Disclaimer – This post is sponsored by Ryobi. All opinions are 100% my own.
Who is ready for one big beefy makeover?
And where is my girl-raising-hand emoji?
Because this post would be a total girl-raising-hand, dancing-girl, touch-down-hands, fist-bump emoji post right here. It’s gonna be amazing. Hold onto your hats.
SOooo it all began when Ryobi outdoor tools came to us to ask if we would be willing to review their new 40V outdoor lineup. It’s impressive. We have seen it basically every day. The boys go ‘ride’ the lawnmowers on display at Home Depot and we ogle the chainsaw, the cultivator, the blower and the trimmer.
Being the self-proclaimed tool junkies that we are, of course we jumped at the chance to get some new equipment. But we also felt like it was the perfect time to pay it forward. We could use the tools to give someone a needed curb appeal makeover and foot the bill so that we could pass along the love! Plus – you guys would get to follow along and see some fun ways to spruce up your exterior. It literally would be a win-win-win-win! Hence the touch-down-hands emoji!
So the absolute best feature of these tools is that they all run off of a rechargeable battery and they haven’t lost power. The battery is about size of a small loaf of banana bread. And you know that’s not big…especially when sharing.
Did you hear that? Each 40V tool can run off the same battery. No tools. No gas cans. No cords. No problem.
Even the lawnmower. Yup. The 40V lawnmower runs off the same battery as the 40V blower, 40V string trimmer, etc.
We did a little Facebook blast to our friends and family to see if they knew anyone who needed an outdoor sprucing and when our friends Chris and Dave submitted their exterior, we knew it would be the perfect house to get some much needed curb appeal!
Overall – the house is really cute and it just lacked in the maintenance department. Chris told me that she absolutely did not care what I did to the exterior but I knew that she is the kinda gal that likes a lot of classic with just a splash of the unexpected.
Currently their yard was overgrown and struggled in other areas of landscaping. The big rocks surrounding the beds were from their lot and they liked the native stones but felt like they weren’t acting as a edge or working visually.
The beds themselves were also lacking in bushes.
And this tree on this side of the bed was poorly pruned….so much so that if we limbed it up, it would have three branches and completely all on one side. The suckers at the bottom kept sprouting and the placement was smack dab in the center of the house….plus it inhibited grass to grow around that bed….most of that green is just moss.
Their lot is more wide than deep so we knew we would all get to try out the 40Volt lawnmower! Yes. You heard me right….a battery operated lawnmower. And one that I can lift with one hand. It’s nuts.
Near the house we needed to establish the overgrown beds and cut back those shrubs.
The rocks from the big bed were huge….
But even the smaller beds had rocks surrounding them. Those needed to go!
The stepping stones that they had were leading out into grass but they kept getting overgrown in the yard so we came up with an alternate plan for those babies.
Chris told me that she loves the bay window – she calls it her “Christmas Tree Window” and their huge blended family (between the two of them they have like 7 kids….maybe 8….I kinda lost track) they all set up the tree early in that window and are able to enjoy it whenever they come see this side of the fam!
The only bushes that were well established were these ones….the giant beauties that desperately needed trimming. Chris told me that her husband attempted to take care of them but had an injury and so these were always the back-burner-bushes.
He did manage to cut back some crepe myrtles but sadly the main stalks didn’t resprout in the last couple years so the suckers were the only thing left. These are a really popular plant here in the south and we love them but most people don’t know how to prune them correctly….so this happens frequently. I recently just learned how to prune mine and it’s sad how easily they are mutilated. Thankfully – these ones still have hope so we left them as is and told Dave that if he wanted help pruning them in the future to give us a call 🙂
It seriously is like Edward Scissorhands dream bushes up in there.
Okay – so besides the landscaping, we also decided that the house would benefit from some simple and inexpensive updates. The shutters needed a coat of paint, and the door needed some color and we would need to find a proper front door handle and a little door mat to welcome the family home. My goal for that was $100….and I did accomplish that 🙂
The first step was chopping down the tree. It was amazing how removing that one opened up the front of the house and immediately made the house feel more balanced.
Don’t worry tree-lovers, we made sure to plant three trees this year already and this yard received a lot more plants!
Once the tree was cleared out, we started on the beds. I would mark them and dig the edge trench and then Jeremy used the 40V Ryobi cultivator to mix up that soil. We tend to have two types of dirt here – red clay and rock. Not rocky dirt. Just rock. So I was super excited to see this tool work it’s magic and till up the beds.
We also needed to bring in some shrubs and we scored some azaleas for inexpensive that would help round out the big beds.
We also put in plenty of annuals. I went with purple and pink since purple is Chris’ favorite color.
The front door needed a little pop of color and I went with a very saturated navy blue color.
As you can see – the front door hardware definitely needed a little sprucing….
Isn’t that just so pretty!
And since the hardware was already off – putting new one on was simple!
We also needed to paint the shutters since they were badly faded.
The screws were stripped on a couple of them so we painted them in place and it turned out great!
The color is Espresso Beans by Behr.
Doesn’t the new hardware look good?!
You may be wondering where we put the stepping stones….they were placed to be a little walkway through the island next to the door. It made the most amount of sense to me – this way they wouldn’t get overgrown in the grass.
Adding some smaller shrubs and flowers really helps fill out empty beds but nothing makes them look as nice as a fresh cut and a layer of dark mulch.
Doesn’t it look just so much better?
We were able to clearly delineate the islands and reuse one of the flower barrels (that was painted to match the shutters) and the largest rocks to create formations that felt intentional yet casual.
And just look how open and classic it looks now!
I think the biggest change is those bushes. The hedge trimmer is so lightweight that I can do it and I have less than stellar upper body strength 🙂
And both homeowners were super happy with the way it turned out. Aren’t they so cute together!? It took us about the same amount of time you could squeeze into a two day weekend (we would come for a couple hours at night over a week) and overall…the curb appeal increased SO much.
Overall….everyone’s favorite is the blower. Even Dave said that he wanted to go buy one after using this. It has tons of power and is well balanced so it doesn’t feel like a CrossFit workout to use. I have since used it EVERY SINGLE DAY. We use it for the garage, sawdust, cheerios, leaves….basically everything.
The second runner up is the hedge trimmer. It isn’t heavy like a gas powered version and it’s cordless so it’s less stressful than the corded counterpart.
Overall – we are super impressed with the tools and loved being able to give this deserving family a curb appeal boost. And because we can’t just tell you anything anymore….we made a video. And it’s cheesy and hilarious and has the cutest ninja ever. I hope you like it….
And because today is all about the love – sharing the love, giving the love, loving the 40V, loving ninjas and loving curb appeal – we wanted to share some of the Ryobi love with you guys. That’s right – it’s giveaway time! Today we are giving away a 40V String Trimmer from Ryobi outdoor tools and you can enter to win! Good luck y’all!