Garden rehab & Other outdoor updates

Stick season is well underway here in the valley, and while it's been busy off and on since summer, I've still managed to get a bunch of outdoor projects done over the past five months or so. It's been quiet here on the blog, and I probably could have squeezed in a minute or two here and there to share some updates as things got done, but alas, that didn't happen.

So, please bear with me as I give a somewhat abbreviated house & yard update, in no particular order. . .

NEW (to me) FRONT DOOR!! Finally got this installed by a summer coworker, we're trading his carpentry skills for my dog-sitting capabilities. Win-win. I really love it this door. I still need to get a new storm door, but for now, I'm just glad it's finally up!

Inside!

Outside!
(please disregard the awful door frame trim color, the odd
pairing of green vinyl siding and tan shakes vinyl siding,
and the cobwebs . . . I swear they were for halloween.) 

Window detail. My favorite part, especially when the
sun shines through!

I did some renovations to the gardens along the front of the house and at the back. Gone (from here) are the day lilies & irises. in their place are a couple of potentilla, a diablo ninebark, a hydrangea, a small rhodi, a daisy clump, and a few other randoms that I can't remember now that everything is cut back. It should look great this spring!

Everything has elbow room now!

Mulch makes everything look nicer.

Another garden bed! More mowing, less growing, right? This meander features day lilies & irises that formerly resided in front of the house, and is an extension of the bed that I'd started last summer. And has a statement rock at this end. Can't forget that.

Picture this mulched, it looks much better!

And I joined the two front yard beds, in part because I found a huge stone in the back yard while planting excess lilies and irises on the back bank and needed somewhere to put it.

Not the best shot, but you can just see the stone (below) connecting the two beds

Hello, friend. not sure how I managed to lug this all over the yard -
it's an armful, and it's heavy!

Oh, a quick snapshot of the overflow bed along the back bank. It stays damp there, so it's hard to mow. Everything seemed happy through the fall, and we'll see if things come back in the spring!

Looking up the bank; lots of daylilly, iris, some ferns, and
probably some other things - it will be a surprise in the spring!

Looking down the bank; along the back cedar line there are also a bunch of
narcissus bulbs that came from the front yard bed.

A compost bin! When my wood was delivered, they brought it in a pallet "box" which basically meant this thing was pretty much finished. We added the front piece and the chicken wire.

The black bin will be used this winter along with the big bin

Did you notice something missing from in front of the house a few pictures back? Yup, that dead spruce is down & on its way to becoming firewood in another year or so. I don't miss it, but hopefully the wildlife that inhabited it the last few years doesn't hate me too much.

No more dead tree!
Soon to be firewood. . . maybe for an outdoor fire pit?

Lastly, the roof. Formerly green, like everything else on the exterior of this house, it is now a shade of gray. I wish it was because I had the finances to replace the metal with standing steam and proper sub-roofing. Rather, we went the wallet-friendly route of sealing the loose fasteners and applying a elastomeric roof-coating. We only got one coat on back in late August/early September, so I'll need to get another coat on in the spring.

Soo many gallons of paint!
Luckily, I needed less than I bought. 

My tireless painting partner. . . it was dang hot
up there, but we pushed through!

Aside from [all] those projects, the rest of the yard work is close to done. The firewood is put up, the garden beds are mostly set of the winter (just need to take care of the back), the last of the leaves were raked last week, the hoses are drained and stored for the winter. There are a few things I have in mind for the near and far future: another coat on the roof, a fire pit in the front yard, a patio under the maple on the southwest corner of the house where the grass refuses to grow nicely, and an overhaul (painting, mostly) of the back porches. We'll see where we are in the spring!

So now, with the cooler weather settling in, I'm getting some inside things accomplished - painting, knitting projects, etc. And I promise the updates on those will me a little more timely!