Banishing the bushes.

We had a lovely anniversary evening together. Nothing extravagant, but still perfect.

We went out to dinner at Red Lobster, where I enjoyed the Parrot Bay Coconut Shrimp, followed by the triple chocolate brownie a la mode {shared}, and Eugene kept it safe/boring {as usual} with chicken fingers & fries.

    

It was definitely unhealthy, but ridiculously delicious. And what made it even better for me {being the cheapskate that I am} was that we had a gift card that covered most of the bill! Guiltless joy! :) We also watched The King’s Speech, which was a good movie, but not as good as the last movie we watched, August Rush.

Other big news for the house, more specifically, curb appeal mission: “fix the eye-sore that *was* our yard,” our house now looks like this…

Did you notice the difference? {The title of the post probably helped.} Eugene borrowed his dad’s four-wheeler & my dad’s ax and rope-tie-thingy, and with some shoveling, axing, and yanking, Eugene successfully removed 7 unsightly bushes from the front of our house.

One bush had died before we moved in, but the others were still alive & kickin’. I felt slightly bad about pulling the living plants, but everyone I talked to agree that they were dated, ugly, and made it extremely difficult to plant around them because of their root systems.

While Eugene focused on the bush banishing, I took out some aggression on some low-lying branches on our trees. These buggers were a royal pain to mow around/under, so I was happy to knock em’ down.

We had quite a large pile of bushes & branches for pick up, and believe it or not, the township folks came and removed the brush the next day!

We were able to conquer the right side of the house on Sunday night, taking it from this…

To this…

Or if you want to go back to an earlier before picture, here’s the comparison…

{Before}                                                                                        {After}

Then, despite the drizzling rain, Eugene, with the help of his awesome sister, tackled the left side of the house yesterday while I was at work.

{Before}                                                                      {After}

And how about a full house comparison shot?

{Before}                                                                     {After}

I was so happy that Eugene got so much done without me, that I didn’t even mind that the pup apparently loved the muddy holes that the bushes left. He was covered in clumped dirt & our house reeked of soggy dog when I got home. He reluctantly got a much-needed bath, and continued to pout at me for the next half-hour.

He is so not pleased. He much prefers dirt.

One last shrub-less house picture…

Now, I need to beg/plead/bribe my mom {or simply ask, cause she’s that nice}, aka the master gardener, work her magic on the landscaping. It’ll be worth of a full spread in Better Homes and Gardens in no time – well, maybe that’s a stretch – but at the very least it won’t be the eye-sore of the neighborhood any more! ;)