Projects 6, 7 & 8

It was hard to separate Projects 6, 7, and 8 because they are all in the same area and overlap somewhat, so I decided to put them all together in one post.  These three projects include, painting the door and shutters black, replacing the soil and shrubs in the garden bed leading up to my front entry, and installing a dry stack stone apron under the front porch.  I took a week of vacation to work on these projects rather than drag them out over a month of weekends and I'm so glad I did, since I no sooner finished with them when I broke my foot, and all projects have come to a halt since then. Lets start with before pictures.  Here is the house in early spring.  Notice the dead ivy beds that needed pruning to the ground.  That alone was a major project.  

  And here is the house after I painted the shutters and door black.  I personally love the black and wonder why it took me so long to do it.  Thankfully the ivy is starting to grow back and looking much better.  You may notice the dog in the window in both pictures.  That is Moby sitting on the back of the sofa.  We call this window his "wide screen TV".  This is where he watches the world go by.

I also painted the wrought iron chairs and several other iron accessories beside the garage to complete the look.

Now for the shrubs.  The ones that I had were there for years and became a little scrawnier every year.  I couldn't even grow annuals in this ground.  

Pitiful, right?  My plan was to dig out all this dead dirt and replace it with nice new soil, but to my dismay, the ground was full of roots of all sizes.  So, plan two was to dig the deepest, widest holes I could manage and fill it with new soil for the new shrubs.  For the annuals, I dug a trench to give them a fighting chance.

Then I planted green and white euonymus for the shrubs and alternating white petunias and pink zinnias in front of them.  Unfortunately the zinnias didn't survive, so I replaced them with impatiens, which are doing much better.  

  Such a nice difference. Lastly, I wanted to do something different under the sides of the porch.  I've been thinking about this for years.  For a long time I was going to put lattice here, but then I decided to do a small dry stack stone wall to add more charm and make the house look older.  Here is the before with the scrawny shrub and algae.

And here is the after.

I love the changes I made and all the hard work was so worth it because I find myself smiling every time I go outside.  Now, everything just needs a fresh coat of paint to complete the look.  Maybe by the end of the summer when I can use my foot more. ~ Linking with ~ Mod Vintage Life for Mod Mix Monday ~ Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday ~ Domestically Speaking for Inspire Me Monday ~ French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday