More beautiful landscape

Monday was quite a day - 45 degrees celsius here in Ottawa (that's with the nasty humidex), work all day, a third visit with the florist for the wedding coming up in less than 3 weeks, and then a trip to deliver cat #9 to his new home (he was one of my fiancé's cats, who wasn't getting along with my 7). So I'm drained, exhausted and so damn hot (my house has no A/C). When my twin sister sent me a link to a story on Husohem, I figured I'd follow along with Jo's landscape posts from yesterday and post this gorgeous yard.

  
  

Click to read more ...

Just one more

I couldn't resist. I needed more garden inspiration from Rick Eckersley and his team. A contemporary Aussie garden? Why not this one as a perfect example. See more of Rick's work in the post below.

  

  

Eckersley Garden Architecture

It's a quiet start to the week on Desire to Inspire. Our American friends are celebrating the 4th of July long weekend away from their computers but that doesn't mean that the rest of us don't want something inspiring for a Monday. Rick Eckersley designs gardens that are, quite frankly, gorgeous. Practical, livable and just so inspiring. Rick and partners Scott Leung and Myles Broad are some of the foremost garden designers in Australia and it's not hard to see why.  The website is a treat with so many beautiful gardens as well as sections on focal points, plantings, pools and more. Today I've chosen two of their designs. The first is a suburban backyard complete with vege patch and chickens. The second, after the jump, is a new twist on an Australian native garden. Love!

  

  

Click to read more ...

House facade help

HAPPY CANADA DAY to all of our Canadian readers! Hope you all have a fun day off work, partying it up and enjoying the festivities. I'm hoping to get out in my front yard at some point and attempt to snap a photo of the Snowbirds as they fly around the capital. (Last year I just missed them).

Today I've got a few things to blog about - the first is a request for some paint ideas. Later I have a book review, a new store to share, and a request for guest bloggers.

So to start, here is a request from Nataliya:
"A few weeks ago you did a wonderful post of someone's house exterior with reader comments on how to improve it. I was wondering if I could get so lucky as to have my house get the same royal treatment :) It's a Minto home on a Minto street and I'm looking to make it extra special and fun. I would love to paint the trim, front door, garage door and storm shutters, but not sure what colours to choose. Currently I love white, black and red. However, a red double garage rood scares me a bit! :) Any comments would be very very appreciated."

Minto is a very popular builder of suburbs here in Ottawa and this home is very typical of what you'll find here. (I grew up in a very similar home). So Nataliya needs help making her home stand out from the rest because as is typical of the burbs here where all homes are built by the same company, every house looks the same - which is one of the main reasons why I am staying out of the burbs. So if you guys have any suggestions for Nataliya, fire away.

House facade help

I could not resist posting this request we got recently from Marcelo and Shanti: "We bought a house for us and our three kids... but the facade is ugly as it gets... Please help us as our kids are ashamed from the house..." I have to admit that this may be one of the ugliest exteriors I've ever seen.

Does anyone have any suggestions for these poor folks? I'm clueless when it comes to exteriors - and when it's this wacky I'm even more clueless. (I would like to make one suggestion - that you save up some cash to get that top left window replaced so it can be the same size as the others).