Curb Appeal

When Philip first toured our current house, which was listed as a foreclosure, he emailed me this photo of it, and I was head over heals in love! It was the yellow stucco, clay-tile roofed house I had always dreamed of living in!

The problem was, when I went to see the house, it looked more like this. Not the curb appeal I had been expecting.

These photos don't fully show just how overgrown it was, as these were taken for the previous house listing before the house sat empty and unmaintained for nine months. It was so overgrown, you couldn't see the gorgeous detail of the house that I first fell in love with. As much as I love huge old trees, because they remind me of the green, tree-lined streets I grew up on in the mid-west, we decided this olive tree had to go. So our first project was to cut down the olive tree. We also moved the lemon tree that was blocking the front window to the side of the house, and replaced it with a palm. We cut down the oleanders on the sides of the front window and replaced with them with airier Mexican bird of paradise shrubs (which unfortunately aren't in bloom right now). We planted a few more flowering shrubs around the palm, filled the bowl in front of the window with an assortment of cactus (Phil's favorite!), and planted some flowering vines on the right side of the house. And we had about 10 tons of granite poured in the front yard, took down the driveway gates and added accent lighting. So, after a few days of hard labor, and the help of my amazing inlaws, we can now see the beautiful house we fell in love with: