Our Home - Exterior Transformations

I have lived in this house since 1989 when my mom and I moved here from Utica, NY.  In 1999, I bought this house from her and she bought one 4 houses down the street.  Since then, I have been turning the house into my own.  I'll take you through some of the transformations.

Here is the front of our house when Mom and I first moved in.

Here is the front of our house just after Mom moved out.

Mom had the large tree in the front cut down, replaced it with some perennials and planted 2 maple trees. I added the willow tree to the middle of the garden box (it was only about 4 feet tall in the picture above, but grew to be about 15 feet tall) I had gotten from a trade on GardenWeb.  She also replaced all the windows and shutters and had a concrete patio poured on the front porch where it used to be a mini garden.

After the willow tree in the front died for some unknown reason to me, I removed it and the surrounding garden box. 

We had our first daughter in 2007 and decided we needed more space.  Rather than moving, we decided to expand.  We thought about building up, but the cost was extremely high, so we decided to expand out.  We drew up a plan to add an additional 6 feet to our den, 2 bedrooms, a linen closet and a wiring closet.  When we got our addition done in 2008 (there will a post later on that), we also got a new roof, new siding, black shutters and replaced all the brown trim with white.   In 2009, we decided to expand our driveway to a double and replace the concrete porches and walkways with pavers.  We also replaced all the chain link fence with a wood fence. 

I wanted an additional walkway from the driveway to the front porch and a seat wall on the back patio, so we had the same company come out and do that in 2010. 

In the front of the house, after the new driveway and pavers were installed, I removed the existing garden wall (I installed them in 2002) that bordered the front garden and changed the shape.  I also created a new garden bed between the porch and new walkway.

Here is what the front looks like today.

Here is a picture of the back of the house when we first moved here from New York.  Plain Jane, right?

Here is a picture of the back yard a few years after Mom moved out. 

Mom planted 2 fig trees in the back and I added the mini patio.  When we got our addition, we had to remove the fig trees.  That was a very sad day, however, the contractor we hired lives out in the country and was able to save one of the trees for his property.  I sure miss those figs, but I don't miss the flies that constantly hung around them.

Here are some pictures of the back yard right before the addition went up.

Here is a picture of a fallen fig tree. (sniff sniff) 

Here are some pictures of the back yard today.  Much better, eh?

We added the play area for the girls last year.  Even though it is small, they love playing out there.

See the red barn looking shed in the back corner?  Total eye sore, isn't it??  Well, we are hoping to have a larger shed built that matches the exterior of our house sometime this year if we can ever finish up the garage.