Yard Makeover - Project Done - Getting back into my Studio!

I moved in to my home (a spacious and 8 year young manufactured home) December 2015. And after a year the house interior is just about perfect.

I've shared one of my DIYs here.

But the yard was a sh*tshow!

So I saved up and hired a landscaper, what with my hand in recovery and honestly digging, trimming, and laying weed barrier and mulch was not my idea of a fun DIY project. What I wanted most of all was a blank slate:

no weeds
no/low maintenance
low water consumption
just neat and clean
so that I could play and design it the way I wanted it!

Here you see it - the scruffy weedy gross BEFORE and the cleaned up rather blank slate of an AFTER.

My poor flowering plum tree had long been neglected so she got a good topping and trimming, too.

And I needed some curb appeal, so since I have a "thing" with succulents, and they are so perfect for our dry and drought-prone area, and gosh, they are so cute!!! I built some planter boxes and filled some resin barrels I had and decided the front yard was going to be a succulent showstopper.

They are rough, oh yes, but all the wood was free. It split like crazy, then my cousin told me some different type of screws to use, and that helped. Omgosh, to use my power tools again was a hoot!

 My friends brought me all sorts of their succulent cuttings, and I had quite a few as well. Only had to buy a few plants from Home Depot.

So the wood was FREE
most of the succulents were FREE
i built the Planter Boxes for FREE
also, big shout out to my aunt who came and lended moral support and handed me lots of screws as I needed them
so the CURB APPEAL PROJECT was essentially FREE.
Not bad!

Now are you ready for the absolute Best-ist part of this makeover?

My little piece of heaven. This is it!

I planted all the succulents in containers, it uses less water, it's weed-free and my landscaping maintenance is as low as possible while still having some beauty around me. So there you have it. Now I am committed to being back in the studio.

• I painted the deck a coffee brown opaque stain.
• Spray painted (ugh, i HATE toxic spray paint!) the two chairs.
• I found that long yellow table shelf thingy at Good Will for $15 and painted that and that little table a sunny yellow with exterior paint.
• hung a couple of wind chimes.
• gazebo i scouted online for $199. not bad. And my friend Nancy helped me set it up and lag bolt it down.

The landscaping cost me a bunch, but the rest of the decorating was either free, thrifted, or pretty doggone affordable. Phew!

I do have one more outside project for later this summer (when things cool down) and that is clearing out my shed and setting it up as my tool/wood/framing workshop. Stay tuned!


Blessings and Paint On!
~Joanie