Written by Heather Zubiate
My husband Robert is the "Johnny Appleseed" in the Zubiate home, whatever he plants -- it grows. And he just loves it when he hears passers-by praise his garden, and it is quite a sight to behold in spring time! The pictures below just don't do our front yard any justice, it is a much better spectacle to behold in person. When we first moved into our little home, we didn't do much work at all inside, or outside. We both worked full time, I was not yet The Whittier Housewife I am today. Our 50 year old neighborhood is, or was rather, a silver maple lined street, and they were also the model homes of the area. Slowly the maples have begun dying off due to age and disease. Our tree finally bit the dust about 5 years ago, and my husband replaced it with a bed of flowers which he has added to over the years.
We also get many compliments on our house color, by the way, it is called "stuffed olive" from Dunn Edwards, if you are curious. I was considering a red door to complete the stuffed olive look, but our 16 yr. old [2012] objected, since it is his rival school's color, imagine the humiliation! Robert and I decided on brown for the front door color, and someday we will actually get our craftsman door we bought years ago hung, much less painted! When the painters started putting the green color on at the back of the house, they called us over to check it out. The patch they had painted was about 3 ft. square, and our house used to be 'afternoon tea' brown for many years, so it was quite a shock to see the green. At first I thought, "I hate it", but then I said, "Keep going, we can't turn back now!", because we had 15 gallons of the stuff. The more paint that was laid on, the more I liked it. Yay me! I can say that now, because it turned out so well, and I was the one who picked the color.