[MENTION=4700]Miss Esa[/MENTION] and I purchased our first single family home and moved in over the past 2 weeks basically from our Condo (which we are now selling).
We purchased the house because of prime location, layout, and most major items had been recently addressed (AC/Furnace 2011, Siding/Roof/Garage Door 2015, Flooring/Carpet 2014, Kitchen Cabinets and appliances 2015) all the while this was not a 'flip' (owner had the house since 1998, his wife passed and plans changed). However, the interior has hints of the 70's that I'm removing one room at a time, and the landscaping is pretty tired.
Moving On;
I'm 100% comfortable tackling interior projects (Minor electrical, setting up home automation, installing appliances, Painting, Etc, Etc).
I've MOWED yards before when I was renting and before that when I lived with my folks as its not rocket science, but now I'd like to really make our yard 'nice' as this year goes on and hardly know where to start, and am curious what everyone else does.
I am also looking to generally improve the exterior appearance as the house has a brand new garage door, roof, and siding which makes it look very bare with the sad state of the exterior vegetation especially in the front/sides.
I've asked a few folk the questions I have below, and get mixed results as few people I talk to frequently have the same setup as we do now (most of my friends have apartments/condo's, and my home owner friends properties are more hill-rod than suburban). Google has a billion opinions on all of these topics, curious to hear from people with actual hands-on experience over some random article though.
Onto my questions:
#1) So far I purchased the Scotts 4 step program and a spreader, and I'm going to simply follow the directions on the packaging. Any Tips/Tricks with this?
#2) There are some areas that are 'thin', or otherwise a little sad, I assume the lawn food in step 1 from scotts will help that, but I'm looking to what else I should tackle on that front.
#3) I have a pair of decent sized pines on my property (maybe 50 feet? they are taller than the house and I'm not good at gauging this, and about 20-25 feet apart). They've been kept up well, but they seem to obliterate the grass around them. It has Mulch on the dirt, but isn't exactly appealing. I plan on Edging the grass to make it look nicer, anyone else have pines? how do you landscape around them? Or do you just Edge and mulch it?
#4) I have another large tree with buck-thorn coming out the side of it at the base, I plan on just hacking off that part, but why does that happen, and any precautions I should take?
#5) The sides of my house are pretty barren (Facing North and South), and one side has my Radon Mitigation system which is a bit of an eye sore (Just a big white box hanging out on the side of my house out in the open). What have you guys done for Shrub coverage for things like this? Lower-Light due to the sides of the house, and 4-5 feet tall is how high I'd like to cover.
#6) The radon mitigation system's piping is White which is a bit contrasting against the side of our house even if we conceal the 'box' at the base. I've seen some people paint them to blend it in better, thoughts? My house is a light blue color.
#7) The house still has original windows (1973), which is the only significant item it really needs replaced in the not terribly distant future . I feel pretty confident in my trim work skills and have done some basic structural building/remodeling, how hard is it to replace windows yourself? Or is it not worth the trouble and I should just pay someone to tackle it? I have 4 windows on the main floor that are each almost floor to ceiling in height, and a fairly standard width. 3 'half' windows in the lower level (Split-level house), and maybe 5 'regular' windows in the upper level. No screen doors, Just a front and rear door, both with small glass panes in them that are newer and in good shape.
#8) Who has Doggie Doors? Pros/Cons? We have a pair of 50lb dogs that love roaming outside and our back yard is fenced in. We live in Wheaton, and since the doors have glass in them anyways, I'd imagine if someone wants to break in bad enough a doggie door isn't going to be any more attractive of a target than just punching out one of the small panes in the back door. That being said, I feel like this could have other issues like not sealing well, allowing in water? I don't know, but I'm curious who has real-life experience with having one.
#9) I'm slowly working on home automation via the Wink app, and compatible devices (as there is a huge number of them). Anyone else have experience with the Wink stuff specifically? I'm loving it so far, and looking for other things to do with it (Maybe the garage door next?).
