Hello All!
This spring, Travis and I have taken to the outdoors much more than last year and have really kicked it into high gear with our house projects.
So far, we changed out all of our exterior lighting to match the lights on the front of our house.
I ripped up all of the over grown hostas that were lining our back deck and we put in new mulch and re-lined the plant beds.
Travis took down the old 60's deck railing and replaced it with new ballasts and they look amazing!
We edged the sidewalk to the garage and found out that it's not just an offset rectangle, there's weird elephant ears off the sides...it's whatever I guess.
I got a new umbrella as the one we got last year was "tan" but when we got it, it was almost green? So now we have an ACTUAL tan umbrella. We didn't truly agree on a color, he wanted brown and I would've rather had white, so tan it is.
I got it off of Amazon, by WUFF Bluu 10' Patio Offset Umbrella. We don't have it bolted into the deck so we don't have the extra long legs to help stabilize it.
I had ordered a SUPER CUTE outdoor rug last summer and either Target or UPS lost my order and I was truly upset because it wasn't available anywhere else or this year.
SOO I bought a new one this year from Target and it is the 5x7 Tassled Outdoor Rug Charcoal by Opalhouse.
The cushions are the only deep seat grey outdoor cushions you can get from Walmart (in the store) I think they're the BHG one's. Same with all of the pillows.
The patio set was from my friend and confidante, Mollie. Hi Mollie.
The lights are from Home Depot, and they're the same lights that we have in the front of the house and also now on our garage and our side entry. They're the "Colonade Collection 1-Light Sand Black Outdoor Wall Lantern Sconce with Clear Glass".
I love them!
The lumber is all from Home Depot, including the ballasts.
Here's the before:
This was most likely built in the 1960's and super chunky and the lattice was stained from the red stain which was obviously never kept up.
The "flower beds" were overgrown hostas with red crescent moon pavers and I took the whole. thing. out.
Hit me up if you want some red brick pavers.
Hosta's are around a lot of peoples homes and most of them look great but they're definitely not for me and mine were overgrown aaaaaaand so I just removed them.
We plan on staining the deck floor, the steps and the tops of the railings the same color and painting the tops and bottoms of the rails for the ballasts white along with the horizontal bars along the bottom.
Don't get it? I'll show you eventually...
Now to the front!
SO!
Here's a glimpse at what the exterior looked like before we purchased the house.
First off, can you see how the tree to the left of the house is now COMPLETELY leaning versus the bottom photo? You almost can't see it in the bottom photo because it's such a drastic movement from the storms last year. We're getting it removed sometime within the next month and that'll ease my mind whenever we have storms for sure.
Overall, the façade wasn't terrible but again, the flowerbeds were overgrown and it was very dated. Immediately we painted the door because it was black and gold. We changed the lights, mailbox, and house numbers last fall and it totally changed the look. This year we planted new shrubs and flowers and laid down mulch. We extended the front steps and made it about 3 inches taller which then required another step. We basically just built around what was existing. We also squared off the columns as they were QUITE "classic".
We're doing the same paint/stain scheme as the back deck.
Travis added the shaker shingles to the front and this will be stained as well.
We won't be staining anything until the treated lumber is completely dry which probably won't be until next year.
We've also decided to remove the shutters (because they do NOTHING) and I'm going to paint the frames of the windows black. Simple.
I'll do the same with the door but we're eventually going to get a new front door.
Bonus, here's a couple other angles:
Those metal awnings on the side, girl, we took off almost immediately. Same with the camper awning attached to the back of the house. I'm not 60, I'm sorry Mom and Dad, but it's for sure not for me.
Let me know what you think of our improvements so far!
We have a TON of projects we want to do this year so stay tuned.
xxoo,
Myia
