lindybarts-wow! that looks amazing!! Wanna take a shot at my house? I am serious need of some new landscaping ideas. My husband didn't want to add anything, but now that he 'left'....the house is all mine. Well, 3 kids and dogs too! Here's the photo. If you don't have time...no problem, I just cant believe how great that house looks now! Ignore the old fall decorations! It seems so darn boring to me. Plus, I need projects...it helps me through the divorce process.

Hey lisa -- I'm sure you will get lots of help on your lovely home, but you might want to start a new thread for your house so that you don't highjack zipdee's photoshop thread. Love those windows above your door, btw.

zipdee, Oh my goodness, I wouldn't tear out those brick steps. I like what lindybarts has done with them and don't think wooden ones would look nearly as nice.

I do think you could grow St Augustine grass in the shade in NC but would check with the pros on that. That being said, I think I prefer the expanded beds with something shade loving in it - for example hosta and small azaleas would probably do nicely (looks like them in the PS photo)and impatiens as happyladi already mentioned. For many years I had a shady yard and all these did so well.

I find your home to be very charming and love the yellow. Then again, I'm partial to yellow houses and have one myself (though now with full blazing sun)

Lisa, like Sarah mentioned, it would be better if you started another thread with your photoshop request. Then others will also see it and can add their ideas. I'll try to work on yours a bit later.

zipdee, I did a couple more. Found a decent photo of wooden steps but I also agree with fussy chicken that the brick steps really look nice. I did another one with your old door which I also like and then one with a black door and wrought iron and black shutters. Very Classic! Anything jumping out at you?

lindybarts, that last one looks great! I love the black shutters and door.
Diane

I really like the stairs - I think they are important to your architecture in that they help to tie in the columns on the side of the home that are made with the same material. What I would do is take the sidewalls off of the brick stairs. The wooden stairs look nice too, but I think brick adds curb appeal and a more updated elegant element to it. What about putting two planters at the base of the brick stairs on each side where the sidwalk fans out? The stairs seem wide enough that you could get away with this and still have plenty of room to negotiate.

Your house is symmetrical, so I would put two of the same size planters/plants on each side of the door on the porch to keep it in balance.

If you decide to widen the sidewalk, another option would be to add a brick edging along with walkway - you could do one row of parallel bricks on each side, or you could get away with a basketweave pattern on each side (you could even salvage the existing bricks from the sidewall of the stairs if you decide to take that down).

Let us know what you decide. I'd love to see the finished product. I'm sure no matter what you do, your house will look just as lovely. It's quite cozy looking.

Good luck!

oh, that last one is sooo pretty! the shutters and darker door look great. such a pretty house:-)

I love the brick steps and the black door. That would be my choice.

St. Augustine grass will grow in moderate shade, but the problem with maples is that they are shallow rooted and suck all the moisture up.

I would widen the beds some and add fresh topsoil before planting (blue) hydrangeas, azalaes, pieris or kalmia (any or all would look great!). Edge with blue torenias, they have a yellow eye that would spark with the house color.

Lindybarts, Fantastic job! Wow, the house looks great, thank you so much for taking the time !! :) I really have to say, I like the wooden steps much better. It's very hard to tell in the picture, but the brick steps on the front are awful! They do not match the original brick on the patio or piers under the columns. Also the craftsmanship is really poorly done on them, the mortar lines are atrocious. So far, I think the black door may be my favorite. Love the plants you've added and the brick walkway too, they both add so much!

Could I ask you to one more if you get a chance? Only if you have time though, I don't want to be a pest. Could you please do a stained front door, something close to the color of the shakes on the dormer. You are right, if we go with sidelights, the whole door frame would have to be removed and redone, we do have room to do it though, we have a fairly wide front hall. It would be nice to bring more light to the front of the house.

Thanks so much to everyone that has taken the time to contribute to this post. I love reading all of your ideas and appreciate your help, please keep the ideas coming!

Lisa, very pretty house! Good luck on your updates.

Well, lindybarts changed my mind about the wood steps. They do look great with the railing in her virtual! I love the shutters and dark door too.

