The last time I shared with you, dear readers, any glance of my home’s exterior was here, where I talked about grandiose backyard plans. We have made no progress on that front. Maybe on Memorial Day I will get a chance to go to Lowe’s and get prices for different kinds of decking and fencing. Then, with dollar estimates in hand, we can move forward.
The last time I touched on the front exterior was clear back in November, a few weeks after we’d painted the house an “oops” color. The color has grown on me since then. The fact that the yard is perking up and new plants in the flowerbed are doing well helps, too. Yesterday, after Doug had mowed the yard I stepped outside and got a good photo. The sunlight was pretty nice, too.
Mowing the lawn is something he loves doing, by the way, and does weekly. If it was my responsibility I would let it get scraggly and mow only every 2 weeks. Glad I’m not in charge of lawn care!
In March we planted seeds for poppies, zinnias, and cosmos. Two of our flowers have bloomed! I hope we get to see lots more flowers before we head off for our vacation in a few weeks. What I don’t want is for the flowers to all pop out while we’re gone and wilt before we get back!
Speaking of plants, the above photo does not do it justice. The plant we have in the little front door alcove is just about the most beautiful plant ever. And, according to my MIL, near impossible to kill, too! Anyone know what it’s called?
What I’d like to do ideally is to tie in the terra cotta roof tiles somehow. The house color, shutter color, and roof color do seem to play nicely together, but I want to work in more of that orangey red. Seeing how nicely the flowerbed is coming in (the poppies are kind of going overboard, in fact) doesn’t leave a lot of room for terra cotta potted plants, which would be the easiest thing to do. So any suggestions are welcome!
PS: It’s clear that I should stop editing photos on my laptop. I thought the pictures looked fantastic until I came back to write the post on a different computer (one without a broken “shift” key,) and they look terribly green! Yuck! Live and learn, right? It’s always something…….
PPS: Ashley at Any Lovely Thing has given me a Liebster award! More on that in a couple of days.
My Friend Staci 
Your house is the cutest! It’s dreamy. Could you edge the flowerbed in terracotta roof tiles to tie in the roof? Or red bricks like that pillar? It’s so sweet though!
Thanks Annabel! Yes, I’d love to bring a punch of terra cotta color to the stones reigning in the flower bed. Wondering if I should buy something new, or just spraypaint the existing stones! ;)
The common name for that plant is wandering jew. It may be called varigated jew, and yes it is nearly impossible to kill. It does need occasional water, though. :)
Great! We’ve been keeping it water. I think it gets more sun than the lady who sold it to us recommended, so we water it more just so it doesn’t dry out. I stick my finger in the soil to see if it feels dry or not :)
Your house is so neat! Love the colour combo.
Thanks! I think the teal helps make it “pop!”
I drove by your house the other day and intended to text you about how much I love looking at your plant. I think she looks gorgeous with your teal paint-job and when the sun shines in through her leaves, she glows.
But I didn’t text you. Luckily, you know good and well how pretty she is.
I never condone texting and driving ;)
Thanks, though.
I love your exterior, such a happy looking home :)
xo,
Ashley
Thanks! Trying my best to make it look cheery and inviting :)
I’m also a fan of maybe ripping up the wooden stakes that seem to edge the flower bed out front and doing either something in brick or terracotta, if you wanted to get some of that color down on the lawn more. Though, to be honest, I’m still more in favor of painting the bricks a different color (I’m caught between matching it to the rest of the house and matching it to the roof more exactly). I am glad that you ultimately didn’t go for the ORBed drains. I think that even in the photoshop it seemed to take too much away from the turquoise, which I definitely feel really brightens up the house’s exterior a lot.
I don’t suppose you’d be interested in doing terra cotta pots for the little strip of stucco that leads to the front door (I can’t judge the width very well from the photos, so for all I know it’s like 2″ wide and totally not possible, haha)? My grandparents used to have those kinds of accents all over their gardens.
PS–I know you absolutely have read about it (’cause they’re fun to read even if you aren’t a DIY improver let alone if you are), but don’t you think it’s funny that YHL is also thinking of building a deck, just as you’re considering it? You’ll definitely be able to get some pointers from their experience, just in time to figure out what you want to do with your backyard! =D
The edging is actually concrete molded “rocks” held together by rebar, came with the house (f-r-e-e-) and my initial inclination is to get a spraypaint color as close to the roof as possible and just color them… for a total cost of around $20. I’d love to get some terra cotta pavers at Lowe’s or Home Depot. It just bothers me that the “top right” part of the house has the reddish color and the “bottom left” is so BLAH.
I still don’t love the painted drains! If this was a long-term house I’d like to invest in new ones in a swanky finish like gunmetal or something. Like jewelry on the house. To each his own though :)
Yes! I can’t wait to see what John and Sherry come up with for their deck. One person said in their comments that for a low deck they didn’t need a permit (he/she was in Houston). Makes me wonder with such a low slope if I could get away without getting a permit for ours!