Heather and Heath Sedum House and Garage Renovation

The renovation is completed. Unfortunately I still have a lot of work to do cleaning and going through things. When I originally bought this house many years ago, the garage had already been converted into one big room. Short time later I changed it to two rooms. The time came for it to go back to a garage.

Thought I would start off with the welcome planter which welcomes you at my front door, shown with Sedum Blue Spruce.

The Heather Hill. We had so little snow this year, not that I am complaining but this shows the largest amount that fell here this year. My favorite garden during the Winter. It's so nice to pull in the driveway and see this lovely area during the dreary months. I've ordered a few new Heathers to fill in this a little more towards the front area and they will be going in soon.

This is the old family room and den after demolition. Forgive the spotting, even my camera had drywall dust on the lens that I didn't realize at the time. Before starting the project but after special ordering 3 new entry doors, I called Ablaze Home Improvement and said I could not live without atleast a small space at the end of the garage for a small mudroom/office/grooming room. That's when this became a renovation and no longer a project. This is the mess tearing out the walls that separated this into 2 rooms. I also realized that the stuff I had moved out into this room hoping to work around was a problem. That evening I moved all that out under my semi-enclosed patio.

This meant closing up the current doorway opening in the dining room to the garage and opening a new doorway at the end of this area of the dining room which would be into the new office and then the entry door to the garage from there. We tore out the drywall on both of these dining room walls also since they were papered before and the drywall really needed replaced, and added wall insulation with the new walls. The backdoor you see out to the patio was also replaced and storm door at the same time.

It was a lot of work from what you saw above, but here is the dining room with new drywall, new paint and new doorway opening and trim to the office.

Closer view into the new office. It's not real big and since it's mostly for me grooming Yorkies in, it works well for me. The door to the garage is immediately to the left here. There is beadboard on three walls and the new wall with the door is painted.

The interior of my new garage. Two of the walls I left the paneling on and painted the new wall separating the office. My garage floor is ceramic tiled though and apparently not a problem with my car on it. Thankfully I won't have the demolition of that also being tore out. :)

My new garage door. I liked this design and the grooves very much fit the pattern with my new plank entry doors. It's so nice to go out and just hit a button for the garage, drive off without cleaning off car windows and was past time for me to look ahead at what I can do as I've been doing with my gardens and changing over to a lot of shrubs.

This renovation required me to take out my wood burning stove which then required repairing the roof where the venting went through it. There just wasn't room for it in the little office, but I hated having to let go of my alternate heat source. We had to remove the light fixtures in both rooms and add 2 new ones in different locations. New flooring in the office also since what I had didn't work for the size of the room. Now the big problem I'm dealing with is 2 rooms of things to get rid of. I'm currently preparing for a huge garage sale. Hard to let go of so many things, but times change.

Heather Hill Winter Blooming Heath in Ohio

Some of the different winter blooming Heather, either in full bloom or opening up their lovely blooms now. It's been a busy last month and will be for another so I didn't get a little more updated photos as some of these are blooming more since taking the photos.

Kramer's Rote. It always catches my eye when I pull in my driveway. The petal coloration is gorgeous and it literally covers itself in blooms. One of my favorites.

Vivelli and it definitely fits that name. Not only throws up pretty blooms but has this gorgeous reddish orange colored foliage all winter. One of my shorter growing Heathers.

Mediterranean White. The foliage stays more compact and the flowers are white and have since covered a much larger area .

Irish Treasure is a lovely bloomer that is planted next to Kramer's Rote and they very much compliment each other.

Goldrush is one of my taller ones, maybe around 18 inches and a little more golden than shows but nothing compared to Golden Starlet below and is just starting to throw up some blooms.

Mary Helen is just starting to bloom. It's winter foliage is bronze in color. Not a favorite but it does look nicer than appears in the photo.

Arthur Johnson is another one that gets about 18 inches high. It's just starting to bloom and produces soft pink color.

Jack Brummage is another one that blooms are lovely but the orange winter foliage is wonderful and it adds a lot of color to the winter garden.

Furzey is a beautiful Heather. Lavender blooms that are really lovely and unfortunately the photo just doesn't show how lovely.

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Spring Cottage is one of my very short ones and always winters like a trooper. The blooms are just starting on this one.

Golden Starlet is one of my very favorites. The blooms here are white and this is one of my low growers, but it's value for me lies with the beautiful gold foliage which remains all year.

Myretown Ruby is a lovely small Heather that has beautiful magenta flowers that are close to the foliage and makes the foliage look colored.

Heather and Heaths add so much to the garden year round, but it can be a little difficult to grow. I think it's mainly finding the right variety for each individual area you want to grow it in.

Heuchera Sedum New Driveway Construction

My concrete driveway needed to be replaced. The driveway construction was done the beginning of September. The city is going to replace bad curbs out here which they do without charge, and I knew they would replace the apron into the drive and the sidewalk panels if not already completed because of cracks in the cement, so I decided I could replace the whole driveway myself for little more than they would have charged for the apron and sidewalk areas.

This Heuchera Melting Fire had to be dug up in August for the driveway, potted, and replanted after the drive was completed. Here it is next to my Yorkie Statue in December looking wonderful like it had never been disturbed in the high heat of the 90's. Even covered in frost it always looks wonderful. Being evergreen in my area merits front yard presentation.

The Sedum Patchwork Quilt visible behind the Coral Bells above is a beautiful combination of blues and yellows called Sedum Angelina and Sedum Blue Spruce. I have them lined down the side of the house along the walkway. It's a narrow 8 inches there and these work out wonderfully. I love the combination of these two. I haven't had flowers on Angelina and hope I don't. The Blue Spruce does bloom and I keep the stems pruned off as the stems become a little top heavy and lean over. I'm letting the Angelina spread a little more than half of the area so it's a little less pruning for me to do. I have added Angelina to a couple other areas also. I do allow the blooms to stay on my Blue Spruce in pots which are lovely yellow flowers.

Sedum Blue Spruce in a pot does wonderful in this zone. I do not protect either of these groundcover Sedums, even the potted ones, they both are troopers and as you can see look lovely in pots hanging over the sides. I love to have the beautiful perennials or shrubs that give some winter beauty.

Photos of the new driveway being started. Pictured in the mist of tearing up the whole thing. It was a mess with all the dust.

The forms set and filled with gravel, waiting for the city inspector to approve since we had to also do the apron and sidewalk panels, plus an extra sidewalk panel.

The finished driveway, waiting to fill back in the edges with soil and seed. I was very happy to find K E Rose Concrete to do the job and his workers were fantastic. I had added on 14 inches to the width of the drive, right to the edge of the house to give me slightly more room for people to get in and out of their cars. They did a wonderful job.

I am incredibly busy the next month with some renovation here and will catch up when I can. Enjoy the New Year.