Okie Dokie, stained door (is that close to the right color?) Did you like the shutters? I took them off because they didn't blend as well with the stained door. Added some potted plants on the steps for Kimcoco. ;c)

I like this last one. I love the planters on the railing. They look like window boxes, too.

BTW, beautiful house.

The last one did it for me! I think it looks lovely!!!

Don't care for the mixmox of flowers across the front, especially not a mix of pink, purple and red flowers. Professional landscapers use repeat groupings of *same* flowers throughout the yard for greatest impact. At least keep within same color. Just my two cents. Lots more of similar advice in the Landscaping Forum.

Oh my, Zipdee -- is it just me? That front porch just cries out for an old fashioned porch swing. And if you don't love your front door I sure would love to have it!

Porch swing! Yes!

re shade: we have had trees elevated (lower branches pruned off) and thinned. The trees grow a more graceful canopy eventually, but until that happens, the elevating & thinning allows more light on the grass (improves the air flow around the house too). It also gets rid of weak, disease-prone branches & makes the trees stronger.

I'm also in for the porch swing - it's so homey! You could also add some wicker chairs or rocking chairs for seating - the house is so charming. Thanks for adding the planting pots, Lindy. :) I may need your expertise on another thread with my house!!

I like the last pic too - and I don't remember if we're changing the front door, but I do prefer the square window to the round one with this house. The only thing the last pic is missing are the shutters - plantation shutters would look fantastic on your house! The brick pavers on the walkway looks nice too.

I would measure the planting bed according to how high the porch railing is from the ground - whatever that distance is, use that as your guide for the depth of the planting bed. I think that's the general rule to follow, if I remember correctly.

Like you, we have a huge maple up front and it drives me crazy because we have such a hard time growing grass. I'm trimming it up this year to allow more light to get through, but we still have to water the lawn regularly just to keep it growing. *sigh*

I added a link below - it looks like those brick steps ARE original (or at least someone's attempt at making them look original) since they seem to be a common theme for plantation style homes.

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Creole Plantation Home

I love the stained door!! It looks so true to character for the house! I will start another thread later. I realized after I posted that I hijaced a thread! Would never do that intentionally...got a little carried away :) I would love to buy that
software...is it pricey? Of course...then I would be redoing everything in and around my house! Zipdee...I love your house!

LindyBarts, thanks so much for putting the stained door on! I think that's my favorite so far, it helps tie the shakes in up top. I really do like the shutters, but after taking the red ones off we had on, I think I'm ready for a change. Thank you for taking the time to do these mock-up, they really helped me visualize!!

Thanks so much for the help and advice everyone!! You all have given tons of things to think about. I think a porch swing is a great idea. It could go where we have the wicker chairs now and the chairs could be moved to the opposite side of the porch.

I'm going to pull out the original door to the house again and go for it this time. It's going to be a lot of work to the get it back, but I'm going to give it a shot since it would be the perfect color when stained and it has the square half light. I'll remove the hardware and glass today and remove that strip going around the door .. the one with the nails, yikes! Then try to strip it, fill the little nail holes and then restain.

One last question .. Should I stay with just the single door or try to find sidelights to match? If I do find sidelights, they would probably have to be painted white like the trim and the door would be stained, since the door is really old heart pine. What do you guys think?

Here's the original front door again. It's hard to see the nailed on strip that runs the perimeter of the door, that's the part that worries me because of the damage. I'll try to fill the holes and hopefully they'll stain so it's not too noticeable.

Just go with this if I can't get it back or sidelights too?
{{!gwi}}

Zipdee,

Love that original door. Hopefully the holes will fill without showing too much - it's a beautiful brown. If the holes look too bad, that door would also look great painted black. I think replacing the glass with clear beveled glass in a design would really make it a Wow factor when coming up on your porch.

Zipdee, I absolutely adore the original door! As for sidelights or not, that's a tough one. On our new home I struggled with that decision, but since most of the older homes that we were trying to emulate didn't have them, we decided to go without. I think there's a good argument for either way. If the interior is really dark, it might benefit from the extra light from them, but I *really* love your house without, and even though I normally love shutters, I love your house without them. I think it brightens up the porch area and makes it cheerier without.

