Oh my, How time flies! (2012 Improvements)

Yes, we are still alive - and perhaps this blog is too! While we did take quite a break from Home improvements in 2012, there were a few things that happened over the past 12 months that I thought I'd post (at least those that I have pictures of)!

We started 2012 pretty much as you see in the previous post, although there were quite a lot of Christmas decorations in addition to the room. But in February, we finally found several pieces to "complete" our family room.

The first piece was a chocolate brown love seat that was just big enough to fit on the wall separating the kitchen and the family room. We originally wanted a larger couch there, but there wouldn't be any room for a lamp or end table.

The second piece was a lovely coffee table that we found at the Levin's warehouse sale. With only a few scratches on it, it looked like new and was a perfect complement to our other pieces. The last two additions were side tables for the love seat and the sectional.

Finally, our room looked pretty complete, and we could also put the sectional back together the way it was intended - which meant Robbie got his long reclining area back!

Since we had most of the inside under control (or at least, were tired of fixing things up inside), we spent the summer working on the outside of the house. The biggest things to deal with were the humongous bushes that were spread everywhere around the side and back of the house.

If you were to walk around the right side of our house, this is what you would have seen - lots of huge bushes taking over the yard. Yes, they provided a lot of privacy for the back porch, but they were really just overgrown and needed to come out.

While I sadly did not get pictures of the entire process, it was similar to the earlier event I posted on Dad with the chainsaw :-) . After all was said and done, we discovered that the massive clump of bushes we thought was 5 or six, was actually more like 12-15 bushes that grew into each other. We hauled over 25 garbage bags of bushes into our garage (after we took out a lot of the useable firewood), and had to keep our "truck" outside until we could get them taken away a few at a time.

Several months later, we finally managed to dig up a few of the stumps, mulch the beds, and plant some flowers, so this is a picture of what it looked like in the late summer. LOTS of open space - we had no idea how much room we had without the bushes taking over everything! So last fall we took some time and planted some bulbs, a butterfly bush, and hopefully we'll see some more (pretty) greenery this spring!

Bright and Beautiful!

I was able to capture a few of our roses at their peak of beauty this summer - they are so fun!

Finally in Bloom!

We weren't really sure what we would find in our yard this year, since we didn't see the house at all during the month of May when everything was flowering, but much to our surprise we did manage to find a few things that blossomed around the yard!

 As I showed you a couple weeks ago, the first things to blossom were the azalea bushes. I love the bright fushia flowers that came everywhere! In the next few weeks the rhododendron bush started to open, slowly at first, right beneath our bedroom window.

We also discovered that we had lilac bushes on one side of our house, next to the garage. 

 For the week (maybe two) they were in bloom, we had some lovely smells floating around - and inside - the house, which are some of Robbie's favorite flower smells.

 Finally, this past week, the rhododendrons came into full bloom, as the azaleas died off.

 These are some of my favorites too - unfortunately with all the rain/storms we had, they are now not looking so great - but they were pretty while they lasted!

Who knows what we'll see next!

And now, for the outside!

We have spent quite some time focusing on the interior of our house. At first, it was of necessity, then it was due to the weather! Now that it is finally starting to be nice enough to go outside without a jacket of some sort, and that we have finished most of our major projects inside the house, we turn our attention to the outside of the house.

And what do we find? Well, we weren't entirely sure what we might see come up during the spring, but one thing is sure - we have a lot of bushes!

At the back of our house...

At the front of our house...

On the side of our house...

Bushes, bushes, everywhere! (No these are not all the bushes surrounding our house - only a sampling!)

This is a funny bush on the side of our house...

...Notice the shovel holding it up!

And this pyramid-shaped one is my mom's particular favorite - just an odd little thing on the side of our porch.

So in all of this greenery, shrubbery, bushery, it was nice to finally find something that wasn't just a bush. Yes, it is still a bush for most of the year, but for a couple weeks out of the year, it becomes something much more beautiful!

We'll see what else might pop up, but personally I'm waiting for the neighboring rhododendrons to open!