Vines, bushes and ivy - oh my!

Sometimes people like to take pictures a certain way or from a particular angle as to show the best side of things. Make subjects look better than they are in real life, ya know? I would admit to doing this too. So, on this new house remodel, I decided to do just the opposite. I wanted to be sure and get pictures of the house just as it set when we bought it and then show the improvements over time. We really enjoy the before and after process and we want the down and dirty before photos so that later on we can truly see just how far we have come. And so that means you will see all the not so lovely parts of the property as we go along.

Here is our house - and our tree haha - that guy has already been disposed of :)

Once upon a time I believe all the landscaping was done really well here - however that was a long long lOOOONG time ago and so we will be starting over from scratch once we can get all this overgrowth gone

 Don't get me wrong tho, there is plenty right with this house. It has a layout that we really like, more square footage than our last 3 properties COMBINED and more importantly really good bones. Like really strong, stable, well built bones. Its just over time those bones have been adorned in really ugly clothes and stands in need of some extensive grooming. It was once a really well taken care of property but the original owners (who built the home and were the only owners before us) had gotten older and then passed away. Since then it has set empty for 8 years other than someone who briefly rented the property. It is way overdue for some sprucing up and a massive clean up as well as updating throughout. Underneath tho, we really are hoping that we can return this place to its original splendor.  So enjoy (or cringe) - as you see the before photos as we start going through the house room by room. For now this is the house exterior.

Lovely vines taking over

And now for a bit of the back view of the house - 

Be careful, its a jungle out there!

Aren't all these view blocking fences, gates and ivy walls just lovely? lol!

I enjoyed posting these, because just in the few weeks that we have owned this property it is already looking dramatically different from these photos. Looking at these give me lots of hope for how it will look a few months from now!