Gotta love a GREAT before and after. And its always best to keep them close by when planning to attack home improvements on the weekend.

Heres what we were faced with on Day 1 :

YIKES!

Here’s the plan of attack:

Plan: Take Back Our "Yard" (if you can even call it that)

And here is what I was able to snap with my iPhone on my way to work today:

Ohh - Ahh

Please note you can now: 1) See our front door  2) See ALL of our windows 3) See the neighbor’s house (thru the trees, not just b/c I was further away)

Just excuse the little blue tarp up there… we’re *hopefully* getting a new roof next week after the roofers come out, find hail damage extensive enough for a new roof, and our insurance company agrees. This would be a HUGE blessing… although the soaked, mildewing cieling in the unused bedroom at the moment is not such a blessing – thank you flood-of-the-century ‘09. BACK to what this post is truly about…

Remeber we’ve only been here since July. I’m 100% positive we have succesfully saved a TON of money by doing all this work ourselves (with help from awesome friends and family – shout out Matt, Dad, & Claw). We’ve also increased the value on our house – I don’t know by how much (any guesses) but curb appeal is definitely a HUGE part of selling a house (we’re not), and ours now looks like the cute little ranch we just knew was hiding behind all that green. We still have our work cut out for us — seeding/sodding, taking back our backyard jungle, and general landscaping — but for now, I’m ignoring that list and thanking my husband over and over for the last patch of bushes he ripped up last night (which we might have just thrown in the ivy laying down so we I could take this picture and share with all of you).

So… I guess now go find your best before and after and use that feeling of accomplishment to get some project done this weekend — or take a weekend off and bask in the awesomeness of what you were able to do!

Happy Friday