last bed before I started the bench LOL) This bed is on the east side of our driveway and has the arborvitae hedges that act as a privacy screen between us and the house next door. Ultimately we will continue the hedge all the way to our back fence, but that won't be for a month or two. But I also wanted to add an actual flower bed at the base of the arborvitae, and turn this into a perennial and bulb bed. So here we go!

This is what it looked like before we moved in...blech! MORE clump grasses! Oh, and beneath them in the bottom right corner is the rock that I moved to the other side of the yard! :)

Here I removed the rock and one of the clump grasses. The bush on the far right has been moved where the one on the left is...and the one on the left was moved forward to take the place of that clump grass that I pulled.

BEFORE...

After. The bushes have been moved, and I've added the first layer of decorative wall bricks to form the bed.

:)

Finished!

 

 

 

Here I've added the 2nd layer of bricks and added the flowers :)

 

Now the front yard is finished! I still need to do the long bed that is on the west side of the house, but that won't be for another month or two! I'm taking a MUCH needed break from edging! LOL :)

So today (OMG I'm so happy typing this LOL) I was able to purchase the wood for my work bench in the garage!!! :) I had a hard time pulling myself away from the SuperNanny marathon that was on tv this morning...omg I LOVE Jo Frost!!! But I went to Home Depot and got everything I needed for Phase 1 of my garage project...building the work bench. I designed a bench that I thought would for the space and my needs. And here we have it!

This is what the 3rd bay of our garage looked like. There's an old desk under all that...and all our storage!

I used 4 x 4's for the front legs, and then screwed 2 x 4's to the studs in the wall to support the back. I used the top and side of the old desk as the top of the bench! :)

I used 1 x 4's as slats for the bottom shelf :)

This is an old cedar planting box that I re-purposed into a "charging station." This way the battery chargers don't take up space on my bench :)

I made part of the bench lower so the table on the miter saw was level with the main table of the bench :) Always thinking!

And I added pegboard above it to hang my tools! I'll be putting a shelf above the pegboard with containers for all my screws and such :)

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Over the past few weeks I've been a busy little bee! And I'm so excited to see everything taking shape! It's hard work, but it's nice to go to bed because I'm tired, ya know! In the next few weeks I need to add the shelf above the work bench and then additional shelving around the garage for storage! I was talking to my father on the phone today and I said that I'm pretty impressed with how handy I've become! Just goes to show...when you put your mind to it...you can accomplish pretty much anything!

As you can see there hasn't been much cooking going on lately! After all these projects are done I'll gladly be getting back behind the stove and cooking up a storm! Have you missed all my cooking? I think Michael has! LOL

Until next time...Keep Cooking! Or building...or whatever you are doing!! :)