here is our picture as it was listed on realtor.com when we decided to buy it!
here is original landscaping and a closer view
we had already removed a lot of dead shrubs below the window
September 2016 - Our home is a crawl space and we had some wood floor that appeared to be warping. Jason crawled under the house expecting to find a leaking toilet. Instead, he found termites and some mold - both in very small areas but present.
After several phone calls, we ended up with our original builder and a contractor to agree on a plan of action. This plan will eventually span 7 months of workers (could have been 4 weeks if everyone showed up when they said they would and on time!).
We had to remove the entire porch and lower layer of siding so we could see the damage (actually minimal) and we then chose to waterproof the entire front footing of the house, and added a French drain just for safe-keeping. As a result, we had no porch and sidewalk for MONTHS.
Here you can see termite damage in the plywood.
The other area of damage was below our front door. This entire problem mostly started with the front porch settling over time, which led water to creep up by the door and then it was wet which attracted the termites.
December - scaffolding up for the stucco for weeks - including during both of our Christmas parties
After consulting many people for their input, we went with our gut to use our existing stone from our backyard pile and to add the stucco to update the house. This is a similar look as to what we would build if we were building a house. Jason, Mom, Dad, my aunts and friends all helped through the design process (yes, so thankful we sold our lot and are not building!). You can tell we covered all the siding with stucco and then added the tall wall and the short wall below the windows with stone.
the blue tarp for weeks also made a lovely addition to the aesthetic of our home!
Our front door! We went from a double door to a really wide single door with side lights.
We extended the patio to go across the front of the rock wall.
Our workers were really great at doing quality work. Just terrible at arriving and completing jobs. Except for the painter - this was one of the last things to do, and it looked like this inside our front door. Jason ended up just completing it himself.
These are picture from the porch looking down at the hole where the front door goes. You can see there was previously nothing supporting the front door (there is now! Lots of wood was added as support).
You can also see all of the damage the termites did to the flooring below our entry. Most of the wood holding up the pretty wood floor is gone...
Front porch with extended space, new door, stucco, stone and steps.
Our cool, big tree. We went for landscaping that will not have to be maintained much - other than a few shrubs to trim annually.
Nearly the final product.
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