Before, after, and a surprise!

So I wrote on Facebook that I placed rubber mulch in my flower beds.  It looks so much better than bark, it holds the moisture in better, doesn't loose it's color, and is coated with antimicrobials so it will not grow mold. 

Here is the flowerbed before I did any planting or layed the rubber mulch. It is pretty sad looking.

Here it is after rubber mulch is placed, and flowers planted.  I should have taken pictures before the tree started to loose it's leaves.  It looks so much better. 

This is a close up of the rubber mulch.  It looks real and totally improved the look of the front flower bed. 

We were completely limited on what we could do to the front of the house per HOA regulations.  We wanted to increase the curb appeal by placing nice chocolate brown shutters, paint the front door, and change the entrance light fixtures to bigger ones.  The HOA shot down each of these ideas.  They said we could do anything that was already done on other homes...I don't think they understand that this does not help us STAND OUT from the other homes in the area.  Some of these other things involved placing siding or rock up on the house.  Both of these options are REALLY expensive and we wanted to improve curb appeal for small $$.  Geez...they totally don't watch HGTV (my favorite channel). 

Anyway, we hope our small changes help us bring in the $$ quickly because.....

DRUMROLL.......

We are moving and need to sell! 

Yes, you read right.  We made an offer on a home almost 2.5 weeks ago and just heard that we are under contract.  We are supposed to close by October 30th!  We are kinda freaking out that October 30th is only 2 weeks away. 

We have a LOT to do in the next 2 weeks and not looking foward to it, but we are WAY excited!  I will post pictures of the house a little later!