A video tour of my flowers to celebrate 1 year since closing.

     Here's a little video tour of my flowers, if you like that kinda thing, otherwise this is probably going to be boring for you. Also today marks the 1 year anniversary since closing on house 2.0.  And after 1 year I am happy to say it was the best move I ever made.

Now for some yard work (before and after).

I've been giving the yard some TLC lately. Unlike the molding work, I'm doing all this labor myself. Here's the "Before" picture.

And now, the "After" pictures. 

That's 3 yards of crushed red brick nuggets.  

I love my Gorilla Dump Cart.  Go to Lowes and get one. You can thank me later.

Preparing the beds for the bricks.

You can see the bags of pine straw I had to rake out of the beds. That's only half of the bags. Interestingly I was able to give away the used pine straw on craigslist within an hour.

I lined the walkway with edger bricks to keep the  brick nuggets at bay.

Now that the brick mulch is in place, time for some plants.

These are whiskey barrels from Costco. They are made of plastic.
 $17 a piece is a great price for pots this large.

 

Myles is supervising me while mowing the backyard.

47 bags of pine bark mulch for the perimeter of the yard. The dogs wore out most of the original mulch running back and forth chasing the neighbor's dog.

This spot is shaded most of the days so these impatiens are going to be very happy.

View from the home office.

Audrey is airborne.

Added Cypress mulch to the tree. Also stuck 2 more whiskey barrels full of impatiens in the shady corner. Did I mention 47 bags of pine bark mulch?!

Trimming out the Verona - The "After" video

Update: 11/23/13  This molding work was performed by Tant Home Improvements. I would strongly advise against using Mike Tant's services. While Mike is an excellent carpenter. his service after you hand him a large check is lacking. After he was paid we found a couple of defects. It took a great deal of effort to get him to come back to the house. He told us we are "Too picky." The repairs took him roughly 10 minutes.   He said he lost money to have to come back to fix his work (work that I paid several thousand dollars for). My advice would be if you choose to use his services, go over the work with a fine tooth comb before you cut the check.

• Chair rail in foyer and front room. 
• Crown moldings
• Picture frame moldings
• Frame out the Windows
• Frame out the room openings.
• Paint all trim.

Note he had to change out the window sills. Ryan doesn't cut them long enough for the moldings so they had to be replaced.

Trimming out the Verona - The "Before" video

     It's time for a project. Today I am having moldings and trim work done in the foyer and the den (officially the dining room in the Verona).  I did not buy a molding package with the house as I did not know one was available. I'm confident the package Ryan offered didn't include all this work though.  Today I am posting the "Before" video.  I am getting Chair Rails, picture frame and crown molding.  He will also case the windows and case the openings to the room so they look like doorways.  It should be quite the metamorphosis.   This guy comes highly recommended and so far it's looking awesome! I will post the "After" video on Thursday or Friday. It will be fun moving the 75 gallon fish tank away form the wall.

About face!

I decided to make a couple of changes to the front of the house.  This was something I wanted originally and decided to do it after the fact. It was painful watching the demolition to perform this work but it came out perfect and I'm really pleased. Here's a before and after picture. 

The work was performed by Charlotte Custom Stone who did the original stone work on the house.

Latest tweak!

      Things are going well in "Verona Alley."   No major issues with the house. Ryan has been amazingly responsive to any warranty requests that have come up. Usually within one day, my request is acknowledged and promptly addressed.  All builders will be your best friend during the build, but it's after the build that counts the most. I hope this doesn't sound like a paid commercial  lol but I really need to recognize Ryan Homes for the service I've received.

     Here's the latest tweaks in the kitchen. Pendant lights added above the center island. I'm very pleased with these. Also had under-cabinet lighting added as well. I went with good old fashioned fluorescent lights because they are cheap to operate and run very cool. Other types of lights produce quite a bit of heat and can affect things inside the cabinets.

Meet Cocoa and Carmen, the newest residents of the house.