Don't care for the mixmox of flowers across the front, especially not a mix of pink, purple and red flowers. Professional landscapers use repeat groupings of *same* flowers throughout the yard for greatest impact. At least keep within same color. Just my two cents. Lots more of similar advice in the Landscaping Forum

Well since I'm not anywhere near a professional landscape designer (obviously), the "mixmox" of flowers was somewhat intentional. Just cutting and pasting pretty stuff to see what they look like up against a house. Sometimes I will pull from the advice of others on what type of plants to put in there since I have no idea about zones etc. If a poster wants professional landscape advice, they could wander over to the other forum. But I've been over there before...scary, that's for sure. :c(

Zipdee...that original door is to die for!! I'm so excited you're going to refinish it. I would prefer sidelights if they fit easily and you don't have to do a major overhaul. Let's see if I can find some white sidelights to see how it looks with your door. If you could take another photo of the door straight on, I could plop it in your photo easier. Love the porch swing idea too!!!!

Lindy

Lindy~ROFLMAO at your landscaping comment. "They" are pretty scary over there, I consider it rather a privelege and a joy to give advice freely on this forum. I picked up right away that you were trying out some of my suggestions, you're a sweetheart.

Lisa~I can't wait for your thread. You're lucky to get the house, it's gorgeous. Hang in there.

Zipdee, I love that original door and it is the perfect colour.

Trailrunner has a beautiful big open porch too and had huge pots of full green ferns hanging on each side of the porch. I unashamedly stole her idea and got so many compliments. I think the same would look great on your porch and work in the shade too.

Hahahahahaha! You are SO right! You have to be crazy to offer any advice in the landscaping forum. I think you are right to try different things to see how it will look - just good if the homeowner knows that is the deal! LOL!

I have a question about Photoshop. I noticed I have a Photoshop icon on my desktop. Does that mean I am able to take pics of my house and have fun with all the options I've been seeing on here??? I do not know alot about the computer so I have no idea how to even begin using it. Thanks for your help.

I think sidelights would look beautiful, but do you have room? Or would that be more construction? I love the look of ferns hanging on a front porch..unfortunately, I can never seem to keep them alive!
Prariegirl-I started a thread. Thanks again!

I love the original front door. I think if you refurbish it while leaving stained you wouldn't need sidelights. The door speaks for itself!!

shorebird, I have Photoshop Elements. I can't imagine it would come free with your computer since it's about $80. Maybe what you have though is a basic version that you could still play with? Give it a click and see what it does! ;c)

Lindybarts,
Thanks for your help with Photoshop. I will try to take a look at it one of these days but I know it's not the same as what you have. Also...I am not able to post any photos on here but I could really use some help with the front of our house...I know how to email the pics but can't post them here. If I email them to you, could you take a look at them and see what kind of ideas you can come up with??? Thanks.

Sorry I'm just getting back to this, we had a little emergency yesterday. My oldest daughter had an accident in school. I had to bring her to the Peds, then for X-rays. On the up side nothing is broken, it ended up being a bad sprain. She's taking today off from school and going to rest here.

Lindy, I don't think I could get a good straight on pic of the door now. I had a chance to get the hardware off, glass out and the front stripped before the school called. Thanks for offering though, you've been super generous to do these mock-ups!

The door so far is stripping super easy, that's the good news. The bad news is it wasn't stained, just varnished. That is just it's natural color from the wood aging over the years. Heart pine gets darker and darker as it ages, I'm sure exposure to the sun helped that along too. The problem that causes is how to blend in the nail holes I have to fill, without going much darker on the door. I'm not sure that can be done. I'll have to see how it works out, I have a feeling you're going to see a regular pattern of the nail holes going around the whole perimeter. I may be able to live with it if it's not too bad, it is an old door and has seen a long life.

Update :

Brick stairs are off, wood stairs are on, they are just primed here. After looking at a lot of different styles of top rails, we decided to keep them very simple to go more with the house.

The brick stairs while not very attractive were *VERY* stout, they required a jackhammer. Once we cut them in half down the middle we used our skid steer to pick up each half and remove them. While we were at it, we removed the front sidewalk too. There was actually two sidewalks, a newer one laid over the original. This week we'll have sand dropped and my DH will pick up the brick at the brickyard. So next weekend we'll be redoing the sidewalk if all goes well. I'm trying to decide if I want to do a basket weave to match the patio or a simple running bond.

