Buying a House: Home Improvement I

What a rush, at the end of April, I bought a house. A mango colored 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house in what I hope is an up and coming neighborhood (Zillow seems to agree with me, so that’s good). Rachael and I moved in and immediately the renovations began. I painted the house grey with white trim, hung up some new street numbers (Amazon still manages to misdeliver my packages to the unnumbered next door).

Landscaping Rocks

I bought a bunch of landscaping rock and with the help of some friends, I redid both of the side yards. On one side, I laid down some dark grey 2’x2′ pavers and landscape rocks around them to fill in what once was just dirt. On the other side I also laid down a 3′ pathway with more landscaping rocks, no pavers on this side. The reason for laying down the pavers and landscape rock was to help keep the roof from dumping a bunch of rain right on the foundation of the house and eroding a channel into the Earth. I may eventually put up some gutters on the left and the right side of the house but that’s further down on the list. If I end up doing that, I’ll add a rainbarrel attachment to each gutter so I can collect the rainwater for my ornamental plants.

Other sideyard before & after (I’ve since added metal edging to make the lines a bit cleaner)

Back Patio

The backyard was quite pitiful when I moved in. It was a semi-barren field with nothing but a shed. Following the same design idea as the side yard with the pavers, I put down a grid of those same dark grey 2’x2′ pavers in a 5×11 grid with landscape rocks between them. Then I added a set of outdoor tables and chairs for sitting around. The sideyard used to have some older less sitely pavers that I repurposed for a small entranceway around the shed to make getting lawn equipment out a bit easier. I also used the last 2 of the dark grey 2’x2′ pavers to make a little stoop.

I also put up a sun sail to keep the sun off the patio and make summer in Florida a bit more bearable. It blocks out 95% of UV light, but still keeps the area light and airy. I’m looking forward to when the weather cools down so I can go outside and relax without getting sweaty after 20 minutes.