choosing paint

You can see how our new roof and garage door has already transformed Carver's outside. Now we're trying to choose paint! We've decided to live with swatches for a bit and will soon paint the entire front of the garage with our number 1 selection. To us, exterior paint is a permanent decision, so we want to make sure we are 110% sure.

the backyard

Our little backyard is finally coming together! We're waiting on the cushions for our lounge seating and a few more accessories, but look how far it's come! Our little bamboo plants will grow in to offer more privacy like the crazy hummingbird vine and we'll install tile on the concrete patio eventually.

before

after

the garage door

Let's talk about the exterior. Our fence is complete (I'll have to share the bamboo and planter later). And now we've quickly moved onto something HUGE. Let me start by saying in our neighborhood, probably about 99% of the houses have a driveway as the front yard. Which means the garage is kinda important to convey what your style is. We've dreamed about putting in a modern glass garage door since the day we signed the mortgage and it will finally happen in 3 - 4 weeks! So I did a little rendering of what the new garage door will look like. And up next for the exterior: the roof, tiling the back patio, installing a canopy of big string lights over the patio, painting the exterior a shade of grey, redoing pavers and rocks in the driveway and walkway.

the way she was

new lighting, fence, window and house numbers

simulated garage door (the framing will be more silver)

the fence: almost complete

The fence is up and stained, the vine is gone, and the base is poured for our planter. The planter is going up in the next few days and the gates need to be hung. This massive project is almost complete!

choosing stain

the cedar boards in place (before cutting off the dog ears and staining)

stained // no dogears

BEFORE

but the hummingbirds live there or The Fence: day 2

Well, after two months, C finally convince our unresponsive neighbor to take out her side of the fence. I still don't think she's sold on it. But the vine on OUR property was actually supporting her dilapidated, termite infested thing. So that was a problem. She is really attached to the atrociously crazy and unruly vine. She likes the hummingbirds. She thinks they live there. But I promise no nests were harmed in the building of the fence on carver. A failed attempt at trying to convince C that we should buy her a birdfeeder and call it a day resulted in a few branches left for her. So, um, she gets to the couple of pieces that were on HER property. I better never see that vine again once our bamboo grows in. Or else.

one side

a big mess

our yard into our back neighbor's yard and what remains of that massive vine

other side of the house

santa's bringing us a new fence

Our old fence was termite infested, falling over and just plain ugly. Work finally started on it today and we are super duper excited for a new fence, gates and a bamboo planter. Now that we've finished the interior, the exterior can commence! Exterior will include: new fence, faux grass, new driveway/walkway, new paint, new roof and a new garage door. This phase is going to be more slow going than the interior, but it will all get done in time.

very old fence

neighbor's yard

the crazy vine living between two fences

not your grandma's wallpaper

Wallpaper is back in a major way and I've been loving the look for a while now. We decided to wallpaper one of the bedroom walls for a pretty pop of hotel luxury. I've always wanted a bedroom that felt like one of our fave boutique hotels (Thompson LES, Viceroy Palm Springs, Portrait Suites in Rome to name a few) and I think this gives the room that extra pop I was looking for. The process took a while to get the hang of, was definitely time consuming and left me wishing at certain points that we just paid the dude I found online $180 to do it. But it was all worth it in the end.