Few pics and yes I have a skid steer parked in my front yard right now *LOL* .. I'm calling it a lawn ornament .. maybe I should buy a gnome to sit in the drivers seat ;)

{{!gwi}}

{{!gwi}}

I just threw all the 'sod' back into the dug up path until next week. Can't waste grass around this place it's hard to come by. ;)

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Patio around the side of the porch .. with basket weave:

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Holy Cromoley, you work fast!!

The stairs look fantastic. Hope the door turns out okay. I don't have advice, just loved the look of that old door.

Oh Zipdee, you've made my day! I love seeing how the finished product is turning out. The wooden stairs look really beautiful! I can't wait to see the rest and I hope the door comes out in all her glory!! ;c)

Thanks Budge and Lindy!

The stairs themselves were only a half a day project to build. It was the demo of the old stairs that was the hard part! Even with a jackhammer, it was nuts! I'm really glad once we got them in half, we could then get the forks on the skid steer under and lift them away, other wise we'd still be sitting there.

I have the door totally stripped now and it's waiting to sand. I just have to wait for a nice day, it's raining pretty good this morning. I think after doing a lot of research and reading, what I'm going to do is sand, then the first coat of poly, then fill the holes with 'hopefully' well matched putty pencil, then the second coat of poly. Everything I read said seal first, then putty pencil, so the colors would not absorb in to the unsealed wood.

Zipdee, I am so impressed with the progress you've made! The new steps look very nice. I don't usually offer suggestions but I thought I would throw this one out there for your consideration. How about extending the new brick walkway around to the patio? Oh, and for the brick pattern, I vote for the basket weave! Very pretty house, I'm envious of your large front porch. Good luck with the door!

Just read thru all of this and looked at all the mock ups. I just love your house ! I agree that Boston ferns would look great on the porch. I am also hooed on original whenever possible and your door is great. I would not change the glass...if it is original. There is nothing like looking through wavy glass :).

Are you making the brick walkway curvy? I think that would look wonderful. I have learned so much on the Cottage Garden FOrum and they never use a straight line where a curve will do :) I like running bond for walkways but I was told it depends on the size of the bricks what pattern is easiest to do.

You guys have a real masterpiece going !! Caroline

Thanks Mry and Caroline!

Caroline, I like the idea of a curved path.. but I'm not sure how that would look on our lot. We are on a corner lot, with our driveway around back of the house and no sidewalk on the side street. (The drive way you see in that one picture is the neighbors) So the walkway needs to come up from the sidewalk shown to the house.

I pop over and read on the Cottage garden forum for inspiration. :) You all have some beautiful garden over there. I'm in the process of trying to teach myself and my front beds need to be redone ( which will have a curve to them :) ). We need new foundation plants and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed with picking them out. I can plant great containers, but when it comes to actually laying out the landscaping, yikes!

Love the original door... would not put "window" boxes on porch railings---too fussy and blocks the eye. If you want window boxes, they'd look better on the front windows. If the windows come down too far to the porch floor, how about a few nice containers at the windows?

Thanks Kswl, I appreciate your help! :) I really think that's one of those things that people either like or not. We had them on before repainted the house and they added so much color to the porch. I'm pretty sure I'll be going with them again this time.

I forgot to ask you guys a question. Does anyone have an awning?

They aren't all that uncommon here above the dormer windows. I've always loved how they look, do you think one could work above the front dormer windows? I could have a retractable matching one made to go over the back deck.

