Kim's House May 2011

Here are the pictures from the tornado/strong winds that messed up Kim's house.  Still don't know if it will to totaled.  The insurance man will come tomorrow.

The dents at this end were from the swing set that crashed into the house.

This is the "front" porch.  As you can see it is leaning to the north.  It stopped the mobile home from going over on it's side.

The porch is about 2-3 inches  higher than the doorway.  So you have to go in through the back door.

Do you need an air conditioner?  I think I can get you one cheap.  It also helped in saving the house from going on its side.

I tried to show the doorway and porch difference.  I don't think you can see it here.  Sorry.

Of course this is under the house.  You can see that it isn't even on the pier here.

The "back" porch.  As you can see, it is about two feet from the house.  It didn't move.  The house did. 

This is the southeast corner.  You can see the pier is about 5 feet from the house.

Just another picture of it.  :)

This is the buckled floor in Paige's bedroom.

This is the buckled floor in Austin's bedroom.  It is across the whole floor and much worse than Paige's.  Austin's room is at the end of the house.

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The crack along the window frame to the ceiling.  And to the room corner.  Paige's room.

The living room wall buckled.

The quotation marks around the "front" and "back" porch is because when you drive up to the front of the house, the back door is what is there.   It leads into the laundry room.  The back door leads into the living room.  I should have taken a picture of the treeline in front of the house along the road.  When Keith was inside, he know the house was going so he ran outside.  The wind picked him up and threw him into a tree.  When he fell, he rolled into the ditch and hung onto a tree until the stormed passed.  He is okay.  He says he is just sore.  I saw him today at the store, but forgot to ask him how he was today.  He seems to be fine. 

Spring Plants

Flowering Bushes and Trees

Crabapple Tree

Flowering Almond

Bridal Veil Spirea

Forsythia

Redbud Tree

Lilac Bush

Abelia Grandiflora Bush

Boxwood

Lilac Bush

Dogwood

Bulbs

White Hycinth

Pink Hyacinth

White Hyacinth

Grape Hyacinth

Lily of the Valley

                                                                  Daffodils

Narcissus Poeticus var. recurvus?

Narcissus February Gold?

Narcissus Tahiti?

Narcissus Merlin?

Narcissus Poeticus var. recurvus?

Narcissus Minor

Narcissus Minor

Ground Covers

Sedum-Sage Color

Moss-Sedum

Don't Know?

Chartreuse Ground Cover

Pachysandra

Wild Violet

Ajuga-Bugle Weed

                                                                Spring Flowers

Fern

Hosta

Bluebell

Pink Bleeding Heart

Landscape 2011

Looking east

 

 

Looking southeast

Looking south.  That is a redbud tree in the iris bed.  It got hit hard in one of the ice storms.  We are hoping to keep it.

Looking southwest.  That is a redbud tree in the large garden.  There is also a dogwood tree a little farther back in the same bed.  That garden also has a weigela bush, lilacs, and a lobelia bush.  In the smaller flower bed is a maple tree.  I only mentioned the big things.  The lobelia is what is leaning towards the maple tree.  The weigela is on the south side of the bed.

Looking west

Standing in driveway

Standing in curve of driveway, looking through the large flowerbed.  This flowerbed I would like to keep.

Standing in front of smallest flowerbed.  I would probably like to keep this one too.  The hammock gets moved around a lot.  The sling is inside at the present time.

Again standing in driveway looking at the iris bed.  It can be taken out and the irises relocated.

Starting to go down the driveway looking back at house.  That is a small crabapple tree to the left of the large oak tree. 

Again looking back at the house.  Here you can see some of the smaller oak trees.  Some will be removed.  We have a yellow ribbon on the ones we want to keep.

Just a little farther down the driveway.

Walking around to the back of the house.  The green disk in the septic tank.  I want to keep the stone wall.  We will probably extend the railroad ties a little farther down on the top row.  And then make a turn to connect with the stone wall.  That will make room for the walkway along the front of the porch.

Back of the house.  There is a drain for the downspout near the tree that does not have a yellow ribbon.  (That would be the tree closest to the house of the clump of four.)  The "doghouse" is the pump house.

The

The white pipe is the drain for the washer.  I use to have a shade garden, but it is mostly gone.  A few ferns, hostas and lily of the valleys.  And there is one boxwood that was already here.  I have no idea how it got there.  It is to the left of the tree stump and towards me.  The stump is almost gone.

A very distant future plan would be to put a patio area back here.  It will probably never happen.

 

 

This is looking down the flowerbed on the terraced area.  The railroad ties need to be replace a little farther don=wn and then turned to join the stone wall.

 

Just a little farther back from the terraced area.  There is a drain for the downspout near the end of the railroad ties.

Just looking at the stone wall and porch.

The downspout for the porch needs a drain area so it does not wash away the ground.  I only have a board there for now.  Will need something better soon.  We will do that soon.  The walkway will go right over it.  

We want to put something along the underskirt.  We want to keep animals out from under the porch.  We plan on using lattice for that.  Small animals will still be able to get in though.

Close-up of the downspout.  We also thought we would put in a step or two to get down into the yard near this area.  Closer to me taking the picture.  So I will have to make a few changes with the stone wall.

Here you can see the step I have to get in the yard.  It has always been there.  There are quite a few flowers (bulbs and irises) that will need to be moved for the walkway along the porch

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This is just to show you the iris bed that can be moved-relocated.  All the dirt is from the excavating for the porch.  We are still working on getting the leveling right so it drains away from the house.

The lanterns are at the corner of the porch.  The porch is 27 feet long.  We should have gone with 28 feet.  Oh well.  The swing will go between the lanterns and the cedar post to the west of the picnic table.  The big oak tree is about 15 feet from the porch.

We will keep the walkway to the cars.  We just need to re-do it so it drains better.  There is a low spot in it now.  I will also keep the little garden area between the porch and the cement apron along the side of the house.  I have some herbs growing here along with some other plants

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Just a view from the other direction.  The walkway along the front of the porch will connect to this walkway.  The ash tree is about 20 feet from the corner of the porch.

I hope this will help you get started on the plan.  Let me know if there is something else you need to know.  I'll get back to you ASAP.  Love you all and thanks for doing this.