Search

Our Big Outdoor Home Improvement Project

Rectangle 58

Hi, I'm Tina!

I’m the owner of Carrots ‘N’ Cake as well as a Certified Nutrition Coach and Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P). I use macros and functional nutrition to help women find balance within their diets while achieving their body composition goals.

Fit + Fueled

An in-depth, 4-week reverse dieting course for women who feel like their metabolism has slowed down, think they might have hormonal imbalance and can’t lose weight no matter what they do.
Get all the tools to take your physique into your hands. Over six-months, you’ll transform your life, mindset, and body in this program that’s part-course, part-coaching, and part-community.
Categories

Woohoo! It’s done! It’s done! It’s donnnneeeee!

Remember how I mentioned that Mal and I “supposedly” weren’t buying each other presents for our birthdays, Mother’s/Father’s Day, and wedding anniversary because we were spending a lot of money on an upcoming home improvement project? Well, it’s finally done, and it was worth every penny. We couldn’t be more thrilled with the end result!

And, of course, a project with all sorts of awesome construction equipment was a huge hit with a 3 year old.

IMG_8764

Qman was in heaven watching the crew from Mento Landscape work – it was hours of entertainment for him!

IMG_8499

A little background on this project: When we bought our house, we knew that the retaining walls outside needed to be replaced at some point or another. They were pulling away from the house and a decent-size gap was forming. One of our contractor friends said they could stay up for another few years or maybe ten – it was hard to know for sure. Even still, it was a project that we wanted to tackle sooner or later because, honestly, they were just kind of ugly.

IMG_7049

Additionally, our walkway and driveway were starting to fall apart with all sorts of cracks and bumps, so we figured we might as well go all in and get everything done at once, which, of course, was not a small feat in anyway. We started saving money as soon as we moved into our house, and we finally decided to get estimates from potential contractors this past spring.

We had three potential landscapers (all recommended by friends) give us estimates on the work that we wanted done: 1) replace retaining walls, 2) fix stone walls at front and back of house, 3) replace walkway, 4) give front stairs a face lift, 5) replace stones that line driveway, and 6) repave driveway. Obviously, this was a big undertaking and, boy, did the estimates reflect that. Yikes. I nearly had a heart attack seeing them. The estimates also varied greatly with regard to what was included and how much each part cost. We actually asked that the estimates be broken down just in case we needed to pick and chose what should be done now and what could wait. Plus, one of the landscapers didn’t pave driveways, so we needed to factor in that extra cost if we were to go with him. In the end, Mento’s estimate was by far the best value for the money (and they provided everything we wanted). In fact, their estimate included everything that we wanted for thousands less than other quotes that we received! Basically, it was a no-brainer. We signed the agreement and started to finalize the details on our big outdoor project.

When it came to selecting the design details for the walls, walkway, and front stairs, Mal and I headed to Mento’s showroom in Braintree to make some decisions. We figured seeing things in person was the best way to decide. While there, we chatted with John Mento, the owner, who took us around the showroom and explained the different options. I actually shared some images of potential stone choices and patterns on Instagram Stories to see if my followers had any feedback and received some great feedback. Thanks for the help, guys! 🙂 Mal and I eventually finalized our decisions and then hit the road to celebrate with a couple of cocktails since it was happy hour and all! 🙂

On the drive, Mal received a call from John. It turns out his son (and his wife) are regular CNC readers and recognized us at the showroom. Mento, as a business, is looking to grow their social media presence, so he immediately inquired about a potential partnership and suggested a discount in exchange for coverage on CNC. I was already planning to blog about our big ol’ outdoor project because it’s something we’ve wanted to do for years now and we were obviously really excited about it. Plus, I’ve shared a ton of home improvement projects (both big and small) over the years, especially from our old house, so it sounded like a win-win for everyone!

A few weeks later, it was go time and the Mento crew arrived at our house, bright and early, ready to tackle our project. Rodrigo Silva and his team worked so hard and put in some seriously lonnnnggg days, often working well into the early evening and even in the pouring rain. They were really efficient and, less than a week later, our outdoor space was completely transformed!

IMG_8527

IMG_8528

IMG_8644

IMG_8683

IMG_8698

IMG_8700

IMG_8768

IMG_8933

And, finally, here are the BEFORE and AFTER photos, which say it all! 🙂

BEFORE (retaining walls on either side of garage):

IMG_7048

IMG_7051

AFTER:

SAMSUNG CSC

SAMSUNG CSC

BEFORE (right side retaining wall):

IMG_7046

AFTER:

BEFORE (left side retaining wall + stonewall):

IMG_7052

IMG_7043

AFTER:

SAM_3963 (1280x853)

SAMSUNG CSC

BEFORE (wall lining driveway):

IMG_7047

AFTER:

SAMSUNG CSC

BEFORE (front stairs):

IMG_4906

(I spy Murphy.)

SAMSUNG CSC

BEFORE (walkway):

AFTER:

SAMSUNG CSC

SAMSUNG CSC

We are so happy with the way things turned out. We’re also really impressed with the Mento team and their work. We absolutely recommend them for any sort of landscaping, stone, or paving project you might have – and we can’t say enough about the value for the money. Their services are definitely priced right!

Question of the Day

Have you ever tackled a huge home improvement project? How’d it go? Was it worth it in the end?

 

 

You Might Also Like

DON'T MISS A THING

Join the community!

Get recipes, workouts. and discounts straight to your inbox for FREE!

Join The community

Get recipes, workouts. and discounts straight to your inbox for FREE!

@carrotsncake

© 2022 Carrots ‘N’ Cake. All Rights Reserved | An Elite CafeMedia Food Publisher | Funnel Build & Design by: Maria Filipina Co.