Zipdee..your house is lovely! Good luck with what you decide!

zipdee: I'm late to this thread, but love what you've done so far--the steps, the original door, etc. I also have a Northern Exposure and heavy shade tree in front and had some similar problems. We relandscaped last fall after our remodel and I'm really happy how it turned out and get lots of compliments from our neighbors. I drew everything out on graph paper ahead of time to better visualize how it would all look together taking into consideration walkways, planter beds, drainage and lighting--plants were last. Some things we did which you might want to consider were to curve the walkway and extend it to the side of the house where we added a gate and bike shed to store the kids' bikes (noticed you had several on your side porch) and also curve and widen the front planter beds. I was really nervous about the wider beds at first in case they did not look good, but I find it allows for tiered plantings and also brings the front part of the beds into more sun so I have more planting options. I also tried for advice on the landscaping forum and concur what has already been said above. What we ended up doing was working with the owner of a nursery and she was very helpful with plant selection and even made a home visit to help with placement. I find that using proper soil ammendments, plant food and Vitamin B1 directly after planting make a huge difference. I learned so much from her, just watching her work and now I feel more confident to do my own selection and placement. I just finished my spring overhaul (taking out what didn't survive the winter and filling in the blank spots). What I've learned is that good gardens (like good decor) do not happen overnight--it's an evolutionary process so don't be afraid to experiment and that is how you will find what plants look good and grown well in your space. Hardscape, drainage, lighting, etc. are more expensive and permanent, though, so it pays to think carefully what your needs are. I do think azaleas with a good acidic soil ammendment are pretty fool proof, though. Her fee was something like $200 and money well spent, though the landscaping forum will make you think you need a landscape architect or you'll mess up. Some of the plants that do well in our shady area are: azaleas, camellias, mother fern, Japanese maple, violas (spring/summer), cyclamens (winter) and purple palace; though your best bet is to go around your neighborhood and see what plants work well in your neighbors' yards since climate varies. I also used a bit of strategically placed ornamental stone. It looks like you are off to a very good start.

Looking back at your last pics I am wondering if you might have a drainage problem (in addition to the Northern Exposure) which is affecting your ability to plant grass in that front area. It looks awfully muddy. It might be worth while to get that looked into--before proceeding too much further. We added french drains which route all the rainfall away from the house down towards the front lawn plus made sure to grade the soil away from the house. Makes a huge difference.

Tamberc, thanks so much for the kind comment!

Valinsv, you brought up a lot of fantastic points, thank you! I'm very glad your landscaping turned out so well, it's a large investment. I'll be visiting some local nurseries after we get the walk in. I hope I can find someone's help to enlist at one of them like you did. I'm definitely going to widen the beds out front and let them 'sweep' more up to the front steps.

We do have a bad drainage problem in the area you see water standing. It's the low part in the yard and it will be addressed when we do the walkway. That area after a hard rainfall takes a beating, it doesn't do the grass any favors at all.

The bikes and scooters are not normally stored on the patio. It started to drizzle when we were working out there, so I had the girls and their friends put the bikes/scooters on the patio when they went upstairs to play. Our lot is actually a double lot deep and outback we have a fair sized cottage that faces the side road, all of the outside ride on toys are stored in it.

I forgot to add, I have the door sanded, but I haven't had a chance to go any further with it yet. Probably at the start of next week, I'll try to poly then fill the holes.

Here's a thought if the front door doesn't turn out well.

Awning? What do you think? Yes, No?

( I did this in paint, so it's sloppy )

{{!gwi}}

Zipdee, what happened to the "boxes" at the base of your columns (from the pic of the window boxes on the deck railing)? I loved those!

Also, may I ask how the window boxes were attached? I'm thinking of possibly putting some on our railing and like how yours look. Thanks!

Hoosiergirl, when we bought the house the original column bottoms were very rotten and the porch was sagging bad. So what we did was jacked up the porch roof, cut down those columns and replaced the bottom part with the boxes. This past fall we re-painted the house we finally got around to replacing all of the columns out there. I liked the boxes, but the porch appears so much larger without them, I was really surprised how much room they took up when we removed them.

The window boxes were sitting on (screwed to) very simple looking wood 'corbels' that I bought at Lowes very inexpensively and painted to match the boxes. The corbels/brackets are then screwed into the railing of the porch. I keep them on all year round, in the fall and winter I replant/decorate for the season. If you take a look at the last picture and look under the boxes .. you can kind of see the brackets under there. HTH :)

Well, Zipdee, I still love you house, with or without the boxes! What a fantastic idea for the window boxes! Thanks so much -- I think we'll do that (if you don't mind me stealing your idea).

Hoosiergirl, I don't mind at all. :) I'm flattered that you like the idea and it will work for you. I'd love to see pics when you get your boxes installed and planted.