In other news...
We closed on our house one year ago! That's seems wild to me. Like, really. And maybe it's because technically, we've only been living here for 10 months so we haven't quite hit the year mark there yet. If you don't remember, we closed on our house a couple of months before we had to be out of our rental. That gave us time to scrape all of those popcorn ceilings and paint before we moved in all of our furniture, which would've made scraping ceilings 100 times harder.
I'm going to write up a picture-loaded post of the inside and how it's changed in the past year but first, we're going to start outside. The backyard hasn't changed much (here's a little update on some landscaping) but the back patio has and all with the addition of furniture and a little feng shui. ;)
Before:
Currently:
Before:
Currently:
I nabbed this umbrella* (similar for $30!) on clearance last fall. The palm is from Sam's Club (last year) and I just saw more there recently for under $14.
Currently:
We're still not decided on whether or not we'll keep that half brick wall but, hey! You can actually see it now!
Looking out into the backyard before:
Currently:
We trimmed up some trees back here and added a lot of kid stuff. Haha! It's a fun backyard to have, for sure. If you look closely, you might be able to spot Anthony cleaning in the back corner...
I saved the best for last - the front of the house. It's really taken a turn for the better even though we are not quite out of the aesthetically-displeasing woods.
Before (fuzzy realtor's photo, sorry!):
Currently:
Yes, that's sidewalk chalk. :) So far, we've taken the decorative muntins out of the front windows (those wood pieces that divide each window into squares) to modernize things and added two sets of these chairs and some green to the front porch. (The planters next to the front door were from Goodwill a several years ago - similar.) The 'biggest change' award goes to the sidewalk though. A few months ago, I started ripping out that overgrown jasmine little by little. It was thick and way too high and just plain ugly. I'm pretty sure our neighbors thought I was crazy as they watched me hack at that stuff over the period of a few weeks. Ha! C'est la vie. It looked worse as I continued since some was in and some was out and bare. But finally, Anthony was able to get out and help me one weekend and we got it alllll out. A green-thumbed friend knew we were working on getting it out and gifted us with a big 'ole batch of snapdragons that we put in right after. I'm most proud of the brick outlining the sidewalk though. Sebastian and I laid it all by ourselves during a few mild winter afternoons. Woot woot! It didn't cost a cent either - we just used a chunk of the extra bricks (???) laying around the outside of the back of house. A for effort, right? My sight line usually ends at the stair because I still cringe every time I have to look at those toothpick, non-matching columns out front but hey, we will get there. #andrepeatit
But, BUT, wait until you see this. I redid the mock up of the design we came up with for it the front of the house and I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL WE GET THERE!
We have the (hand-me-down) front door in the shed at this very moment waiting for paint and an install and need to make a plan for opening up that gable but, oh my goodness, I just can't! This house's full potential is right there, in that picture. Need I hashtag it #goalz?
Stay tuned for an interior tour, one year in!
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