This is how the house looked when I first saw it, in May 2005. Kind of blah, kind of bare...but I could see the potential it had, and basically it's farmhouse design appealed to me. It was what I'd always dreamed of owning (except for the vinyl siding!)
The house was the first on this street of our subdivision and was still underconstruction then. Just before Thanksgiving, 2005, we purchased the finished house that had no patio in back, off the sliding doors, and other than small hollies at the front porch and a small gum tree in the center of the front yard, no landscaping.
I set about some gardening...running from the side of the front porch toward the boundary with the lot next door. I have no pictures of that to share, but it runs parallel to the porch and forms two gardens of flowers, with an arch in the center, a separation between side yard and front. Because the yards of the entire subdivision looked like this one at the time, there was clear view across each persons properties. We planted some cypress which will someday grow tall enough to give us some privacy in our yard! We also added a full row of plants along the side the house.
Next, we built on a sunroom, where our family gathers for holiday dinners and birthday celebrations. It's added another sitting room to our home which gives us three season use. Because it is unheated, it's not taxed, and for summer, we've got a window AC unit in it, as well as 2 ceiling fans.
The sliding doors which were on end of the dining area (where you see those rustic steps on the first picture) were taken out when we built this porch. We replaced them with the window which was in the center of the back wall, between the dining area and the kitchen. We installed double french doors where that window was. The walk area is far more suitable to us, since doing that. We used to have to trip over chairs at the table in order to get out of the sliders!
Tune in tomorrow for more changes!
