A To Do List to Add Curb Appeal to the Front Yard

If I had tons of money I have visions of adding a peaked roof portico to shelter guests from the rain on the front porch and expanding my pedestrian front concrete stoop into a magnificent mid-century modern deck with multiple steps down and built-in planters, with a flagstone walkway to the public sidewalk.

I would expand the garden beds, remove the tree that was planted too close to the bedroom corner of the house and have an appropriately sized tree (when mature) installed further away, and add tons of beautiful plantings.  Or I might decide to go full-blown English cottage garden, complete with white picket fence and rose bushes everywhere, and a pillared front porch with a porch swing.  I'd hire a professional landscape architect to do a fabulous design for me who would hire contractors to do all the work.  I'd never have to lift a finger except to sniff and point if something doesn't please me. Or I'd buy a Cajun (French) style cottage and fix it up to look exactly like this one:

Source:  Laurel Home blog. This is an "after" photo 

To fully appreciate the scope of the work that was done, here is the "Before" photo from the same source:



Ahhhh, I wish I had some of those trees.  I'd also have a full-time gardener to take care of it all, LOL!  To sleep perchance to dream...

Back to reality, THUD.  On a limited retirement budget, dreaming of various gorgeous front (and back) yards is fun but can also be a bit depressing.  That can paralyze you from doing anything because a few small changes here and there don't see like they'll make that much difference.  And even those few extra things will stretch the budget and make you think twice about splurges that you really should not do because what if my Medicare increases by 50% or even disappears in 2020 if Speaker of the House Paul Ryan gets his way?  I wouldn't be able to do a time reversal and unspend the money.  One must be practical.

It's hard to believe, but next month will be four years from my 2014 move in date on July 7.  Wow, time really is flying.  I'm going to be 67 in a few months.  I still have painting to do on the inside (yes, I know, me bad.  Me very very bad.)  And it makes me mad that I have to worry about spending maybe $500 in total to do some things to prettify my front yard which already looks respectable as it is.  I want to be able to enjoy my house and be satisfied with how it looks on the outside and the inside in my old age.  Is that too much to ask after working my butt off for 46 years, playing by all the rules, and saving saving saving? 

One of the first things I did after moving in here was painting the black and worse for wear mail box a bright shiny red.  I had mentioned that to a friend in passing, and as part of my birthday present in 2014 was a can of bright red gloss spray paint!  Free!  The mailbox's fate was sealed.  I love how it turned out.  I always intended to paint the front door red too, and this year, finally, in fact today - I pulled the trigger and ordered the paint to get it done!  I really want my red door, it's been silly to wait so long, so I will not wait another 4 years before I get around to actually opening the paint can and rolling on two coats of paint.

About six weeks ago, I repainted the current (old) mail box in gloss red again because rust spots were coming through, despite using Rustoleum.  That mailbox has definitely seen better days.  It may be nearly as old as the house (the house was built in 1956).  I also wanted an actual factory-finished red mailbox, not buy a less expensive black one I'd have to spray paint every few years.  So, last month, I shopped around and found one I liked online at Wayfair.  It's much larger and an entirely different style from the current traditional mailbox and I think the new mailbox is a bit more "modern" looking.  It arrived last week and it's gorgeous, but the mounting holes on the back don't fit the screws that are holding the current mailbox in place on the stone front of the house.  I don't have a drill with an attachment to drill into masonry, let alone a power screw driver, so I will hire a handyman to do that - along with a few other things that I'll note below.  Here's a pic of the new mailbox, by Nach, from Wayfair:

I also decided to add a pair of budget-friendly vinyl shutters to the ginormous picture window with oversized white vinyl trim.  I've thought about adding shutters to that window since Day 1 and, again, finally decided to pull the trigger.  It took awhile to decide upon a style as I was shopping online.  I quickly decided upon the paneled style as more suitable to the house, but then I came across some shutters that had three raised panels instead of two, and I loved the look.  But then I looked at my front door, which has four less ornate raised panels, and decided to go for a simpler two panel raised design.  This took a few days of looking looking and looking again and then stewing about it for a few nights to make up my mind.  I finally settled upon black raised panel shutters (two panels of equal size) in a premium heavy vinyl guaranteed for 50 years (if I live that long I should win a prize).  These are from Architectural Depot, which offers a huge selection of all kinds of styles and colors and free shipping:

I also ordered a new porch light, something I'd also been putting off, something a bit more modern looking (to my eyes, anyway) and a bit less traditional than the current coach lamp light, which I am not too fond of.  I found this one at Target and liked it a lot, so I pulled the trigger right away to get a 15% Father's Day discount.  It's 14.5"tall by Bel Air Lighting, and will make a statement above the cleaner lined mailbox with its equally clean lines and crackle glass:

I may also end up installing a kick plate to dress up the front door once it's painted, but it's not something I need to add right now.

This year things didn't work out with two different friends who said they would take me shopping for flowers but didn't.  I don't drive, and the garden centers are too far away to either bus to in a reasonable amount of time or are not on bus routes at all.  Plus, try lugging home two flats of flowers on the bus - I wouldn't attempt it!  Thus, my front porch planters are EMPTY!  It's really been bugging me.  Here it is, nearly July, and my planters are vacant and forlorn looking, up their on the front porch with no beautiful plants in them for people to admire as they pass by the house.  After thinking about what I could do to find some way to fill those planters, because I hate having them empty when people so enjoy the display every year, and then thinking about how much I've spend each year just on annuals alone, I decided on another splurge and ordered a pair of artificial 3-ball topiaries!  I've always wanted to buy them but never wanted to spend the money.  However, being carless (and even if I had access to a vehicle, I don't know how to drive, LOL!), beggars can't be choosers, so I found a good deal at QVC online for 3-foot tall topiaries that I fell in love with, and got a 5% discount plus a slight additional monetary discount by purchasing through Ebates.  Every dollar saved helps.  Here they are, so elegant!

   

They will be anchored firmly inside my white Chippendale style planter boxes so the black pots, which I know will tip over in the first breeze to come along if not inside the planter boxes, will be stable and hidden.

The handyman I hire will install the mailbox, the new light fixture, and the shutters. I'll paint the door. I'm also planning out some changes to the front yard garden beds that won't cost me anything but time and a lot of sweat, huffing and puffing in the heat and humidity and bug bites (they bite me even through Deep Woods Off, heavy jeans, sweatshirts and knee socks on).  It involves transplanting some current perennials I already have elsewhere that need to be thinned out and/or divided - beauty at no cost and they'll fill in bare spots I'd been planting every year with annuals, not good for the pocketbook buying new every year.  Trimming shrubs is also on the menu.

Project List:

1.  Paint front door
2.  Have new mailbox installed
3.  Have new light fixture installed
4.  Have new shutters installed
5.  Install pair of topiaries on front porch
6.  Trim miniature barberry bushes in front planting beds (they're not looking so miniature right now)
7.  Divide and transplant some giant Iris to front planting beds
8.  Remove and transplant giant volunteer columbine that appeared last year by magic and reseeded itself this year, right over a miniature Spirea
9.  Divide and transplant some hostas from backyard to front garden beds (probably a fall project)

I'm going to be busy!