Landscaping vs. Blandscaping: What Sells

Blandscaping

Blandscaping is when you see a house and it has nothing, I mean zero landscaping. Basically, in the spots where landscaping is supposed to be?  Is nothing but dirt, or overgrown with grass and weeds. If there is one thing I hate to see, it's a listing that shows pictures of blandscaping. That is not going to attract anyone!

Landscaping

Landscaping a property that you own and are going to be in for a long time takes time, lots of effort, planning and maintenance. That's not what I am talking about in this article. The focus of this article is to talk about the very simple and inexpensive ways to improve your property with easy, DIY landscaping tricks.

When the property has flower beds, but nothing but dirt in them, invest in a couple of pots of monkey grass and some mulch.  Clean out any debris in and around the bed, including grass and/or weeds, using round up if you need to. Plant the monkey grass strategically so that it looks neat and symmetrical. Then mulch. We are only talking about a couple of dollars here and we're not putting any high maintenance plants in for the new tenants to stress over. You can even put gravel or landscaping stone instead of mulch if it is a really dry climate.

Take this house, for instance. To the right is a raised bed that runs the length of the porch. There is nothing but dirt in it. That's a real shame because it is a focal point when looking at the house from the street. Imagine a row of monkey grass and mulch. So simple, yet it makes the property look less "abandoned."  Speaking of the porch, there are so many cool treatments for cement, I don't even know where to begin. At least a coat of neutral colored paint, like grey. It would look cleaner, and better kept.  Now if this was MY house, I would break out the colors and paint a mandala or a Persian rug onto the concrete, like this:

or like THIS:

Do you see why I am just dying to learn how to flip houses?  I see so much potential in these poor little properties that are just begging to be bought and fixed up!  And the work to me isn't hard. I actually enjoy it.  One day, when I have the capital, I will buy a house and rescue it from a life of misery, bringing it to its full potential and let it bask in its own glorified spectacularness. Ok, that's not a word. But I think you know what I mean. :)

Here is my own back yard before and after. Blandscaping to Landscaping 101:

and my favorite corner:

See how much it adds?  Look at the before pics. So blank and lonely looking. Like no one cares. Then you see the after pics and it's totally happy and inviting! This took more elbow grease than anything. Many of the plants used we already had in other locations, we just moved them around after we extended the flower bed to follow the length of the back fence. We did spend some money on plants for this: 6 rose bushes, 2 hydrangeas, 2 flats of ivy, 4 hostas, 2 elephant ears, a crepe myrtle, some brown eye susans, rose moss and monkey grass, my favorite border plant. And MULCH so much mulch. But it was completely worth it. I actually enjoy going out into my back yard now, whereas before I avoided it. Our next project for the backyard is installing a pergola over the back porch and adding outdoor furniture for entertaining. I will, of course be posting that when we do it!

Next Post: Room Makeovers!

It All Started With a Little Cleaning...

Midwest City: 1809 Sandra Drive

My oldest daughter grew up in Midwest City, Oklahoma, not far from Tinker Air Force Base. The neighborhoods there are former military housing: small, usually one bath but with vintage tiling, hardwood floors, good sized yards but hardly ever updated and very few have any curb appeal at all. It is a house-flipper's DREAM. 

I am dedicating my first blog post to Midwest City, and to the rent house we did so much work on in 2013, inside and out. 

The top photo is how we found the house after an irresponsible renter left it. It was full of trash, full of junk, and full of **POTENTIAL!**  The second photo is after we cleaned and re-staged it. Hard to believe it's even the same room.

Then we tackled the outside. The backyard was a wonderful size, but had been neglected for years. Embedded in the weeds we found all kinds of debris: silverware, bits of plastic, broken glass, old wiring, rusted tools, the list goes on. After disposing of the huge rolls of fence wire, I took a weed eater to the concrete patio to remove years of built up dirt and weeds. After treating the whole thing with round up and trimming the shrub beside it, I staged it with two outdoor chairs and an outdoor table, both of which were free (I am addicted to Freecycle.org. I will do another blog post on Freecycle... if you are not familiar with it, you should be!)  Total cost of this makeover: $0.00!

My youngest daughter agreed to help me create this flower bed. It runs the length of the back of the house. There's a story behind this garden. My oldest, Kelley, was diagnosed at age 19 with ovarian cancer. She was living in this house at the time. For her birthday, I asked all my friends and family to donate one plant to put in Kelley's new garden. Everyone pitched in, and we named it "The Giving Garden."  It was a lot of labor, but labor of love! Alex and I removed the old grass, trash and weeds, laid landscaping fabric, cut timbers for the edges, planted all the donated plants and mulched.  Donated plants included: monkey grass, bougainvillea, rose moss, some succulents, a crepe myrtle, black eye susans, a rosemary bush, another flowering bush, ivy, salvia and three agave plants. Cost for this project: timbers, fabric and mulch, about $50.

Kelley said the hardest part about leaving this house on Sandra Drive was leaving the garden behind. Personally, I loved that house. It had its problems, but with a handful of repairs it could be an awesome investment for a flip. 

Next Blog: Freecycle!