Full: Landscaping part 2 : Plants and Flowers

Between all the fun with the landscaper and the costs there, we still had LOTS to do on our own.

I used landscaping fabric from Costco to lay at the base of the front flower bed and the back along the fence. For the back along the fence I used PINTREST to save me some $$$.  My mother in law has a BEAUTIFUL yard and she allowed me to take some of the bulbs from her day lily's and hostas, I was nervous at first but so far they have worked out.

However, that was not the end.  I have wanted a BEAUTIFUL Japaneses maple for a long time, and just before we sold our townhouse we got one, but left it with the house. I looked for a long time to find the PERFECT tree and landed on a Coral Bark Maple. It has beautiful color year round. 

  

Those are some Professional Pics!

THIS IS MINE!!!!!!!!

She is small and still has alot of growth to make her strong but her name is LEAFY! Liam helped me name her!

I tried to keep things as cost effective as possible so I bought a bunch of bulbs.  They are perennial and they sell for about $8 for a large bag. Everything I purchased are summer blooming. 

 

Plants are anything BUT CHEAP!!!  We have some beautiful nursery's around our home so we took advantage of what they have.  I was NOT smart with this part, there was little to NO budget on this so I just kept getting stuff and it added up far faster then I would have liked. 

I love snap dragons and ALWAYS try to get alot of them each year just to bring some fun color to my yard.  I also decided to put above the rocks an annual flower bed so I have alittle to work on each year, but not the whole yard. 

By the time I got to the back yard garden, I'd run out of money :(  and I had purchased WAY too many annuals so I have 2 peony bushes and annuals between.  (the end has raspberry buses, I'll include those with my garden post tomorrow.)

Money Breakdown

Landscape Fabric: 1 large roll: $15

Top Soil: included in landscape costs

Back flower bed against fence: Transplanted from in-laws yard, 1 perennial grass: $15

Back house flower bed: 2 peony bushes: $30

Front Flower beds: 4 bags of bulbs $40

Japaneses coral bark Maple Tree: $50

Lilac tree (mothers day present from Hubby): $100

Small red Japanese maple (mothers day present from inlaws): FREE  (would have cost about $50) 

Grasses, Annuals and miscellaneous other flowers:  $230

Bags of Mulch: 7 @ 10 each: $70

All things done: Out of pocket $550

Running Total:  $8,590.00

---Landscaping:  $8,040.00

---Plants and Flowers: $550.00

May not sound like alot, but when I didn't budget for it and spent it, it added up QUICKLY! 

Anyone else forget to budget and went alittle crazy in the yard?

Full: Landscaping part 1: Landscaper

IT'S YARD WEEK!!! We have finished all we can afford for 2015 but wanted to share all the nitty gritty details! 

ENJOY!!

This spring we have spent the whole time working on our yard. You can see the first few steps thought, Planning, Bidding, Grass!!!???, We have Grass, and Garden.  However today I want to go over what we have, and what we still plan to do this year.  As well as a full cost break down. Please forgive me in advance this will be a SUPER LONG POST!

Full Disclosure: This is our forever house so we have chosen to do somethings "done right" expensive.  Just to make sure we can maximize every $ so we don't have to fix it over and over! 

This was our planning page. The green is grass and the yellow is drip system flower beds and Garden.

As always things don't always work out like we all want, but this was our landscapers FINAL break down.

Gate 2 5ft gates tan: $1,000

Edging; Curbing, stamped and colored: $570

Grading and Dirt: $1,125

Front Rocks: $550

Sprinklers: $3,100

Downspouts: $120

Grass, 2,500 sq feet Installed: $1,125

Extra load of top soil 4 tons: $125

Load of rocks 4 tons: $325

FINAL LANDSCAPING BILL : $8,040 

OUCH!!!!

Welcome to buying a new house! 

I had planned about 10k to do the whole yard.  However have quickly learned. That's just not enough! 

Anyone else start a project that ended up being WAY more expensive then planned?

"Wait no more" laundry room

I was determined when we moved into this house we would not have a junk drawer.  So far we STILL DON'T have one!! :D YEAH!! However, we have a dump counter! :( 

Ready for FULL disclosure! This is my before laundry room.  Not PRETTY!!

however not HORRIBLE either.. if you just ignore the counter. 

