Category: Out of Doors

Open Your Eyes

If you’re reading this, I assume your eyes are open. What I’m really talking about here is something we really should have done to our home waaaay back last fall when we painted the exterior. Painting the wood sections between window panes.

Here’s how it used to look:

And after the exterior was painted (above picture from last September, below picture from last November):

I don’t think you can tell unless I point it out, but all the wood in between the window panes on the front three windows (and all over the house if we’re being honest) was still painted maroon. Burgundy. Whatever color you want to call it, it certainly wasn’t doing much to make the windows stand out. Which they should, because they are pretty cool!

So, finally we painted all the wood in between the frames with Olympic exterior white and let me tell you– it took forever. I don’t know if it was the paint or what, but each window took like three coats which was sooooo time consuming. I’m talking like a season and a half of Parks and Rec. Yes, I even primed beforehand to attempt to prevent the burgundy coming through, but to get a nice even look, it still took three coats.

Anyway, here’s the house now (in blaring sunlight)… doesn’t it look like the house’s “eyes” are wide open? Also, our flower bed is out. of. control.

With the bamboo blinds down, it looks most dramatic. What an update! And I don’t know if it’s a placebo effect or not, but having all that extra woodwork painted white makes it feel like more light streams into the house than before, when they were dark burgundy.

Isn’t it funny how something minor like that can make a big difference? The maroon is now banished from every square inch of the exterior. Preparing a house for sale can sure light a fire under you to take care of long-neglected details, can’t it? 

An Alternate Universe

To be honest, when I leave my apartment on a quiet morning and admire the bright pink flowers in front of the house complementing the rich teal shutters, I know that this is really a lovely place to live. I love the size and the layout. I love the size of the yard and I can see LOTS of potential.

If we could transplant this whole house and yard to California, we would do it in a second (minus the basement, which isn’t appropriate for a state that gets lots of earthquakes… Also, unfinished basements are super creepy).

However, I know that transplanting the house is not economical nor possible, so we have come to terms with the fact that we’ve got just about 1 month left in our current adobe abode. I’ve been smiling at the exterior color that was an “oops” color–it has grown on me a lot, and the green lawn and bushes in front of the house have really helped me come to terms with it.

We still talk about what we would do with the house if we owned it and were planning on living here long-term. Here’s our brainstorming list! It’s presented in relative order of priority. And dollar signs on a scale of $ to $$$ …just for fun, I guess.

  • Update the weird 80s track lighting in the bathroom $
  • Quadruple the size of our usable backyard by fencing it in properly $$$
  • Build a 16 x 16 wood deck in the back of the house $$$
  • (Click here for a mock-up of my dream backyard)… 
  • Remodel the kitchen with new cabinets $$$
  • Update wiring in the whole house; relocate some plugs $$$
  • Create an additional flagstone patio further back in the yard, with a chiminea $$
  • Finish at least half of the basement with wiring, drywall, and carpet $$$
  • Finish the laundry room with updated plumbing, relocate washer and dryer to south side of house, install cabinet system $$$

Needless to say, it would be easy to put $20k or more into the house. I love it but I am ready for some modern convenience, like, say a dishwasher or drywall, for that matter! But… I’ll touch on that in another post…

Stick a Fork in it

It’s done. The front yard, that is. It’s done for the year.

Last time we talked, I had discovered the beautification properties of mulch.

One plant that we had bought last fall died over the winter, and a replacement plant we’d put in its place is also on its way to the big garden in the sky. The replacement plant was meant to be in part sun, not full sun, but when we bought it it didn’t have one of those tags stuck in the soil so it was a mystery plant. Anyway we’ve successfully killed it, I think.

So. our flowerbed was looking like this–don’t mind the pale shirtless guy who dreamed of getting a tan only to notice that our workspace was totally shady:

The right side is doing GREAT! The left side (under the window) had a sad empty section.

Thanks to a sale at a plant shop in walking distance from us, we picked up two butterfly bushes (one of my mom’s favorites) and brought them home. A quick trip to Wal-Mart got us two good sized terra cotta planters, which are not a perfect match to the tile roof, but they are orange clay so they will do for now. The repotting process took about ten minutes (minus the Wal-Mart run) and the plants will have some good space to grow. Once they outgrow the pots they’ll go in the ground.

Now the front of the house is (finally!) balanced out, as far as fullness of plants, and color (more or less). And with that, I’m done messing with the front yard.

Except I just might get a potted plant for the walk-up.

PS: We got this done weeks ago but didn’t want to advertise what the front of our house looks like since we were heading out on vacation–house on the internet + gone for two weeks = wouldn’t have been a very smart move.

I will start next week full speed with a recap from our trip!