Updated Front Yard Offers Curb Appeal and Lounge Space
In this episode of Houzz TV, producer Rick Spence chats with Melissa Kennedy, president and production director of Meadowlark Design+Build. Kennedy gives a virtual tour of her renovated front yard and outdoor living space in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she lives with her husband and three kids. The yard includes low-maintenance deer-resistant grasses, a natural sledding hill for snow season and a new entry sequence.
She also talks about the time she helped actress Kristen Bell surprise her sister with a basement renovation. And she discusses how Houzz ideabooks can help homeowners better communicate their ideas to design and building professionals.
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We are so proud of Melissa! What a great transformation of the exterior!
Love what you did with your front yard! it looks great! Must be really fun to spend the evenings near the fire pit with your family.
Excellent video of a really beautiful remodel in a wonderful city! Well done!
Thank you!
Beautiful! Would love to see the grasses in summer.
Great work. Great comments at end about working with clients.
I am living for the outside of this house! I also have one of those strangely shaped late 70’s-early 80’s diagonal cedar sided houses, and it’s so hard to think how to bring it up to date. This give new so many ideas! Thank you!
I love how you transformed your house to a cheerful, welcoming look, rather than dark and forboding!
I really enjoyed this little segment because of the realness - your son with his bedhead saying hi, your thumb, and the fact that you showed your place even though the landscaping wasn't mature. Thank you!
Thanks so much for all the love! We had fun making this and Houzz has been a great partner for us.
Hello there,
In Canada you need a baluster on one side of a min 3 stairs and if the stairs width is 3'-7" you need on both sides. I don't see any baluster on this otherwise a nice landscape design. Baluster will change this landscaping. Please don't give people wrong impressions. People see design here and do not understand that you can't bend local building code. Most accidents happens on stairs!!!
Canadian fun of houzz!
Wow! Incredible job<3 The "Before" really blended in with the natural seasonal landscape and the "After" highlights the architecture. What year is your home? And will you consider an interior tour? Thank you very much! Stay safe and healthy!!!
Thanks so much for reaching out to us. The home was built in 1979. Melissa purchased it in 2012. As far as an interior tour goes...we are working on that. Right now in the midst of the pandemic it's kind of hard to get homes "tour ready" when you have a houseful of kids, pets and adults working from home, but we are hopeful that we can share in the future. Stay tuned and occasionally check into our website meadowlarkbuilders.com for upcoming virtual tours. Stay safe!
Reaching out to ewazieba: Thanks for your comments and we apologize for taking so long to get back to you. We had to double check the specific local code requirements since it's been a while since this project was completed. Per local ordinances, no railing is required if the stairs are < 2' above grade and they are not the primary access into the home. Hope that clarifies and we appreciate your feedback.
Excellent video. Did you remove the existing siding and put on all new siding or did you put the new siding over the old? I have horizontal cedar lap siding on my 1980 contemporary home and I've been trying to figure out if there is a way to update the siding without removing all the existing siding. I see the siding on Melissa's house seems to be vertical and flush.
Reaching out to mx10240: Excellent question! Our intention was to take it down, but it wasn't in bad condition so we added insulation over it and and the new siding acts as a rain screen. One important note: Make sure you review the dew point calculations to make sure the dew point is outside of your building envelope so that you don't encourage mold growth. Melissa