So glad to hear it! Love those guys!

xo,
s

Hey Elisa,

Here’s a post with that info for you (we used a pushable grass-seed spreader and walked around seeding the yard): http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/05/welcome-to-the-jungle/

Hope it helps!

xo,
s

Hey Brittany,

We went with Shady Tree Service (William’s the owner and he’s great). Just google around for the info! Hope it helps.

xo,
s

Love your blog!

Hey Drago,

It’s totally a personal preference thing, but just like we mentioned in our previous comment…

“my secret dream is to start a neighborhood initiative where everyone on our street gets the same classic and clean mailbox so they all match and it looks that much more charming driving down our street. I know it might sound a little Stepford, but everyone has different mailboxes with different colors and materials and I always think about what a huge neighborhood upgrade it would be. But could I convince a bunch of strangers that we should all spring for the same post and mailbox… and could we all agree on one model? We shall see…”

All of the houses and landscaping in our neighborhood are extremely varied, so it’s not like it would look like a street full of insanely similar homes and mailboxes, we just thought it would be charming to drive down our hilly street and NOT see the mailboxes, and the easiest way to not notice them would be if they all blended together instead of clashing and looking like a mismatched hodge podge of plastic, metal, paint and wood. Again, it’s a personal opinion thing though, so do what makes you happy!

xo,
s

Now that we’re starting on some minor landscaping, my neighbors stopped by and had a chat about our mailbox. It came with the house and they told us that they were trying to get the whole road to convert to a single style (if not color) of box. They kept trying to convince us how great an idea it was, and I have to say we were kind of put off. We couldn’t figure out why anyone would want the same mailbox in front of every house, or why people didn’t think it was rude to suggest it. I’m not trying to insult you guys, it’s a free country, but they got all angry and stormed off when I asked why we would want to do that. Could you articulate why they were interested in cloning the mailboxes? I only ask because I saw you suggest the same thing.

I like the trellis that you attached to the chimney by the way, it gives it a more positive focus than just “that part of my house that sticks out”!

Thanks!

Hey Jessie,

We actually hired a licensed and insured tree company to tackle our trees. You definitely don’t want someone getting hurt on your property (they can sue you!) or a non-expert messing up and causing a tree to fall on you, your house or the power lines (yikes!) so it pays to hire the best man for the job. Of course we got a number of estimates and went with the one that best fit our budget. Many of our trees were huge so smaller companies couldn’t handle them, but the good news is that we got some of the cost of the tree removal written into our offer for the house (so we paid less at closing to offset the price of some of the tree work). I guess if yours are very small you can probably get someone on Craigslist to help, but be careful! In the end it was definitely money well spent to have a pro dealing with the giant oaks that used to reside in our front lawn- and we love coming home to a lighter house with less moss and mildew on the roof and a much more inviting yard (which of course upped our whole house’s value). Hope it helps!

xo,
s