Mulch, Improving the Grade & a New Outlet and Spigot!

Improving the grade, covering my flashing, adding mulch, an outlet and a new faucet too. With all the rock and stucco finally gone and the job of finally fixing my house and finishing all of my siding behind me I was excited to do a couple last things just for me! (Cheers to the sweetest boyfriend on the planet for cleaning up the incredible stucco and rock mess I made in my yard so I could literally just move on to the fun stuff!)

DISCLAIMER: I know this post coming out in December is really weird. Us northerners only have so many decent days for outdoor work so, to catch you guys up on everything I got done here this summer, its gonna take awhile! So, here is my lovely September yard lol

Before tackling my grade and mulch I first did a couple of things that I’ve wanted for a LONG time: An outdoor spigot and outlet on the front of my house!

I’ve been putting this spigot off forever (FIVE YEARS!) because I really thought I would need to crawl through my house’s crawl space to get it done. (I’m not above procrastinating on nasty jobs.)

Mom: Isn’t there any way you can thread the pipe from the basement, through the crawl space to outside?
Me: No, it would be impossible to hit a hole that size from that far away.

It took me weeks to realize that that would absolutely work it would just have to be done from the opposite direction. (I can be SO DUMB sometimes.)

So, I used a 1″ Speedboard bit and my Dewalt impact driver, drilled my hole and then proceeded to have to run into town because I needed an extender and I found THE COOLEST THING EVER.

OMG seriously, you guys, this extension bit is like a miracle! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lost a bit in the wall because it fell off a damned normal extender. This thing has a little allen wrench with it so it clamps down and holds on to the bit!

SERIOUSLY: LIFE CHANGING.

Without that specific bit I would have ABSOLUTELY left my new Speedbor in my craw space! (Just whatever if it makes me weird just thinking about this bit makes me giddy and I WILL share that happiness with you guys!)

I took my frost-less spigot, clamped plenty of pex to the end of it and threaded it all the way through the crawl space to my basement from outside.

In my basement I just so happen to have water lines right above the access door to my crawl space so I didn’t have to do any crawling or anything. I just had to cut my cold water pex line, snap in a tee and connect my outdoor spigot.

Just like that, something I’ve wanted and been procrastinating on for FIVE years I literally completed in less than an hour!

(This spigot is about thirty feet closer to my horses’ water tank than my only other outdoor spigot on the back of my house. So, especially this winter, its going to save me a lot of grief and headache filling the tank.)

For my new outlet I pulled the wire out from the back of an outlet in my dining room and simply installed an outdoor rated box. (No more having to climb into my flower bed to access an outlet on this side of the house anymore!)

It never ceases to amaze me how a couple of hours of work can improve our lives SO MUCH!

From there I tackled the ugly job. Ever since I did the path for my garage I thought the same mulch would look awesome by the house too.

I started by putting down the same garden edging I used earlier this year for my garage path because I really liked it. I ordered it off of amazon and it comes with plastic spikes to keep it in place.

I put my edging just inside of the drip line – I will be putting gutters up eventually but, until then, I didn’t want the next storm to wash all my mulch away. (Besides that, some year, I also plan on expanding my front porch so about half of all of this will be covered by a new little front deck anyway.)

From there it was me and a wheel barrow hauling away at the pile of dirt I still have in front of my barn… (I’m very tired of (and I can’t stress this enough) digging and hauling. I am SO SICK OF IT that I didn’t even take pictures as I did this part… seriously how many times do you guys need to see my wheel barrow in action?)

The dirt covered the bottom of my flashing and increased the grade and its also going to eliminate weed wacking here along the house.

I only improved the grade and did this work along the front. The rest of the house is going to wait for next year. I plan on renting a bob cat, bringing whats left of my dirt pile down here and not just improving the grade around my home but will probably have enough dirt to improve my driveway too.

I picked up a couple of bags of the same red cedar mulch and covered it all.

What a difference!

Ripping off all the rock, hauling it away, ripping off all the stucco and hauling that away too. And then cleaning up, fixing my house, adding flashing, house wrap and finally siding. And then this last push to final completion – I am so relieved to have it all finally done!

Now, I’m going to celebrate! This ugly job that I’ve been LOATHING and RAGING at for years is finally complete!

Bucket list: I want to have a couple of yards of black dirt dropped off next spring to cover what’s left of my front lawn. I’m going to plant it in creeping charlie and white clover in the hopes that it won’t ever need to be mowed and will bloom throughout the year for my bumbles and honey bees 🙂

Oh and also all of my eves need to be painted as well as the door going to the basement needs to be painted too. I also CAN’T WAIT to plant perennials (maybe hydrangeas!) along my house next year. I think they will look just lovely in my red mulch.

AND WITH THAT MY SUMMER TO DO LIST IS COMPLETE!