patio glow-ups & curb appeal
BEFORE: A typical Arlington "rambler" (what they call "ranch" style here, for some reason), with a concrete front porch and a Wheelchair Ramp of Death that is not built to code and will most certainly catapult you out onto the four-lane street.
AFTER: New everything. Gray paint on the brick, new mailbox, new door, new house numbers, and an ingenious (if I do say so myself) plan to redo the front porch without jackhammering out any of the old stuff (including the ramp). A planter covers the ramp on the left, with stepped levels and rocks and faux greenery (this house got a LOT of sun and heat and nothing would grow in the front yard), with beautiful slate walls, and a matching nub of the same on the other side to give it balance. The front walk was cut into at regular intervals with a concrete saw to create channels into which little pebbles could go to create a more mid-mod look.
BEFORE: Lovely house, crappy concrete driveway. There are plans to do a concrete stain in a stencil in the future, but for now, even though we have a back deck we prefer hanging out in the front where we can talk to neighbors and the kids' play area is on the same level as where we are sitting so we spend more time together. You can see the sad concrete driveway to the left.
AFTER: I used patio furniture to define a space, about 2/3 of the driveway that we use for our patio. The outdoor rug is missing from this picture as I was about to powerwash.
And here's the space at night. All of the ground lights are solar.
I am in love with the patterns these lights cast on the patio.
These solar lights flank our front gate.
the little fairy garden with solar fairy lights next to our Little Free Libraries
You can see the grass here is still recovering from The Great Sewer Fiasco of 2023.
buddha at night
buddha during the day, shaded by Yoshi II, my little Japanese maple
BEFORE: Beautiful, unique house, with a truly impressive garden, but you can't even see most of the work that's been done because the yard just blends into the sidewalk and the yards on either side. The front walk opening is behind that blue car (this is an old google street view), but you can't even see an opening in the vegetation.
AFTER: a horizontal midcentury cedar fence delineates and defines the yard, bisecting the "private pollinator garden" on the inside from the public facing ornamental shrubs on the exterior.
BEFORE: Who doesn't love a nice big deck right off the main living area? It's hard to figure out how to arrange something like this, however.
AFTER: I defined an outdoor "living room" conversation area with a rug and coffee table surrounded by these great black chairs and loveseat from Target years ago, all warmed by a patio heater. In the corner, two yellow chairs nestle up to the firepit. At right, a full-size dining table with benches provides a place to eat outdoors without having to balance your plate on your lap (or have it low enough on the coffee table to be eaten by the dog!).
I'm a sucker for little Zen touches.
I love this descending path on the side of the house. So lush!
We have two little free libraries (one for grownups and one for littles) so I couldn't pass up this mama frog and baby frog reading on a bench to go next to them.
After the BEFORE, but before the AFTER.... In March 2023 our sewer line collapsed under our house, necessitating our front yard be completely dug up (destroying one of the fence panels and trampling all of the vegetation) as well as jackhammering up a full fourth of our basement floor (more on that elsewhere). This was NOT FUN.
our poor fence....
it took a lot of work (and a lot of trips to the nursery!) but I've got it back now and looking mostly even better than before!
a tiny snail makes a hiding place cave out of a wrinkle in this rain-soaked lamb's ear
Our yard has hundreds of big, fat bees in the spring, it's amazing.
