From One Shade of White to Color

First the fence had to be built (see All Fenced In) and then the fence had to be painted (see One Shade of White).  But the most fun and important part of this multi-phase project was selecting and installing the landscaping.  Consulting with a landscape designer, poring over books, pictures, and plant catalogs for weeks, we settled on the "country garden" look along the fence line.  We did all the planting ourselves - no small feat for such a long fence line, and the award goes to Rob for digging ALL of the holes. 

Here's the process from bare ground to plantings:

We then added soaker hoses along the entire planting line, installed on a handy timer so the plants won't be scorched and die of thirst while we are in Philly.

And a full trailer of mulch was quickly depleted.

 

Although it needs time to grow and meld into the "look" and we still need to plant a row of roses behind the fence to softly creep over the top, we do have progress, and that is the important point.  It beats mud and dirt, for sure and the yard is looking a less like a construction zone all the time.

Project Shutter Painting: Completed!

You may have noticed that the picture of  "Glenlochan Today" at the top of this blog has been updated.  If you look closely, you will see that this is the first picture of Glenlochan with ALL of the shutters installed.  Yup, that's right, the end of this year-long plus project arrived and I finally was able to check shutter painting off the list for a very long while (see:  Painting Shutters is not for the Perfectionist.)  I logged hours and hours on this project and Rob had them all hung in less than half a day. 

The long process included lugging shutters to Philly so I could work on the caulking and painting at all times, pictured here in the Philly small backyard:

Finally, the day arrived, in the breezeway of Glenlochan, when I put the very last coat on the very last shutter - it was a banner moment that had to be recorded:



Installation was a breeze:

And this project is a wrap....shew!