Garden Update - Year 4

As the leaves start to turn and fall off the trees, I thought it was a good time to update the progress on the garden at our own home.  If you've been following along for awhile, you'll remember that we started with a blank slate.  

I went to Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens for their Garden Design program and created a 5 year plan for our 1/2 acre yard.  It was an amazing program and I learned so much! 

Garden Design - 2023

Much of the 1/2 acre lot was a blank slate 

I guess what surprises me the most is how quickly the landscape has started to change.  And with a really wet spring, my plants exploded in size.

The garden started taking shape in year 2 and really exploded this year!

And now the yard feels totally different (or course the house changed quite a bit too!).

We have winding garden paths

A 'secret' garden, formed with trees and shrubs to hide it from the rest of the yard. 

A patio surrounded by perennials and a native stone wall (that came with the house)

And a wonderful mixture of native pollinators that attract all the bees and butterflies.

One of the biggest changes was the kitchen garden.  We inherited a large grapevine, which had taken over the garage windows.  My husband chopped it back and over the last couple of years we've gotten that side of the garage completed with new windows, siding and an arbor to support the grapes.  Now it's home to our kitchen garden.  It's still a work in progress, but it's come so far! 

Overgrown might be an understatement

And what we found underneath was pretty scary

Kitchen Garden - Year 1

Kitchen Garden Year 4

One of my favorite projects this year was fixing the old stone wall.  There was originally a dangerous stone staircase on the back of the house.  We removed most of it, but the remaining 'steps' sloped into the foundation creating water issues.  Chase from CPC Masonry came out and made it look fabulous!

Are we done?  Ha! No.  In fact, many of the Year 4 elements just didn't get done this year, so they will move to year 5.  But the change is still so dramatic and I love wandering out there to appreciate it (and pull some weeds, because seriously, there is always work to be done!)

But as much as I love the garden, I might love the sunrise more! 

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Introducing the Classic Cape

I've renovated a lot of houses over the years, but never a classic center hall Cape Cod. So it's pretty exciting to try something new!

It has some curb appeal, don't you agree?

According to city records, this house was built in 1927, with 1344 square feet.  So it's not a big house, but it has lots of potential.  The previous owners bought it in 1967, so it's certainly ready for some updates.

Like many center hall homes in this area, the front door opens to a tiny foyer with the stairs and a small closet directly in front of you.

To the left is a really big living room.  It's 12 x 27, with a big original fireplace.  

I'm not exactly sure what the bungee cords are for, but given the insulation, I'm guessing a cold draft came down from the chimney. 

To the right of the foyer is the dining room.  It's a nice sized room and I kinda like the wallpaper, although given all the renovation we'll be doing, I'm not sure it would survive.

Look how the sun shines in!!!

And the kitchen?  Well it's unusually large for an old house and I can't wait to figure out how we can update it!

But as you look closer you start to notice things.  Like the water stained ceiling tiles, that are drooping in numerous places.  And the 9" floor tiles, which almost always means asbestos. And who knows what else we will find as we start to peel back layers!

On the back of the house is a 3 season porch.  A really, really tired 3 season porch.  

When we were looking at the house I jumped up and down, to see how sturdy it was.  My husband immediately looked panicked 😂.  

We went outside and looked and discovered the porch is perched on a bunch of concrete blocks.  And evidently when it started to sink, they jacked it up and popped some 2x6's to hold it up.  Obviously not good building practice!  

Upstairs there is a nice wide hallway that leads to 3 bedrooms and a bathroom.  The first bedroom is nice sized, with two large windows and a decent closet.

Look at that built in linen cabinet!  So cool!

The second bedroom is a bit smaller, but gets tons of natural light from a south east facing set of windows.

The third bedroom is pretty small and has this interesting saran wrap festoon hanging from the ceiling.  I guess it's to catch water from a roof leak?  There is a lot of flaking plaster!

I guess this is instead of a bucket to catch a roof leak?

And the bathroom?  Well you can probably guess we will gut it down to the studs.

The backyard is larger than most SoPo yards and has a deck built against the 1 car garage.  

While the photos are helpful, a floor plan may make it easier to put it all together.

So our assessment - it's got good bones with lots of potential!  What do you think? 

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Basements Can Be Beautiful

It's hard to believe a basement can be beautiful when you start with something like this.  It was wet (even though we were in the midst of a drought) with a homemade french drain running across the floor.  The antique furnace ate up much of the space, with octopus like ducts stretching all over the place. 

And then there was the scary staircase that we had numerous contractors fall down....before we decided it had to be replaced with a code compliant one.

Such shallow steps!!! 

New, code-compliant staircase

What else did we do? We had a french drain installed around the perimeter and a sump pump sends all the water outside.

All the pipes drain into the new sump pump

A trench with drainage pipe was installed all around the basement

We added spray foam insulation that both insulates and air seals all the gaps around the foundation and sills.  This makes the house more comfortable, but also prevents the condensation in summer that happens when warm moist air hits the cold walls - creating that icky 'basement smell'.

And finally, we could start finishing the space!  Drywall went up on the ceiling and we installed wide format beadboard paneling on the walls. 

The result?  Well, does this look like your idea of a finished basement?  It's a pretty amazing space! 

The new staircase is such a wonderful improvement! 

While the finished spaces are great, we were still able to create a utility room for laundry and storage - as well as all the mechanicals. 

And with more people working from home, a dedicated office space is incredibly important! 

See - it is possible to take a wet, nasty basement and make it into fabulous living space that the whole family can enjoy!  

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