Puttin' Down Roots

One of the things we have been most looking forward to in moving to our first "permanent" duty station since starting this Marine Corps journey in 2011, has been settling into a home for longer than 6 months. Since moving into our beautiful new home here in Hawaii, nearly a year ago now come September, we have painted walls and hung shelves and pictures to our hearts' content. However, the front and backyard have been in desperate need of some good TLC since we moved in. We inherited a giant, ugly shrub in our front yard, which grew rather rapidly and would entirely block our front porch and regularly overwhelm the front of our house between trimmings, and a teeny-tiny backyard of mowed-down weeds instead of grass. So most recently we have taken the nesting process to the outdoors. And while the backyard is still small, and we haven't yet decided if undertaking the project of re-doing the grass is worth the investment for our still-temporary time here, we have made these spaces much more enjoyable to spend time in. I have loved personalizing our house on base and making it feel more like a home with little touches, such as a custom vinyl address decal on our screen door, as well as bigger DIY projects, like an outdoor shower for post-beach rinsing!



Front Yard :

Before

Digging out those ugly shrubs was quite the task! Thankfully, Jordan was around (and willing) to do this for me! However, digging holes in the planter, in the incredibly rocky soil, proved almost equally as difficult. This ended up being much more time consuming of a project than I had anticipated!

Silly us! We took on this project the day AFTER trash day. Our trash can was quite the sight for the next week!

We planted 3 "Lemon Zest" lantana, 2 Pink Hibiscuses and 2 Croton plants. It looks bare now, but we expect with the Hawaiian humidity, all the plants will flourish and grow into one another in no time.

This table is another one of our DIY projects. I found the design on pinterest, Jordan made it for me, and then I finished it off by combining a bright teal paint and a driftwood stain to the top. We make quite the team!

It's the little touches: A DIY wreath, custom address decal for our screen door and a collection of accessories, including the most perfect little sign my mom gave me a few years back. It says, " THE BEACH: You can shake the sand from your shoes, but it never leaves your soul."

 

We love sitting together on our front porch in the morning, having coffee, and watching the waves crash in the distance.

Gunnar loves to join us out front too. This is his favorite spot: sunning himself on the sidewalk and keeping watch over the neighborhood.

Our DIY outdoor shower! Another pinterest-inspired, Jordan-completed project! We planted two "Miami Moon" Mandevilla plants and are excited to see these starting to grow up the trellises. We think it will create quite a little lush oasis as a backdrop to the outdoor shower. The blue oar has hooks on it where we can hang our towels after the beach. When you live a two minute walk from a beach, an outdoor shower is very convenient for keeping the sand staying outdoors. It's also been a great way to bathe Gunnar!

Backyard:

I don't have any "before" pictures of the backyard because there wasn't anything worth capturing at the time. I just have this one of Gunnar laying on the back patio the day we moved in. Basically, that little triangle of dirt and weeds you see is what the entire backyard looked like to the fence line. 

My handyman at work again. This was actually the day of our anniversary.  I know because he is wearing an Ironman shirt I bought him as a joke, as the traditional gift on the 6-year anniversary is iron. We had such a great time in Maui relaxing in the hammocks that Jordan bought us one for our own backyard. The anniversary relaxation continues, well after a day or two of hard-work that is!

We added a few tiki torches around the perimeter, and I made a few runs to the local nursery, and VOILA, backyard makeover complete!

The large planters have Hawaiian Ti plants and Raspberry Ginger plants in them.  The small planters are yellow hibiscus, with the most gorgeous raspberry pink centers.  I can't wait for the ginger to start blooming to bring all the colors together!

Succulents in the square concrete planter, and lavender in the teal lantern. We still have some plans for this covered patio section, including outdoor curtains and string lights!

Well that's it for now! Hope this makes the fabulous green thumbs in my family proud! :)