I have to admit, I’ve got pretty great parents. Not only did they let us live in their house for 6 months while we searched for, purchased and renovated our new house, but then they insisted on giving us a housewarming present. Gotta love’em!!
After all of the remodeling we had the inside of our house pretty well under control, but the landscaping was something that we couldn’t even begin to think about – and it seriously needed help. While our front and backyard are still in dire need of some TLC, Mom and Dad contributed this gorgeous little guy to jump start our efforts:
Ok, maybe he wasn’t too cute when he was planted in November, but look at him now!
Just gorgeous, I tell ya. We found a shady spot in the front yard for this Bloodgood Japanese Maple, watered him like crazy once a week, and now he’s as happy as can be. Our yard looks so much better with the Japanese Maple’s splashy red leaves, and hopefully the rest of the yard will eventually look as good as he does!
Got any tried and true housewarming gifts that we should all give? What’s your favorite housewarming gift that you’ve ever received? Fill us in!
Lovely! I didn’t even know Japanese maples could live in TX…but maybe Dallas is just enough cooler?
Dave and I got married 3 weeks after we moved into our house so all the wedding gifts that poured in doubled as our housewarming gifts. Despite the gifts being well-timed, I still wouldn’t recommend anyone else try and get married, take the bar exam, move to a new city and buy your first place all in the span of 2 months. It was completely nuts.
What a gorgeous tree, and a fabulous gift from your folks! Very nice, indeed. We’re working on landscaping our front and back yards this year, and we’ve considered getting one of those same trees – I’m showing this post to Matt so he can see yours!
Our best housewarming present came from aunt Lucre. Before we moved to the Philly area we lived in Virginia – our first home we owned was in a townhouse subdivision with a homeowners association (rat bastards) with lots of rules – such as: you must have a screen/glass door on your porch. There wasn’t one on our house when we bought it, but we immediately got a notice saying we MUST buy one, and soon. My dad told this to my aunt, so when she came by to visit shortly after moving in, she gave us a generous gift card to be used at Home Depot for the sole purpose of making us compliant with our HAO code. Fabu present, indeed. (then, we moved less than 4 months later – long story, a post in and of itself!)
Is that iron on your windows? I love it!! (Love the tree too!)
Averill,
Holy moly!! I’m impressed that you guys survived all of that!! I thought that we’d had a crazy year (bar exam, getting engaged and married, new jobs, buying townhouse), but your two month sprint totally takes the cake!! And yep, Japanese Maples do really well in our part of Texas, as long as they get plenty of sun. They might not get as big as they would elsewhere, but my parents have a flock of them that are pretty awesome.
Christy,
Ahhh, HOAs – I can totally sympathize! (Although your HOA sounds more evil.) The HOA at our townhouse sent us letters, complete with PICTURES, of a trash can that they claimed was ours that was left out after the trash pick up. Seriously? Crazy. :)
Sarah,
Yep, that’s iron! We kinda like it, too! :) We were thinking of removing it once we get new windows, but maybe not!! It sure does add a lot of interest to the front of the house. So glad you like it!
~ Liz
I found your site off of This Young House – and just have to say what a fabulous job you have done with your house so far! I love it! My husband and I just bought ouor first house in June – and we’re in Dallas too! Figuring out how to update these great Dallas houses from the 70s is certainly a challenge – but we’re having fun with it!
Alexis,
Thanks so much, and congrats on your new place!! I’m glad we aren’t the only ones that decided to tackle an older home in Dallas – it’s pretty fun, isn’t it? :) So glad you stopped by!
~ Liz