The One Room Challenge Week 3 update is here! It’s been super hard waiting to plant all of my flowers, but luckily there is plenty to keep me busy. The hubby reminded me that we should wait for the painters to be done so that way there is no chance of everything getting trampled. We didn’t take into account that the wind might knock them over and give the dogs the fun activity of going through them, but lucky for us, most of the plants survived! The dogs survived too. Zero issues.
Before I get into this week’s update, I gotta give a shout out to all of the other bloggers who are keeping up with their projects! I’m pretty sure I have gone through all of the outdoor projects, and I am always a sucker for kitchen renos. Be sure to see what everyone is up to!
This past week I was able to get most of the ground cover parts of the project done. The rain is really putting a damper on my productivity. See what I did there?! First up was getting more mulch. I had already put a new thin layer around the rose bushes, but after thinking about it I realized I wanted to continue that look farther back. The hubby will have to eventually drive over this area, so I can’t really plant anything, but I thought that more mulch looked better than adding gravel along the entire side. Kept everything a little fresher, you know? I was only able to fit 2 bags of mulch in my cart since I got a little distracted at Home Depot, but I only need one more bag for this space, so that will be easy.
Once I had all of the mulch in, I placed in the brick. That’s right, I decided to line the gravel path with brick! I figured the brick would give the gravel a finished look and would provide a little separation between the mulch, the gravel, and the eventual plants. Instead of sealing the brick in with concrete, I used some of the mulch and gravel to fill the gaps. I feel like this gives is a more natural feel, which is what I am going for in the end. I can’t get over how much I love this brick. And I can’t get over that it’s available at Home Depot. Don’t get me wrong, I love specialty stores. But the ease of going down the street to pick them up is incredible.
The last piece of the puzzle (for now, at least) was the gravel. We got all of the gravel from Hasties. They have such a great selection! I wanted some color, but not too much. And I knew I didn’t want the super rounded river rock style. But the super angular type reminded the hubby of a construction site so we went somewhere in between. After seeing the different sizes in person, we chose 3/4-inch salt-and-pepper rock. We only needed 1 cubic yard so they were able to dump our gravel in the back of my dad’s truck. Not going to lie, the hubby and I had a moment of panic as they loaded it up. The tires looked a little flat once it was all in there. Apparently 1 cubic yard of rock weighs about a ton…did not know that going into it. We made it home in one piece and then unloaded it. It went a lot quicker than I thought it was going to, which was a nice surprise! Once we had it out of the truck, I just kind of raked it around so that it covered the pathway. I kept it at about 2 inches deep, but tapered it down closer to the driveway so it was flush. Piece of cake!
And now that whole area is (almost) done! I’m a little worried how relaxed this has been so far. Like, is it the calm before the storm? I hope not. I can’t wait to show you all what I have planned for next week!
happy day andi 
I like that you added the brick since it ties into the driveway. Looking good!!
Thanks!!