Photoshop Magic

Two things today:

1) I got another one-year subscription for House Beautiful magazine for only $4.99! Woot! Prettiest magazine ever. And...
2) It was nice enough this weekend that we were able to clean up the backyard a little bit. Gets me excited for Summer!!

This post is kind of about the second thing: the backyard. And a little Photoshop fun. Trent and I were looking at the garage while we were in the backyard and imagining what it might look like if we fixed it up back there. See, right now our backyard is still kind of a mess-slash-work-in-progress.

Here's a picture I took of the garage/back of the house from the backyard. Right now, since the snow just melted here in Illinois and we're still waiting for the grass to fully grow back and green up, things are still looking a little barren. The huge dirt area you see is where the garden used to be, and it usually grows weeds in the summer. But we've already planted some grass seed, so hopefully soon some grass will start springing up out there. You can also see our BEAUTIFUL garage. With all of the junk in front of it. So lovely.

 But, here's where the magic happens......

Ta da! After some playing around in Photoshop, we have what I imagine our yard might look like someday. We plan on putting some new plywood siding on the garage after stabilizing the framework, then redoing the roof and putting in a new window. Who knows, maybe it will get there. Nonetheless, it was pretty fun dreaming up what it might look like, I'm not gonna lie.

Here's another "Before" and "After" so you can see the differences:

You can see that I even added new grass, landscaping, and a new patio area - complete with a pergola, fire pit, some new patio furniture, and a new grill. Holla!

I only wish we could snap our fingers and it will magically change to the second picture...But sadly, we cannot. Looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us! ;)

P.S. - If you want a quick laugh, check out this post on My Old Country House. I read it yesterday and started laughing because it is SO true. If anyone else has a 100-plus year-old house, you would probably agree! Especially the parts about the leaky roof, crooked walls and lack of wall outlets...haha.

High (Garage) Hopes

Why hello, there. I thought I'd take a quick moment to talk about our "garage." It's actually more like a large shed that is kinda run-down, dilapidated, and just plain old. Here she is in all her glory:

A beauty, isn't it? Funny story about this garage. A few years ago, Trent actually entered a picture of it into a local "Ugly Garage Contest" and won. We won some free primer and paint from a local paint store! Ha. Here's the photo that was posted on the contest website:

Trent may or may not look like a small child compared to that apparently giant man. But yep, we won some paint. Instead of using it for the garage though (I don't think paint will fix it at this point), We used some of it to paint the back door which was a similar shade of light yellow.

But, Ugly Garage Contests aside, it's kind of an eyesore. Right now it's housing Trent's old Mustang that doesn't run (It's been "in surgery" for quite a while now). It also houses lots of tools and car accessories. But it is quite small and probably structurally weak as well.

Before winter this past year, I wanted some kind of storage for my car, which I purchased last April. So, enter this lovely structure I like to call "the tent":

It's a collapsible storage tent we bought at Menards to house my car temporarily. We didn't have a lot of space to keep it so it's kind of tucked in between the garage and the house. Trent assembled it (It came in a box), and we just ordered some gravel which came to our house in a pile, then Trent spread it down on the ground. So far, it's worked out quite well. It's not exactly easy on the eyes, but it does the job. In other words, it keeps my car ice- and snow-free.

Someday though, we have some big dreams for a brand new garage. It won't be this summer, but hopefully in a few years or so, we'll have a brand new two or two-and-a-half car garage on our lot. I always had a two-car garage growing up, so it's a luxury I've become accustomed to and hate having to park outside. I've even been looking around Pinterest for ideas already. These are a few I wouldn't mind having...

(From here)

(From here)

(From here)

I'd say any of those would be an improvement, wouldn't you? Oh well, a girl can dream...