HOW'D you like to head out for a cottage weekend and come back to a whole new yard?
That's what happened to East Kildonan's Pamela Hoeschen on Sunday after her husband Eugene Warwaruk conspired with CTV's The Marilyn Denis Show and its resident gardening guru, Owen Reeves, to give their yard -- and their home's exterior -- a surprise makeover as winner of the show's Curb Appeal segment.
Hoeschen became a regular viewer of the Denis show during her maternity leave. When Reeves announced the "Make My Yard Over Contest," asking viewers "Is your front yard in desperate need of some assistance?" Hoeschen was quick to respond.
The results are the talk of their neighbourhood.
Hoeschen and Warwaruk bought their post-Second World War home in the summer of 2007. Located just off Henderson Highway on a street shaded by mature elms, the modest 11/2-storey home has had only two previous owners.
Like most young couples, Hoeschen and Warwaruk lead busy working lives, and they have just started a family. Since moving into their home, the focus has been on upgrading the interior.
Hoeschen admits to having little gardening experience, but she had a keen desire to transform the undeveloped landscape. The Curb Appeal contest presented the perfect opportunity.
Hoeschen emailed photos of her front yard and house and explained why she thought her yard needed a makeover. Four weeks later, at the beginning of July, she was contacted by John Simpson, segment producer for The Marilyn Denis Show. Simpson was interested in knowing more and suggested they talk the following week.
Hoeschen, however, was planning to visit a family member's cottage at Lake of the Woods. The show's producers saw an opportunity to create a makeover while Hoeschen was away and have cameras at the ready on her return to tape the "unveiling."
Hoeschen's husband was secretly contacted and plans were made. The first step was to email Hoeschen to tell her that, unfortunately, she had not won the contest. The game was on.
While Hoeschen was away on holiday, Reeves and the show's producer, John Simpson, arrived in Winnipeg on July 14. Hoeschen's anticipated return was last Sunday, which allowed just three days to complete the makeover. In addition to landscaping the front yard, the home's exterior needed freshening up, as did the concrete steps and cracked concrete sidewalk.
Ron Paul Garden Centre received the surprise call to project-manage the landscape renovation. "We'll make it happen," was the immediate response of company president Ray DuBois.
Coincidentally, DuBois' childhood friend, Brian Thiessen at Winnipeg Building & Decorating, was also contacted and agreed to take on renovations to the home's exterior.
On Thursday, Day 1 of the project, trucks and equipment lined the street amid the sound of jackhammers. A crew of young workers wearing green Ron Paul T-shirts swirled around the site as a small crowd looked on.
Work began at 8:15 a.m. and by mid-afternoon the crew was going over the entire lawn with a sod cutter, removing the lawn piece by piece for disposal. The existing plants -- a globe cedar beyond rejuvenation and two tired, woody, mature spireas -- were discarded.
Dated, rectangular-shaped retaining walls, made of cinder blocks with a concrete base, were removed from both sides of the front steps. The steps themselves could not be removed as they were part of the foundation, but staff from The Floor Show began work on refurbishing them completely.
New cedar railings were also installed, and a jackhammer was used to break the concrete sidewalk into large, heavy chunks, which workers carried to a waiting truck.
Painters from Winnipeg Building & Decorating were busy freshening up the window trim with a coat of white paint, and 'Flint', a contemporary grey-blue shade by Benjamin Moore, was selected to cover the white stucco exterior of the home.
Late in the day, with beads of sweat on his brow, landscape manager Owen Nagy said careful planning of each step of the project made him confident it would be done in time for the unveiling just three days away -- despite labouring through Winnipeg's first heat wave of the summer.
Day 2, Friday, saw tremendous progress: The dry, brown grass was completely removed and the lawn was excavated, then levelled with a rich, four-way mix of topsoil. Exterior painting was almost complete, and the effect was an instant facelift.
A new walkway made of Roman pavers in Sierra grey (a mix of the colours charcoal and sand) now divided the front lawn, and semi-circular retaining walls sat on either side of the refurbished front steps.
Finishing touches such as a new door painted in blackberry wine and a silver-toned light fixture and mailbox completed the classy, contemporary look.
Work had begun on creating a path to the side entrance of the house using a stunning flagstone, with all paving materials and work donated by barkman.
Nick Dueck, a barkman product consultant, said "barkman was happy to make a contribution, and the project turned out amazing. We were happy to be approached and hope they (Hoeschen and Warwaruk) love the end results."
Saturday, the final day of the project, proved to be the busiest. With the exterior facelift and hardscaping materials in place, it was time for the landscaping details to bring everything together.
Enter Reeves, the young, photogenic gardening contributor to the Marilyn Denis Show. Reeves, whose family owns a garden centre, answered a countrywide casting call last year and joined the show in January. He knew that a low-maintenance landscape would be the best fit for this busy young couple.
In a day spent at the Ron Paul Garden Centre, Reeves had carefully selected a mix of annuals, perennials, shrubs and a non-fruiting, spring-flowering crabapple tree, spring snow.
A granite boulder weighing between 135 and 180 kilograms was rolled into place on the east side of the front yard. A row of variegated ornamental grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora or overdam) was planted behind the rock, with deep purple Catherine Woodbury day lilies in front.
An incrediball hydrangea and a pair of coppertina ninebark shrubs, combined with shasta daisies, rudbeckia, Russian almond, bright green Calgary carpet low-growing junipers and the cool blue of Russian sage, provided instant colour and texture as well as seasonal interest.
As the sod was laid and planting was done, including in new black planters that drape over the cedar railings, the crew worked feverishly to beat the clock, some working until midnight.
There was, of course, some last-minute drama. When Hoeschen phoned home to say that she would come by the house ahead of schedule to pick up Warwaruk for a quick trip to Morden to see visiting family, there was a moment of panic. But Warwaruk proposed an alternate plan without arousing Hoeschen's suspicions.
When Sunday dawned warm and bright, neighbours, family and friends gathered as unobtrusively as possible on the boulevard to await Hoeschen, Warwaruk and baby Georgia. Reeves, Simpson and a cameraman were just as excited as everyone else.
As their car pulled up, Hoeschen's first words were, "That's Owen from the show!" The couple delighted in all the extraordinary changes and Hoeschen wasted no time asking questions about the plants and their maintenance. Neighbours cheered and came away with inspiration for their own landscapes.
Hoeschen and Warwaruk's front yard "Curb Appeal Makeover" can be seen during The Marilyn Denis Show at 9 a.m. Wednesday on CTV.
