The Path to Home Improvement

First of all I would like to extend a huge thank you to my parents. They arrived this past week not only with two sets of extra hands but tons of energy and a desire to get things done in the house. It's been fun watching them make discoveries both inside and out of the house and also to have the extra company during the day.

It appears that my dad really enjoys being outside in the garden "finding things". And I have to admit that he and my mom together make a great gardening/landscaping pair. The biggest accomplishment so far was the discovery of a path.

When we bought the house there were these stepping stones leading from the driveway around the side of the house to the backdoor.

They were nice but what I really wanted was a nice wide stone path. Not only would it be easier to walk on but it would make shoveling the snow during the winter that much easier. Apparently, years ago in my dad's house in England he had a similar situation and discovered a very large wide path. My sister even commented that our situation was similar to that one of years ago. So I sent my parents outside, armed with garden tools and look what they discovered. 

Yup. There is a beautiful, wide, stone path from our back door all the way down to the driveway. Here is a before and after for an even better comparison.

After being so successful on the back path we decided to head to the front of the house. This discovery is a little more exciting. You see when we took over the house this is what the path looked like. I have added some arrows to show you that there really was only a very small amount of "path" showing through the grass.

But just like in the back, there is a gorgeous wide stone path from the driveway to the front door.

And another before and after just for fun. I think this is the most dramatic before and after we've had so far.

Marc and I are so excited to have an actual defined path to our house and we really think that it makes a huge difference to the curb appeal and the feeling of welcoming when you walk up to the house. What do you think?