This is what it looks like from the door way.  You can see it is quite simple but there is a counter there which is our dump zone. 

You can see that in theory I have a good little organizing box thing from Ikea, However it is NOT being used as it should. 

This is space 1 of the iheartorganizing challenge. I started by clearing off the whole counter.  You always have to move the mess before you can clean it.  This is where hubby keeps his keys and wallet so his "charging" station has to stay put, however everything else needs a new home.  

This is my long term mod board for this room, HOWEVER we don't have the money to fix it up the way I want. 

Until then I will be very happy with a cleaned off and organized area

I know that this is far too much of an area not to get covered with crap. :( so I'm trying to think of better ideas. So far I've got a cute little basket to had for a little space and the wall baskets need alittle help to make sure they are labeled more appropriately.

However this is my first of many "wait no more"! 

Final

BEFORE and AFTER

My day job!

I have a real life day job. That is not being a sahm! Don't get me wrong...I totally respect those of you who are, but being a working mom adds a WHOLE other element!

Yesterday, however was a wonderful day to be an employee where I work! 

Before now I worked in the public sector. Anything and everything we did was under a constant microscope.  I was in management, and regardless it was a tough job!

My "new" private sector job is tough too. However I'm no longer in management, and the company cares a lot about their employees! 

Any job is still a job but the opportunity that my current company has makes all the difference!!

This was my view for a few hours!! It was perfect!

The next promotion I'm hoping for is hiring now, so I was able to get some good pointers from our management team!

There are days I wish I was home doing laundry and cleaning house. But this was a day I feel blessed to have a day job, where I get to work with amazing managers and customers!

Days like this make me realize that 8 yr for a BS degree was totally worth it!

Enough!

You know those days when you just want to throw up your hands and scream "ENOUGH!"  That was me a few weeks ago!

I'm gonna blame the totally out of character rain! I love that I live in Utah and rainy day are a blessing! Not a norm. 

Cleaning and organizing a new house is a project all on it's own. When you finally have all the brown paper boxes out of the house there is a huge sigh of relief.... However things still don't all have their place!

I happened upon this blog post

I've seen  floating around Pinterest for months. But I didn't like the title. I put it off but one night  before bed I decided I just needed to read it.

And....no big surprise I loved it!!! I could have stayed up all night reading her blog, but I didn't have the time. So I turned off my phone and went to bed.

I woke up the next morning with a spring in my step. I was ready for action!! Well at least alittle.

I read her depression story, which stopped me in my tracks. We all have our own stories and our own struggles. I for one am not ready to put mine out there for the world to see....but I had immediate buy in. I read those words and thought! "Anything is Possible!" 

garden and yard!

I'm starting to see the fruit of my labors! ( HEHE)

My beautiful raspberry bush. 

We still need to add some mulch but I feel quite accomplished.

Chris also got some furdlizer on the yard, so hoping it will green up soon!

Fertilizer? and first time yard

In our town house we never had to work in the yard.  "We chose to do a few things."  (patio pavers Which I will share with you this summer)  However, I know pretty much NOTHING when it comes to a yard.
We just got our GRASS 2 months ago and there is still so much to learn.

When the grass was first installed I thought, ok hubby mows it and I forget about it..... It looked like this for a few months...

BUT NOW.  It looks like this.

Not bad, but getting patchy and not sure what to do. This is when a very un educated yard person asks her father in law for help.  I get to learn about fertilizer.

Growing up my dad always had someone take care of the yard so I NEVER even thought about it.

WOW people are VERY opinionated and as they should be.  I like to think of myself as somewhat green, (ie cloth diapers hippy here) but not perfect.  I have learned ALOT.
This is my favorite description of what to use and why.

That being said I will be using some Chemical Fertilizers this week to give my grass some MUCH needed food and hoping to get the spots less splotchy and beautiful green!

I totally LOVE Home Depot, that is MY hardware store! :D I'm planning to stop by there tonight after work and pick this up!



















For the Grass and

For my Garden!  I hope to get some mulch next week and the yard will be :S DONE? 

What are you doing in your yard to get it up and ready for summer.