Wow! What a change moving that walk made. I recall your posts from before. Good for you for taking on the hardscape project that needed to happen for the makeover to succeed. Too often people look for and only undertake what seems to be the easy fix -- take out a few plants, throw in a few plants -- instead of doing the underlying work that really needs to be done for the fix to succeed on anything more than a superficial level. Yeah, it was more work and more money for you to change that walk, but golly it was worth it. The entrance to your house is so much more clear and inviting now. The bed and plant choice changes are great too, but it's the walk that really does it.

Great improvement, the walk is really nice! Have you taken mature size into consideration when planting the shrubs and trees near the house? They look a bit close to me, but it's always hard to tell from a photo.

I remember your original post, and I'm glad you sent ahead and replaced the front walk. It makes a huge difference.

We, scratch that - my HUSBAND ripped out the old walk. I swear the neighbors were cursing us under their breath! It took the poor man forever and a day to rip that old one out! Then planning the new one and digging that out as well. What a mess! It took nearly a month! All in all, it wasn't that expensive - about $300? But, that's because he did ALL the hard labor. Heck, even when he ordered the cement the guy merely delivered it, that's it.

Anyway, from there we let the professionals come in. They accessed our yard, the sun, the amount of upkeep we were looking for (minimal) and drew up some beautiful plans. After the initial shock of the cost (which looking back doesn't seem like much) we were in.

The landscaper assured us that growth wouldn't exceed our needs and would fit the house for years to come. We'll see. We get a lot of compliments, but they're from people we know. LOL

Anyway, there's still some tweaking that needs to be done. I didn't plant any flowers this year - wanted to wait and let us get a little more used to it.

We too thought the concrete walk was the best improvement. Thank you whoever you were that suggested that! But, honestly, in the beginning, just painting the front door and portico, changing out the house numbers, mailbox and lights made a nice difference.

We hope to replace the steps and jut out the sides of the brick about one column's width. Moving each column a little bit more to the outside to increase the entrance flow. The landscaper took that into account when he placed everything. We're also having those columns taken down and redone. We aren't interested in replacing them with cheapy plastic ones. We'd like to keep the integrity of the house intact, so having them taken apart by a carpenter and put back together piece by piece... (we checked, there's a lot of pieces, per column) But, then that too will have to wait until after the steps get completed.

Since the columns and steps look "okay" as is, it may have to wait another year or so, but it is coming along nicely. :)

PS - We had this done at the end of AUGUST last year. I was so worried about the heat, but we made out fine. I'm still real careful about watching how much rain we get, or don't get and water accordingly. That's my goal right now - to simply keep it alive!

I remember your post last year and boy did you get a lot done!

I think it looks GREAT.

It looks like you have vinyl shutters and possibly vinyl siding.

Did you know you can get high quality fiberglass collumns or azek (see link)--certainly not cheap, but if you are paying for the painstaking labor of having the wood collums taken apart and put back together, you will be in the ballpark already (or exceeding it). These are not the cheap collums you see at Home Depot. The plus is that they will never rot. We redid our entry last year and I can't tell the difference (it is painted).

http://www.turncraft.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Azek trimboards

The best thing that happened since the site purchase is that threads stick around a lot longer these days. This forum currently has 42 pages of posts. The link to your first thread started in June of 2005 is below.

It seems that some girl going by the tag name of mich_in_zonal_denial was the one that offered this advice:

"If you have the financial means I would strongly suggest removing and repositioning the entry path. That would solve alot of your scale problems and create a much more pleasing sense of entry to your house."

Oh...I almost forgot...great job! It looks much nicer than the before photo...especially the first before photo.

- Brent

Here is a link that might be useful: Off center design problem thread

The large shrub to the right of the door is very much mispositioned and he spruce will haunt you in a couple of years. Other than that it works.

I think it looks great,not overly done, natural. Moving the sidewalk was a huge sucess! Wonderful job!

Andrew, do you mean the pyramidal one? Can you tell us why?

What are the pyramidal shrubs near the door? They look like Japanese Hollies. I planted a Japanese Holly with a pyramidal shape last fall. I cannot remember the cultivar. I seem to recall that the tag said it would grow to around 8' tall

- Brent

Even I remember the original thread!

I like what you've done with the walkway. I think you used your available money wisely.

Thanks to Laag for pointing out what I noticed, too. Plantings near the house must be easily "set aside" when maintenace is required. Or, they must lend themselves to regular, "hard" pruning/shearing. If you have trellises and have vines, make sure your trellises are on hinges and can be tipped forward when it's time to paint/stain...

Thanks for the comments! I'm still trying to get it right. Yes - those are pyramidal hollies flanking the front door. We were told that large evergreen (Spruce?) wouldn't get too large. Now I'm a little worried.

As for the large bush you see right of the door besides the holly is my spirea. I hack that thing back hard in the fall and it grows like it's on steroids! I'm just waiting for it to finish flowering, then I'll trim it back to where it belongs. I'll post more pics in a week or two to show you. It does make a huge difference.

The walk is wide too - can you tell that from the photo? I love it! You should have heard the comments from passerbyers about the width of the walk. I mean, complete strangers, "How wide you makin' that thing?" Or, "How wide is that thing gonna get?" We got a little worried when that's all we were hearing.

In the end, we love the walk and it's width! Two people can comfortably walk up our walk. And, I'm glad I didn't plant on either side of the walk. We like just being able to run the lawn mover straight across without any problem. I can't thank you enough for all your suggestions. :)

I was wondering about that spruce too. What's the species/cultivar? Fabulous new walkway, great job! Thanks for sharing.

Yes, the holly to the right of the steps. Does it not look like it needs to move 30" to the left? It appears to be placed without regard to the house, the entry, and the bay window. The three plants under the bay window also seem to be planted without regard to what they are planted in front of either. I don't mean to be harsh, but doesn't anyone see the house as well as the plants?

I guess I'm the last one to wear a hat that is not sideways or backwards, so it could just be that I'm out of style.

I noticed that too, Laag.

Dawn wrote, "We hope to replace the steps and jut out the sides of the brick about one column's width. Moving each column a little bit more to the outside color>to increase the entrance flow. The landscaper took that into account when he placed everything."

Even with that taken into consideration, I still think the tree to the left of the bay window is poorly positioned. It is already covering part of a shutter, and it is only a matter of time before it interferes with the view from the left side of the bay window. I would not want to constantly be pruning and reshaping that tree in order to have adequate clearance between it and the shutter or window.

I think your new walkway looks lovely. I can see that the landscaper was going for a "mature always been that way" look and he utilized the layout of three with a step pattern smaller to larger. However, as everyone seems to have suggested, I too would be concerned about the growth rate of the bushes in front. When you have to cut something back all the time to retain the size, it never looks right. I think this is a lovely entry and walkway. It certainly adds $$$ to the value of your house. Great job!