More Finished Landscaping Photos

CLICK on picture to enlarge for detail.

Here are a few more photos of the complete project. Can you tell we love it! I'm including a few close ups---the mailbox, the planters etc. I will try to get to a day by day recap..but with Kaitlyn's 3rd birthday coming up this week it will have to wait. We're really looking forward to Thursday! I can't belive Kaitlyn will be THREE. We got a surprise package from a dear friend, Alexandra and her son Gabriel who is Kaitlyn's age. Kaitlyn keeps carrying it around saying it is for "my happy birthday". We're looking forward to opening it on Thursday, Alex!!! She already picked out the menu for her "happy birthday" too. She said "I want to have eatballs on my happy birthday!". We all love when she says "eatballs"...she means meatballs. It is too funny! We also got a package today from Vanaema and Vanaisa! THANKS so much everyone :) Enjoy the finished product photos!

The Landscaping Project!!!

IT IS DONE!! We've been waiting for this for over two years and it is finally COMPLETE! It looks SO wonderful and feels so great to have an actual finished entry at last!

The landscapers worked NINE FULL DAYS on this. It was a HUGE undertaking. They were here each day at 7 in the morning and finished at 5 pm. They only took 30 minute lunch breaks...nearly 10 hour work days!! There was a lot to do..They stipped down the makeshift stairs and compacted the land leading up to the door. Our front door is about 1.35 metres higher than the street level so there was quite a distance to go up. The entry starts at the bottom of the driveway and consists of 4 levels and 10 steps. The levels make the entry feel gradual and on both sides the of the project there are plants held in by granite block planters. There are 4 large retention areas, one of which is a hiding place for the trashcan! Small granite decorative stones fill the planting areas. There are at least 20 different plants on each side...The finishing touch is an integrated door mat at the front door which has been carved into the granite tiles. Of course the entire driveway had to be paved as well. First the land was compacted and bricks were layed ONE BY ONE. The entire 125 square meters is composed of handlayed bricks. We selected an antique paver by Kronimus that just looks fabulous with the house.

The reason why we waited to do this project is two-fold. Firstly it costs a LOT of money...and the tax in France is nearly 20% if you make renovations during the first two years. After the two year period, the tax for house renovation drops to only 5%. This in itself saves a lot of money so we decided it would be worth waiting the 24 months. In the fall when we reached two years we were ready, but the landscaper had a full schedule.. I'm so glad he waited until now to do it though. With spring here it just feels so wonderful to have a fresh and new exterior, plus he was able to plant all of the decorative plants at the same time as doing the driveway and entry.

The materials used for this project were massive. HUGE and heavy slab blocks of granite were used for the steps, and granite tiles of 40 cm by 40 cm square, were used for each landing area. We chose light grey granite for the steps and a very dark grey (anthracite) color for the landings. I'll do a step by step of the project, but for now here is a before and after picture! You won't believe the difference!!

BEFORE


















AFTER!

BEFORE (Ariel view from our window)

AFTER ( same ariel view from our bedroom window)

The house!

Gosh, I have really gotten behind on my blog these last few days! Things have been busy here so that's my excuse! :) We still have the landscapers here. I think today is their 8th or even 9th day of work. They have been SLAVING but the results are huge! Luckily we've had bright sun for all but one work day. I can't wait to post a little progress blog on the house. I've taken a zillion progess photos and will be putting together a little video for Vanaisa (Toomas' Dad), who is always interested in the technical steps. TODAY is the big day we "receive" the project. The boss will be here this afternoon for inspection and we should see them clear out today. You can't imagine how much the house has changed. It has gone from feeling like a building site to a COMPLETE package. Our house really sells itself with the lot, the location and the external beauty. It isn't an ordinary design (many houses are simple boxes) so it stands out...now with the gorgeous driveway and entry it is SO highlighted and complimented. I always nurse Evan in my bedroom by the big bay window. I sit there muliple times a day for about 25 minutes each feeding. I've already seen two cars drive by to take pictures. I've also seen countless people walk or drive by to look at the project. Sundays are infamous for people walking by and now it is non-stop! Our neighbor yesterday approached me and said "Everyone comes to see your house on Sunday!". She is German and really liked the landscaping project which is very German in style. It is wide and elegant. I can't stress how much this has changed the house. Amazing! Stay tuned for a step by step! :)

More yard shots!

The grass is always greener (on our side!)!!! It is amazing to look out there and see such a green spread! I'm so happy that we have a yard now. Here are a few more shots (and of the table and the plantation area with the mulching).

Group Party and Landscaping...

Well, the last two weeks have passed in the blink of an eye. We've been keeping very, very busy around here with Kaitlyn's group party a week ago and lots and lots of yard work in between. Her party was a week and a half ago and was a hit for all. We invited 20 plus of our local Estonian friends and their families. Kaitlyn had a wonderful time! She had so much fun with her cake again and presents, but this time she made a bigger mess with her cake and even had an audience to perform for. She loved it! She received lots of cute clothes which were really welcome. Krista has lots of baby clothes at are in very good shape so Kaitlyn is mostly re-using those, but it sure is fun to have a few NEW additions for the wardrobe! Thanks to our friends for all the great gifts, but mostly for sharing a fun evening with us and Kaitlyn on her 1st birthday.

