Owning a home is practically a full time job in itself. I often joke that I work harder on the weekends than I do during the work week just working on my house. But, a little maintenance every week can help save you from a costly problem down the road. I’ve compiled a list of must-do activities, by season to help you stay up to date on basic home maintenance.
Continue reading “Yearly Home Maintenance Schedule by Season”
Creating and maintaining curb appeal for your house is a big undertaking and takes a lot of upkeep. The work isn’t easy and most lawns and plants require frequent maintenance. But, curb appeal is also what can add a lot of financial and visual value to your home without investing a lot of money.
My advice for creating the ultimate curb appeal is to have a plan, keep plants simple, and keep up the maintenance for lasting value. After my great yard makeover, I only have to spend a few hours a weekend maintaining my lawn and gardens to keep my home looking beautiful.
Here are some of my favorite inspiration homes for curb appeal to give you some ideas of how simple (or elaborate) you can be.
Continue reading “Landscape Ideas for the Ultimate Curb Appeal”
One of the biggest projects I took on when I bought my home was fixing the yard and landscaping. The lawn was dead and filled with weeds, and the gardens were overgrown. This was simply not up to Style & the Suburbs standards– after all, you don’t move to the suburbs to have the worst lawn on the block!
Its the time of winter in Minnesota where I start to stop believing that it will ever be summer again. After this long winter, I can’t wait to start spring planting and planning my patio decor. Last year I styled my patio with some amazing Tommy Bahama outdoor fabric and I want to build upon the tropical theme with my patio this year. Here’s the inspiration that I’m loving right now:
The mustard yellow velvet along with the green plants is amazing. I love the retro vibes!
After being bullied the last few years by some crabby neighbors, I decided to finally take my yard back and build a privacy fence. I picked 6 foot tall panels that would look nice and do the trick to create more privacy in my yard.
We started the project by finding the property lines. In my city, there are metal pins in each corner of the lot. We easily found one, but it look a lot of measuring to figure out where the other ones were and they ended up being buried almost 18″ underground. You can find your lot dimensions in your tax records (or online) to help guide you as to where the lot lines should be.
After finding the corners of the lot, we ran a string from corner to corner to mark a straight line for the fence to follow. I decided where I wanted to fence to begin, and we dug a hole for the first post.
The best part of being a runner is all the beautiful nature scenes you get to experience (and I’ll always take an excuse to stop my run for the perfect picture). Here’s a collection of my favorite views from Mother Nature this summer!
