Grass greener on the other side?

Now, how am I gonna make this interesting? Unlikely. Probably not gonna do it. But it's an interest of Michelle and myself, so guess that's what people blog about. Originally, our interests in home decorations and home design led to landscaping which led to grass maintenance and care. We are DIY and HGTV whores!

BEWARE - I HAVE NO INTENT OF BEING FUNNY OR ANYTHING CLOSE TO IT - REFRAIN FROM READING THIS UNLESS YOU ARE TAKING A DUMP OR SOMETHING AND HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO! AND EVEN THAT, I SUGGEST YOU JUST CRAP IN PEACE. SERIOUSLY... NO, NO, SERIOUSLY! This is strictly about lawn and how I got to be interested about it. And this is probably the record for the longest article about grass unless you are the type to frequent the grassspecialists.com (which we do).















[I drove by Stonegate Lofts today (3 years after we moved out)- landscape is pretty drabby outside the condo walls and inside it as well (where is the landscaping we left it with?) That is a part of the enclosure we built- on the right you can see the sliding wooden gate- we also built the outside parking for visitors]


It started off 7 years ago. In 2004, because of the lack of a good management group, I took over as the President of my HOA association (which is a.k.a. - onsite maintenance man- Mr. Furley from three's company) in my 12 unit Townhouse/condo Complex. Actually, I am not even Mr Furley... I am Mr. Fooly (bc at least he was paid accordingly or had discounted rent). It was a new construction, so I took over the role from the builder who asked if I could please do it. I think he asked us because we were there at the condo literally every single day it was being built (Seriously). Think he thought we gave a damn about the place. That builder was cool because this was not a custom home, and he let us upgrade and change a bunch of stuff just like a custom home adding the difference in upgrade labor and giving us credit for materials that would have gone in. So, our unit was very unique compared to the other eleven. When we eventually moved and settled in and looked into it, we found out how poorly mismanaged it was by the pre-selected management group that the builder chose. I found out our fees were being embezzled from the management group! The guy in that group tried to hide it into some made up expenses. That ass thought he could get away with it? Not from us! Basically, months after we moved in, and the condo's all filled up, I saw that the numbers did not add up, so I took the job as Mr "Fooly" to run this condo properly and do something about the condo's financial woes (it actually is a non-paid un-gratifying position) and subsequently released the shady management group and hired a respectable one. You see, the 12 units generated over $2000 per month and $700 should have been extra after each month. After a year, we had only $1000. I said what the heck? ( I actually said various other four letters words I would rather not repeat) Eventually we were able to recover a few thousand from him after many many meetings. Anyhow, long story short, we hired a respectable management group. To save money for the condo, Michelle and I hired cheap labor to put down plants that we selected. (you know... the guys at Home Depots waiting for work - they actually are not cheap, but cheap compared to what landscapers cost) As you may or may not know, landscaping is very pricy, so just having half a knack for it saves tons of money. For example, for a small group of condo units, what we could do for $2000 worth of plants and cheap labor would cost about $7,000 and a couple hundred each month to maintain from an average landscaping company. The truth of the matter is that it really added value to the property and simply is just fun to look at. Michelle already had a green thumb from working the yard at her parents house for many years. That family works hard yo! Our family? Not so much. (in terms of helping out with parents garden and such) I remember on Christmas day at Michelle's parents house, several of us built an extensive deck. Whoa... I was like, for realz, on Christmas? Don't we have a family football match or something fun scheduled instead? All in all, Michelle's parents are the sweetest and they are always super appreciative of everything that we do and it proved to be more than worth it to make them happy. Why did I even mention this? I give you this example because Michelle's family work like crazy on their landscaping - just to show you the difference it is from them to us. So, for me and landscaping? NO CLUE! I had no experience whatsoever! I became interested and learned from her eye and she let me take charge of choosing plants and such for Stonegate lofts (condo). I order most of the plants and such myself. It was neat to see it go down and add life to the property. We had to keep it modern and clean to match the building. Landscaping is no big deal really, all homeowner should give it a shot if they have not already... What did I learn? I learned that to keep it modern, just buy lots of similar plants and place a bunch of them in the same area in a neat orderly fashion. The more variation in plants, the less modern. Do not add too much color for modern styles. Adding more color is more of a country feel. (which I incidentally have grown an appreciation for recently). Just follow that rule and buy the plants that you like and you are well on your way.

Later, we had to add a proper sprinkler system. Learning how to maintenance it saved the condo mucho moola. Our biggest contribution was getting approval for a loan for the loft and managing the construction of a walled stucco enclosure with two nifty wooden sliding motorized gates. That was a big undertaking that I wondered many times why I was giving up about 100 hours for free. After the completion of everything, we felt very good. But that was just the beginning of it; because on any given day, we maintained the sprinkler settings, put down a doggy area with a poop bag station (picked up everyone's dogs's poop-we later paid a little more for the lawnman to pick it up), self watered grass in dry areas, replaced external lights, fixed the motor on the gates on a monthly basis, added landscape lighting, etc etc. All in all, they were freakin lucky to have us, and I must repeat - we did it all for FREE! It was like we owned less than 2000 square feet of property but maintained over 20,000.

