Yea! Saucy has pics up! Woohoo! Love the tour Saucy, I'll have to make a point to get over there sometime this month and see for myself in person. You've done so much work on your lovely home.

I love the containers. Great combinations. And you'll have to post a photo of the hive after you've painted it?

Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Deanne

Hooray for you, Saucy, to have made so much progress!! Love the combos.

Martie

Saucy, your home is beautiful. You have made incredible progress! The berm garden and containers are so pretty!

Jerri

What a dramatic change the new color made on the house! Everything looks fantastic. I'm always impressed with the big spaces many idyllers have to sculpt. I know I'd be inclined to plant a border around the deck, possibly with your new banana and other big, tender stuff, since I love the feeling of being enveloped by plants, but that might mess up your expansive vistas and sight lines. It's truly lovely, Saucy. And the bees look ready for business!

What a wonderful spot you have Saucy! And amazing progress on the house and yard. It's all beautiful.

I like Denise's idea of tropicals to shield the underpinnings of your deck. My first thought was grasses, lots of miscanthus shifting in the breeze.

So no turtle on the bee hive? :-)

Saucy, how great to see your "place". You've truly made a house into a home! It looks so welcoming with all of your little "touches". The berm garden is just beautiful and your container gardens too! Thanks for sharing your gardens with us. I enjoyed the tour.

Eden

Your home is AMAZING.

I love what you've "done with it". The new color is great and so is the deck.

Most of all, though, is how much of your delight and amazement with and FOR the natural world shines through in all you've done. I feel better knowing your kids will be "inheriting" the world you and Nick love so much.

You make me smile.

:)

Saucy - that's all looking great. I particularly like the house color; it reminds me of 'home' on the east coast where many houses and other buildings were traditionally strong colors. I think it gives them so much more character.

About the beehive - most beehives I've seen are white. Do bees see colors? Is there a reason, from the bee's perspective, for white being the traditional color? Or was white traditional so the hive would be easily visible to people (so they could avoid them if so inclined...?) Or just that whitewash was readily available so was cheap and easy to use?

Wow - lucky bees to be coming to such a beautful home! Thank you for sharing with us. It's always fun to see other Idyll abodes.

Mary

Saucy, it is all so lovely,and well tended. It is wonderful what you have done to house and yard. It make me feel rather sad because mine is deteriorating all around me...:-(
Maybe some day I will be surrounded with neatness again...when I am in a well-tended nursinghome !LOL. :-)

I love the stripped canna, mine like it was pretty tacky looking when I took it out this spring, then I succeeded in demolishing the rest of it when repotting it. :-(

I love the berm. My sister in Idaho has one at her new home that they built. I need one for plants that need well-drained soil.

I like the idea of a water garden, too, but guess I had better not add to all that I already have to care for.

Nolon reported seing a honeybee in the cat food dish, on the front porch. I caught one that was in the house, and set it free the other day.

Bravo Saucy ! Beautiful house and what nice space you have around it to work with. I'm on board with a 4 to 6 ft mixed border dug in all the way around the deck, which I would gaze down upon in wonder while I sip my wine. Whip out the rototiller ! Love your containers too, and of course our first photo of your new buzzing kids abode...

Thanks for sharing this with us !

Kathy in Napa

Thanks for such nice sentiments!

Deanne, come anytime! Nick and I scoped out a new breaky/lunch spot this morning...and it's a coffee house, too! I need you to take a picture or two for me...I can't seem to do it justice.

Denise, I get borrowed views because I border the conservation lands. It does restrict what I can build/do but my last lot was a tenth of an acre.

Cynthia, I like the idea of grasses! The kids can't hurt them with their lawn games! I might just put a turtle on my hive thanks to you...would've never thought of it, but it will be reminiscent of my 'tufa turtle which is growing old and missing a limb :)

I did not get to paint today as I had unexpected, and totally fun, company!

Eden, my photos don't do justice to my containers. Remember the year I did "periwinkle" everything? This year I'm going au naturale from the basement :)

Chelone, you're too kind. Jake and Sarah will be good stewards of the Earth...I am confident in that fact :) No less than 4 turtles were "worried" over in the last week...

Woody, white is the traditional color, I guess. Bees don't "like" black - think dark colored bear destroying your house for honey! White also keeps the hive cooler in hotter climates. In class they suggested buying whatever color was in the "messed up" bin :)

Marian, LOL about the nursing home...you'd be the one out there tending it! You take care of business just like my grandma and you keep a fine house....no talk about nursing homes for you :) I would like to see your hot water plant this year :) I think you had a different name for it....

Kathy, I've never used a rototiller before. A good garden fork usually does the job. The soil here is surprisingly friable compared to TN soil and I'd feel bad cutting my earthworms in half :) One might need more than one afternoon beer after that job!

Thank you all so much for your nice comments :)

Saucy

Saucy...you led us on a great tour of your home. It is so peaceful looking in your backyard. A bit of paradise. How lucky you are to have found this place, and with the work you've already accomplished, the land is lucky to have found you too! :)

The berm is gorgeous. I can't wait to hear more about your bees as the summer goes on.

AAAW Saucy! The beautiful berm, great water feature, super updates on the home, lovely containers, lucky bees! That fence you made is GORGEOUS! Show me the clematis once it is in, OK? You sound so pleased these days now that outdoor activity is at last possible! :)

Ask and you shall receive ;-) Thanks for the pictures of your place. I just love seeing where everyone lives. Your house is great. I thought the before picture was 2 houses. The color really brings it all together. I love your containers and the mini pond and the berm is fabulous.

Hey this joint looks familiar. I had forgotten what it looked like before. What a transformation!

Have you considered building some lattice panels to screen the area under the deck? If done right they add a finished look and would make a nice backdrop for plants.

Sue

Making a big difference renovating, Saucy! I think you have had a lot of great ideas and made some very smart choices. It looks like a different house! Love your berm garden and the Viburnum maresii is one of my favorites. I agree with Kathy...a mixed border all around the deck. Maybe some butterfly plants to attract butterflies up close? A fragrant butterfly bush. Anything fragrant. If you spend a lot of time out there at night, pots of four oclocks smell delicious at night. The only thing I would avoid would be anything that would bring birds too close to the deck, like berry shrubs, feeders... or you will be cleaning up your deck furniture a lot. [g]

Thanks for sharing your photos! :-)

The house and yards look amazing! You've made a nice looking home into a stunning one. Thank you for sharing the photos!

I just love the new color you chose for your house, Saucy -- and that berm garden is gorgeous. You're creating some wonderful vistas. Thanks for sharing!

-Cindy

Saucy,I to thought it was two houses at fist. The new color does wonders for it. Good choice. The deck looks like a great place to hang out and its so nice you are next to conservation land. The gardens are really coming along. You can well be proud of the new fence bed, I really can see a clematis growing there. It's good to be able to picture you in your enviorment and observing your bees. Norma