One of the major downsides of buying foreclosures is that a lot of the times, the house isn’t in the greatest shape. Pretty, staged homes were NOT what we saw. Most of the time, we toured homes that were hurriedly vacated after months of neglect. After all, if you’re going to lose your home anyway, why bother with upkeep?
We ended up buying a home we loved that needed quite a bit of TLC. And for the most part, the interior got the TLC it so desperately needed along with new floors and mostly cosmetic fixes. Though we cleared the existing trees, weeds and overgrowth when we moved in a year ago, and got the house painted, we haven’t done much with the exterior.
Frankly, The Hubster ™ and I thought very little about curb appeal until we realized that our neglected front lawn was beginning to become a dumping ground for the neighborhood kids who seemed to think it was okay to dump their trash on our property on the way home from school. Plus, as The Little Empress is getting older, and the temperatures are getting warmer, it would be a shame not to have a nice lush lawn for her to run through the sprinklers or to place a little kiddie pool on.
The Hubster ™ and I debated about lawns for awhile. For a long time, we were both firmly against having a lawn because of how much money it costs. But we also realized that not having a lawn means that we’ve got a big patch of DIRT that weeds grow in however they please and there’s not a damned thing we could do about it.
So finally, I buckled and have gotten estimates for the yard work. Geezus chrysler, is that how much lawns cost these days? Had I known how much a decent yard costs, I would have been more insistent on finding something with at least a patchwork of grass instead of thinking that a blank slate was more preferable. Lesson learned 
Ugh…not just putting it in, but the maintenance is a killer too! And I can’t believe the ridiculous behavior of your neighbors, even if they are just school kids.