The other big news is that we HAVE GRASS!!! The landscapers planted grass seed on wednesday, April 25th...so we are now on day 20 after plantation. It has been an amazing process to watch and I have learned a lot about grass. They seeded with a combo of perennial rye-grass, red fescue and kentucky bluegrass. The perennial rye grass was already visible after only 6 days. I took a photo on Mother's Day (Sunday) which was day 18, and by that point we already had about 3 inches plus! Up until today there had been no rain since we planted, so I've been working every day for at least 1 hour watering our dirt! You feel silly out there watering your dirt, but it sure paid off!!!! I had to re-seed a few patches last week where it didn't take very well and am already seeing the sprouts! I also put up an edging around the side section of the yard where we have the gravel down. I like the idea of a clear separation between the rocks and the grass and it looks really nice now. It is SOOO wonderful to have a yard at long last. Not too much longer and we'll be mowing and running around on it too! So first off is a picture of our yard, followed by some photos from the group party.

Landscaping Project

Well there has been a LOT happening here with a capital "L"!!! The letter L has been implemented in the transformation of our yard this and last week and we couldn't be happier with the outcome!!! I will try to describe the sequence of events, but it is probabally hard to fully comprehend the yard situation unless you have actually seen our yard and the incredible transformation that has occured there. I will post some before and after pictures, but getting a feel for what happened might be hard.

To start off..This is what our yard looked like in March of 2006, just one short year ago! It is followed by a picture of the house right now.

As you can see in the first photo above, there was one ENTIRE level of our house that was not surrounded by earth. The terrace patio gives evidence to this "missing" earth around the house. You can see the two legs holding up the terrace/patio in the picture above, but no earth around it. Our WHOLE yard needed to be filled up to this level because we really wanted a "walk out" yard. Do you have any idea how many SEMI-TRUCKS of earth that equals?! A LOT! We also didn't want our yard to slope. We wanted to have as much flat yard as possible so the kids could run and play and kick a ball without it going into the forest! We have a small playhouse, a swingset and a sandbox all that need a nice flat yard.

We initially tried to grade the yard into the forest with a slight slope. The result did not give us much satisfaction. The slope was steep enough that Kaitlyn would be falling down it constantly. To further push us into our decision about the yard, our next door neighbors decided they were going to have L shaped elements added to their yard so they could make the most out of their yard. We struggled with this decision, but eventually gave in and last week was "L week".

The L's are layed along the property limit next to each other to form a wall (in our case against the forest) and then the land is filled in around them. They have really made a difference in our yard! We actaully have a FLAT backyard now. It will be much easier to mow and maintain and will also be WONDERFUL for the kids to play in! We LOVE our new backyard!!

The next 3 photos follow the process of the "L's". The first is a shot with the slope before the L's, the second is of the "process" and finally you can see the yard finished with the L wall and filled in!

That gives a pretty good idea of what the L's do. They support the land so that the maximum amount of flat and useable yard can be achieved.

Here are a few photos of the shared decent we did into the forest (a before and after shot). We made the access directly on the property lines of our neighbors so we could both use it.

This is a shot of the landscapers during their work and followed by a photo of how FLAT and nice the yard is now after the L's are in!!

So for the next few weeks the project is on hold, since we've been having frost the last few nights, the landscaper wants to wait a bit. He mentioned early or mid-April for the fence and grass. We are REALLY looking forward to this. Although there is still the driveway project to complete (with handlayed bricks), we were much more excited to finish the yard. The driveway currently has gravel down so it is fairly clean and very functional. Not so with the backyard...we haven't even let the kids play AT ALL in the yard since we moved here because it was so dirty and dangerous (with all of the different levels and construction debris). NOW we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just a few more weeks and we'll be seeing a GREEN grass on that nice flat backyard of ours! We are really excited!

Here is a video:

Touring the Kid's Bedrooms...

A few of you have asked me what the INSIDE of our house looks like. I've posted a lot of exterior shots, so here is a quick tour of a few of the rooms :) I guess I'll start with Erik and Krista's rooms. I'll be sure to post a few more rooms in a future post.

Just this past week we had a few finishing touches done to the house. The first floor foyer coat closet was installed (with extra shelf space that goes all the way to the ceiling! Hooray!) and there was a linen closet installed on our floor in front of the master bathroom. All in all, most everything is finished; although now we need to stain the wood doors that were installed (I'll send photos when the job is complete).

Krista is in love with Diddle. A little mouse from Germany. I suppose it is equivalent to Minnie/Mickey Mouse, but a LOT more popular in Europe. There are notepads, pens, lip glosses, makeup, posters, stickers...and a lot more to collect and trade. The girls trade the sheets and try to collect as many pads as they can. Anyway, Krista has a Diddle comforter cover, clock, posters and tons of Diddle decorations as her "theme".

Erik's room is of course dec'd out in the pirate theme! He couldn't be luckier that the film "Pirates of The Carribean" sequel came out because there is plenty of pirate items out on the market. He has flags, numerous pirate ships, a pirate map rug, wooden pirate stick ups as a border, and even pirate garland lights on his walls.

So, enjoy the kids rooms!!!

Miss Krista's Room














Master Erik's Room

The New House

Hello!! Well, this has been one whirlwind of a summer! The big news is that we have moved and are now officially living in our FIRST home! The house construction was a big, but rewarding project. We started our construction plans with the architect in January of 2005 and offically moved into the new house on July 27th 2006--that makes 18 months. Also to that number we should add the time it took to reserve and buy the land (which was back in September of 2004). Basically, all in all it took us 22 months door to door. We are happy to say that we are now finally enjoying the fruit of our labor. It is an ideal setting on a cul-de-sac and with a southern exposure facing a protected forest. We really lucked out with this lot. We had been renting here for several years and watched this new development take shape...when we saw that this lot became available we just jumped on it. It was meant to be!

Okay here are a few photos of the process:

This is me right before delivery...the house and the baby were ALMOST ready.