adding some curb appeal

As I mentioned (a long time ago, sorry!) we have been working to beautify our lovely abode. Dave was an incredibly hard worker and it's really due to him that things are looking as wonderful as they do now.
Project number one was to remedy our shutter situation. Maybe I should call it our "shudder" situation--our old shutters were HIDEOUS. All three sets were in need of paint and the two sets that were actual wood were falling apart. Most of the slats were hanging limp or missing and it looked terrible. Dave started by pulling the old ones down and we gleefully threw them away.

Our house looked a little naked once the shutters were removed

We decided it would be a lot cheaper to build the kind of shutters we were interested in, so Dave did some fancy math in Home Depot, we brought the lumber home, and Dave commenced building. He got most of the cutting done in one afternoon, got them all assembled the next day, and varnished them just in time for it to rain for 3 days straight.









After the rain stopped, we got them hung and they look so GREAT!

Handsome shutters!

Once our shutters were hung and our gravel delivered, Dave (and Jed, and me a little) spread the gravel in all our flower beds. I love to work in my flower beds, but my goal has been to get mostly perennials in there so they'll come back every year, and I have decided to be happy with where things are. I am not really looking forward to weeding in the heat when I am 8 and 9 months pregnant, so the gravel is my anti-weed solution, in addition to looking great.








We also dug out a section of grass that was REALLY struggling near our back patio and put the leftover gravel there. It looks so much better and increased our patio space quite a bit. I am really pleased with how it turned out.








The weather has been so beautiful lately and my flowers are looking gorgeous against that white gravel.
















I love this time of year here in Tejas--it's warm and everything is growing well, it's not too hot yet and the nights are cool enough to sleep with the windows open. Even though it's a lot of work, it's fun to take care of the yard and garden right now. I'm so glad we got these little projects done and I'm SO grateful for Dave's hard work!

ps. Sorry about my formatting issues. Does anyone else HATE the new Blogger?