My Secret Front Yard Is Finally Revealed

After FOUR years it seems appropriate to show you that we do indeed have a secret front yard. Despite my apparent (obvious) lack of privacy, I kept this off the blog since we are in a walkable neighborhood and no one needs to know exactly where my children sleep. But now we aren’t there anymore (in escrow, crossing fingers but still showing if you are serious) I wanted to show you what it looked like when we bought it and how we turned it into an almost Disney-like, butterfly friendly, birds chirping, hummingbird bathing private magical English country front garden.

the original listing photo

When we saw the original listing, above, we loved the house immediately. It’s covered in ivy, has such pretty architecture, original brown coat stucco and it’s set back from the road. It is one of two houses first built on this hill in Los Feliz by two brothers, both architects/carpenters, both covered in ivy. It is SPECIAL. We loved it immediately.

But we were excited to make it our own, not to mention create some privacy and more purpose for all that space. So over the last four years. we did the following: 1. Replaced the path, 2. Upped the landscaping (including trees), 3. Put in irrigation, pathway and landscape lighting, 4. Fixed all the drainage issues and put in a french drain, 5. Replaced the garage doors, 6. Painted the trim, 7. Put in a citrus grove, 8. Added a water feature and 9. The most expensive yet worth it – created a privacy fence with electronic driveway and pedestrian gates.

Right before we sold it I amped it up even MORE because this property is dreamy and I frankly have too much home pride to release it to someone else and show you guys without it being at its absolute best. Brian didn’t agree with my investing in it at the last minute, but I did and I’m so happy that I’m leaving it at its most beautiful for someone to take over. You don’t buy this house for the closet space, you buy it for the magic. The charm. The yards. The butterflies and hummingbirds. So over the last few years, I dedicated a lot of time and money to making the front yard special and magical to match the backyard and the inside. At times it was almost ridiculous–with multiple butterflies flying, birds chirping, and hummingbirds bathing at the same time so I guess it worked.