Needless to say, after Hayden was born, we could not wait to leave the condo and move to a house. We loved the condo; just not all the work WE had to do. Why else? Several reasons- But related to this passage, it's because the other tenants, which did nothing, benefited from all of our hard work. I felt like I was an "on property" maintenance man. Seriously! For the neighbors who were nice and appreciative, I was happy to help. But for the other tenants, adios!!! Now, it's so much more rewarding because everything we improved upon is directly for us! And... we did not have to hear others complain when they did nothing at all nor did they go to the meetings to voice their concerns. I really do not expect many to go to a dumb HOA meeting, but if you do not, you do not get to complain and decide. Hello! We signed up for this because the place would have turned to shit otherwise. We helped our property value but we helped the other 11 properties just as much. Especially when we added the enclosure, it gave the property a good amount more value. When we had to sell the condo, it sold within one week.



[the picture below are steps to our water fountains in the backyard to our current house - we did this because a nice lawn is just lush and brings calmness to me]

David was wondering why we had to grow grass and why the house didn't come with grass? I thought that was a fair question but pretty funny all in the same. Michelle researched the hell out of grass and all things related. She is like a google mad scientist. This is how we got so involved with grass. I wanted a different grass and thought it was cool to have "golf grass" at home. It kinda worked out because the normal lawn seen in most Texas homes (St. Augustine) was in our home as well, but it was patchy and had a lot of weeds. In addition, we added a complete sprinkler system, so the grass was messed up even more from that digging and destruction. So, we got rid of all the grass by digging up about 6 inches deep of all the lawn and just simply bought new sod online that was called Bermuda grass. (By the way, I was too lazy to do it myself so we hired those Westpark and Home Depot people who wait outside. We still save a crapload of money instead of hiring a professional landscaper. But this is typically how I role. Point here and there and direct where the workers should dig. What can I say? There is no love in digging holes in the ground for me) If you do not already know, Bermuda is the thinner blade you normally see on outdoor sports fields such as football, baseball, golf, etc. It is just a preference and I like it because I played so much golf and its just pretty. It costs just a little more and it is only a tad harder to maintain. Both have weeds and such all the same.



[I would roll around in my lawn - except for the hidden dog crap]
Weeds... that's another subject all in itself. But thanks to the diligence of my crazy busybody wife, she would pick out each weed hand by hand. I also picked out more weed in a few weeks than I ever have done in my whole life. The unhinged part about those unwanted growths is not the standard weed but is actually unwanted clovers. If you do not nip it in the bud (literally) clovers will spread exponentially. To make matters worse, clovers have fragile thin stems with huge thick roots. This translates into the inability to pull it up properly because they would break at the stem before you get to the root system to kill it. (the weed killer sprays barely touch this manifestation at all) You must literally dig up the clover with a hand shovel one by one down to its roots (which looks like mini beets). The sooner you do it, the less havoc. Think we shoveled up nearly 1000 holes (mostly Michelle). We had the lawn perfect and pretty pristine and was happy with it for about a year. As we rode our bikes in the neighborhood during winter time, we noticed that a Bermuda (golf grass) home owners had green grass when all else were yellow. We were baffled. How could this be? Bermuda is prettier but it turns brown in the winter because it is dormant at that time. St. Augustine can stay semi-green because it can withstand more of a widespread temperature variation. After more research, we found out that those people had "Rye" grass in the winter. The trick is this... Grow Bermuda year round and come Autumn, put down "Rye" grass seeds (inexpensive) and water on a heightened schedule. Than the "Rye" will overpower the Bermuda and your grass will be super green even on New Year's Eve! But... (and a big but) Now that it is Spring, you have to kill the Rye grass to let the Bermuda grow strong again. This is where we are at right now. We are unsure what method we will choose, but sure we will learn from our mistakes. After reading this, it does sound rather cumbersome to manage grass. Why do it? I guess the same reason why people read, or watch sports... because they enjoy it or enjoy the fruits of their labor. So.... I hope I answered your question David. Though houses do often times come with grass, it sometimes needs a change to match the owner. Not any different than upgrading appliances or changing hardware. We have so many more plans for this little humble abode. I will try to add some pictures with this blog.



<----- Rye Grass (full & green bc not hot yet)


Bermuda (starting to grow - still yellow) ---->






All of the pictures were taken today- cannot really tell the color because of the sun- hope its even greener in the next few weeks








<----- sneak peak of Michelle's new unfinished succulant rock gardens she was working on today - I like it!












I wrote so much... it is an accomplishment if you got to this point. I must admit that it is a bit cathartic to write, but this length is a bit too time consuming- and... really.... much ado about nothing... as fun as it was, think I will write less next time.



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Grass greener on the other side?
Nope! It is just as green over here.






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