Patching, Painting, and Planting

At long last, we’re on the other side of tornado repairs! In between, though, was a scare.

Just days after the last of the repairs, another tornado touched down two miles from us. To put it into perspective, the tornado that hit us in May was two miles wide itself! This one was smaller and hit a less densely populated part of town, but people still lost homes.

While we were thankful to come through this one unscathed, it was eerie to begin painting a few days later: the very thing we’d been about to do the morning of our tornado, all those months ago.

But let's back up a little to the in-between, when it temporarily looked even worse.

Patching

I didn’t get in-progress shots of the roof work, but you'd never know it had been smashed and came out better than before. Best was the discovery that our chimney, which had been covered with a metal box and assumed damaged, was actually in perfect condition under the box! They cleaned it up for us, and we're excited at the possibility of getting it working again.

Our old concrete was already in bad condition and causing water damage, so when it was crumbled further by the uprooted tree, we decided to replace it all.

Once the new concrete was in, the fence company could finally repair our gates and damaged panels. A last siding repair later, we were finally ready to begin the main event!

Painting!

A generous neighbor who paints professionally offered to lend us his equipment, so while David handled the sprayer, I did the brush and roller work. We got the siding done fairly quickly and have since been gradually working at the trim and other details, whenever the weekend weather allows.

But…what you can’t tell from the photos is that we only painted two sides of the house. This was initially because the lower sides are so tall that we were considering hiring painters for them. We’re now feeling more confident, so we’ll at least see how the prep goes.

Anyway, we look good from the approach now! Just don’t peek around the corner.

Planting

We were grateful to receive a second grant from the local watershed alliance, this time to help with replanting what we lost in the tornado.

Our drought unfortunately continued to worsen until well into the fall, which complicated planting. But eleven trees/shrubs and sixty other plants later, we’re finally done!

We considered planting new eastern hemlock, though it isn’t native to our area, but instead chose shortleaf pine. It’s hard to imagine now, but Ozark woods were once full of these pines until the logging industry got to them in the 1900s.

Our other planting project has been to rebuild the landscaping in the front corner into a swale to capture the excessive street runoff we get and direct it away from the house (with overflow into a dry creek bed we haven't yet built).

It’s hard to make out in the above photos, but we built up a large rocky mound where the tree had fallen, then planted the entire space with a native ground cover. In the wet area are water-loving grasses, and we plan to add a small tree in the spring. My grading has worked perfectly so far for directing the water, so I'm very proud of myself.

It’s all bare ground now, but I can’t wait for the summer update when all is green and new, and the trees can start to heal again.

Meanwhile: to winter projects!