I'm sure I'll have more, but that's just the start of the list
We purchased the house because of prime location, layout, and most major items had been recently addressed (AC/Furnace 2011, Siding/Roof/Garage Door 2015, Flooring/Carpet 2014, Kitchen Cabinets and appliances 2015) all the while this was not a 'flip' (owner had the house since 1998, his wife passed and plans changed). However, the interior has hints of the 70's that I'm removing one room at a time, and the landscaping is pretty tired.
Moving On;
I'm 100% comfortable tackling interior projects (Minor electrical, setting up home automation, installing appliances, Painting, Etc, Etc).
I've MOWED yards before when I was renting and before that when I lived with my folks as its not rocket science, but now I'd like to really make our yard 'nice' as this year goes on and hardly know where to start, and am curious what everyone else does.
I am also looking to generally improve the exterior appearance as the house has a brand new garage door, roof, and siding which makes it look very bare with the sad state of the exterior vegetation especially in the front/sides.
I've asked a few folk the questions I have below, and get mixed results as few people I talk to frequently have the same setup as we do now (most of my friends have apartments/condo's, and my home owner friends properties are more hill-rod than suburban). Google has a billion opinions on all of these topics, curious to hear from people with actual hands-on experience over some random article though.
Onto my questions:
#1) So far I purchased the Scotts 4 step program and a spreader, and I'm going to simply follow the directions on the packaging. Any Tips/Tricks with this?
#2) There are some areas that are 'thin', or otherwise a little sad, I assume the lawn food in step 1 from scotts will help that, but I'm looking to what else I should tackle on that front.
#3) I have a pair of decent sized pines on my property (maybe 50 feet? they are taller than the house and I'm not good at gauging this, and about 20-25 feet apart). They've been kept up well, but they seem to obliterate the grass around them. It has Mulch on the dirt, but isn't exactly appealing. I plan on Edging the grass to make it look nicer, anyone else have pines? how do you landscape around them? Or do you just Edge and mulch it?
#4) I have another large tree with buck-thorn coming out the side of it at the base, I plan on just hacking off that part, but why does that happen, and any precautions I should take?
#5) The sides of my house are pretty barren (Facing North and South), and one side has my Radon Mitigation system which is a bit of an eye sore (Just a big white box hanging out on the side of my house out in the open). What have you guys done for Shrub coverage for things like this? Lower-Light due to the sides of the house, and 4-5 feet tall is how high I'd like to cover.
#6) The radon mitigation system's piping is White which is a bit contrasting against the side of our house even if we conceal the 'box' at the base. I've seen some people paint them to blend it in better, thoughts? My house is a light blue color.
#7) The house still has original windows (1973), which is the only significant item it really needs replaced in the not terribly distant future . I feel pretty confident in my trim work skills and have done some basic structural building/remodeling, how hard is it to replace windows yourself? Or is it not worth the trouble and I should just pay someone to tackle it? I have 4 windows on the main floor that are each almost floor to ceiling in height, and a fairly standard width. 3 'half' windows in the lower level (Split-level house), and maybe 5 'regular' windows in the upper level. No screen doors, Just a front and rear door, both with small glass panes in them that are newer and in good shape.
#8) Who has Doggie Doors? Pros/Cons? We have a pair of 50lb dogs that love roaming outside and our back yard is fenced in. We live in Wheaton, and since the doors have glass in them anyways, I'd imagine if someone wants to break in bad enough a doggie door isn't going to be any more attractive of a target than just punching out one of the small panes in the back door. That being said, I feel like this could have other issues like not sealing well, allowing in water? I don't know, but I'm curious who has real-life experience with having one.
#9) I'm slowly working on home automation via the Wink app, and compatible devices (as there is a huge number of them). Anyone else have experience with the Wink stuff specifically? I'm loving it so far, and looking for other things to do with it (Maybe the garage door next?).
I'm sure I'll have more, but that's just the start of the list