It happens to the best of us. Time passes, life changes, things sag… This is not a personal problem. The Freeway Farmhouse feels it too. Poor lass.

We moved in four years ago and, besides seeing what was behind the red brick wall- note, it wasn’t OZ, we never bothered messing with the front yard. We talked about it, I pinned an innumerable amount of adorable pictures on Pinterest (come on and join the fun on Pinterest!  And this concludes Farmhouse Dreaming’s shameless plug for the evening) we never did anything. Until now.

Armed with my oh-so-chic overalls from 1996, my favorite wellies, too many cups of coffee, and a gaggle of farmhouse minions we set to work! How hard could it be? It’s just a little nip-and-tuck.

(I told you, tres chic)

We pulled out our trusty green waste bin and started getting all the leaves picked up. We have an oversized, under pruned, behemoth of a tree in our front yard. It’s like a fat man in a little jacket, but a fat tree in a little yard.

(Peanut head doing some grunt work.)

One of our favorite neighbors, Mr. Mike, decided to pop in and then so graciously brought over all of his bins and helped us do some major work. Seriously, Mr. Mike is one of the best people we know!

(Like that garage door? Sixty-year-old garage doors don’t hold up well when you ram them with your oversized SUV. Or so I’ve heard. Ahem.)

We, we being the minions, stopped every time they we came across a critter. Let’s be honest here, I don’t like the creepy crawlers. They can keep their lives as long as they are sure to stay away from me. My children, however? Let’s just say I can’t recount how many jars full of spiders, fistfuls of worms, and lizards have been traipsed into my house and shoved into my face. Moment of silence for my sanity.

(The Salamander named Lizzie. Lawdhamercy.)

As it turns out, facelifts are harder than I had imagined. Don’t get me wrong, we nipped, we tucked, but somehow the left side of the house looks like Giselle and the right side more closely resembles Mick Jagger. Sorry, right side. We’ll get to you…

Someday.