Will someone please tell me what we used to do with our time before we owned a home and had a baby?

I still can’t explain why I didn’t use that abundant spare time to, say… learn to sew. Memorize the entire book of Proverbs. Perhaps cure some incurable disease.

Last weekend, when the weather was amazing and we had a spare moment, we got our hands dirty, pulling weeds, pruning and trying to make sure the neighbors realize that we KNOW our yard needs work.

While I was out there, I realized I never shared pictures of the exterior of our house! It still has a long way to go with the landscaping, but it’s getting closer.

This is what it looked like the day we bought it:

It wasn’t terrible, but the shrubs were overgrown and there were lots of places where the paint needed to be touched up.

One day when we were feeling adventurous, we tied a rope from the bottom of the shrubs to the back of our car, and tried to use the force of the car to pull the giant shrubs out of the dirt.

I should point out that I was super preggo at the time.

If you’re thinking that a pregnant, barefoot woman and her shirtless husband trying to yank shrubbery out of the ground using the force of their vehicle sounds a teensy bit white trashy, think again. It was VERY white trashy.

But after hours of sweating, tugging, tying and retying, and breaking the rope, we got those guys OUT.

Here’s what that looked like:

I’m not kidding: we probably had five separate neighbors pat us on the back for removing those shrubs. Or maybe they were just excited that we were putting forth some kind of effort into making the exterior look nice.

Or maybe they were just excited that I was wearing shoes.

A few months later, we painted the exterior. While I know this sounds like a super easy DIY weekend job, we realized that it was absolutely out of the realm of possibility to do ourselves. The exterior wall over the garage is three stories high – we didn’t even own a ladder that tall. We had painted the exterior of a much smaller house together before, and even with lots of help, it took FOR-EV-AH. We found a guy who did the job for a great price, and it was an easy choice.

This is what it looked like during a snowstorm not long after that paint job:

But I knew it still wasn’t quite there yet. It needed a delicious red door.

Why hello there:
And here’s where she stands today:
We’ve installed some tiny boxwoods, azaleas and a japanese maple. We bought the small ones, so for now the landscaping all looks kinda ridiculous and way too small. We’re hoping in another year or two, it’ll all grow in a little better and look more intentional.

And just because I like for you to get your money’s worth, here’s a picture of Andy and me actually trying to look white-trashy for a costume party a while back. **Just to be clear: THE HAIR AND TATTOOS ARE ALL FAKE.**