Before and After: Driveway

This is what our driveway looked like when we first moved into our house. You can see in the bottom right-hand side of the picture the fabulous plastic liner that came along either side of the drive. It was already coming undone when we moved in, but it got worse with wear between accidentally driving over it, snow, and whatnot. Then the rain, snow, and constantly driving over the driveway caused tire trenches to form, with a big hump in the middle of the driveway. It was not too pretty.


Mr. Man put his brother, JP, to work while JP was visiting. Isn't he a good brother? First, we had the driveway flattened and compacted with a small bobcat machine a friend of ours did for us. We'd rather spend our money with the locals, and make sure our friends stay employed. Second, Mr. Man rented a machine that digs shallow trenches. I don't know the name of the machine, and I wasn't around when the trenches were dug. Mr. Man and JP seemed really happy with the gizmo, though. It was a lot easier than digging the trench by hand! Third, the guys lined the side of the driveway with brick that we scored for free from a friend. We had to go to their house, grab the brick, and unload it ourselves.. Fourth, JP and I filled wheelbarrows full of gravel from two gravel piles in the driveway behind the house, and poured the gravel into the newly leveled driveway in the front between the brick. JP and I had wheelbarrow races to see who could fill the barrow with gravel, maneuver the heavy wheelbarrow into the front, dump the gravel, and rake it out first. Who needs a gym membership? Not me! It took them a few days of hard work to get there, but it came out beautifully, don't you think?


Mr. Man and JP then added pavers at the end of the driveway for easier snow removal and aesthetics, too, of course. It was a lot of hard work. The boys did a great job!


I love the juxtaposition of the mulch, the brick, and the stone. We had cut back the ornamental grass for the winter, so this portion of the landscape will change again in the Spring. It's a long driveway to be placing bricks!


The work inspectors, oh, I mean, me and George. Don't we look all serious and professional? Especially George outside in her socks....kids! :-)

New Door Color

I had originally painted our foyer area outside our master bedroom a softer shade of a green/ yellow. At first it looked nice....until we started decorating other parts of the house. It didn't work so well anymore.... here's the before:




Here it is in Benjamin Moore's Caribean Teal. I painted the bathroom door, to the right in the picture, the same color.




I love seeing both the door and the Keep Calm and Carry On print from the kitchen. I need to remember to breathe every once in a while, and that print does the trick since I pass it about a billion times a day!

Before and After: Cellar Stairs

I got a little ahead of myself to take great before pictures. I had already gotten started on creating the after when I remembered, "oh yeah! I need before shots!"

Before, in the stairwell we had an ugly, plastic bag collector for those bags from the supermarket when you forget your reusable bags. We also hung our broom, mop, fly swatter, and duster on the wall from a hideous strip of wood with some fabulous nails randomly nailed into the wood strip.

I decided to use that space to hang some of pots and pans that didn't really have a place to live. They are a bit ragged looking, those pots, but we REALLY use our pots and pans in this house! Here's the after: