If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that I've become pretty obsessed with my backyard. I did a count, and about 30% of my recent shots are either in or about my backyard. Oops.
I am participating in the Home Depot patio style challenge again this year, which proved to be just the motivation we needed to get our backyard in order. I shared my design plan early last month and spent much of March bringing it to life. It debuts tomorrow on the Home Depot blog. The whole shebang ended up being a wee bit more work than I anticipated. When we toured the house considering an offer, there was a lot of "Oh, we can fix that," or "That's just a [insert "simple" DIY job here]." Um, yeah...So like a lot of the things in this old house of ours, those things added up real quick in the backyard, so before the grand reveal tomorrow, I thought a full rundown of the problem areas was in order.
1) The window from our dining room to the back deck was begging to be turned into a set of French doors. Although one of the biggest of all the jobs, we had this one done before we moved in, so it was really no skin off our backs. You can see the wonderful, light-givin' difference this made from the inside here.
2) More of a whole house prob than a patio prob, but new windows were in order. The original ones were drafty as all get out. Most of the storm windows were missing, and half of them wouldn't open. Actually, all of them were nailed shut when got the place. It would have been great to have these done before the winter we just had, but we decided to knock it out before the hot hot heat of summer rolls around.
3) Although the house is mostly brick, some stucco repair and a serious paint job was needed on the parts that aren't. The difference isn't huge around back, but boy oh boy, it has made a ginormous difference in the front, which I hope to share soon.
4) In this little spot, there was about a 4-foot paver walkway to nowhere...and from nowhere, because this deck had no step. Not even one.
5) There was a cute little flower bed right at this corner full of super tall zinnias. The frame of the bed, however, was just a few boards that were rotting and falling apart. Also, true story: When zinnias aren't in bloom, they just sort of look like big weeds. So, yeah, I wasn't wed to this bed, its contents, or even its placement.
6) I hate lattice, and I hate it even more when half of it is missing.
7) The deck was atrociously dirty, so this bad boy was going to need a good power-washing and sealing to get up to par.
See...that's a lot of prep work for styling a few pieces of furniture, no? Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the transformation! It has easily become one of my favorite spots in (around?) (about?) our whole house!
I am participating in the Home Depot patio style challenge again this year, which proved to be just the motivation we needed to get our backyard in order. I shared my design plan early last month and spent much of March bringing it to life. It debuts tomorrow on the Home Depot blog. The whole shebang ended up being a wee bit more work than I anticipated. When we toured the house considering an offer, there was a lot of "Oh, we can fix that," or "That's just a [insert "simple" DIY job here]." Um, yeah...So like a lot of the things in this old house of ours, those things added up real quick in the backyard, so before the grand reveal tomorrow, I thought a full rundown of the problem areas was in order.
1) The window from our dining room to the back deck was begging to be turned into a set of French doors. Although one of the biggest of all the jobs, we had this one done before we moved in, so it was really no skin off our backs. You can see the wonderful, light-givin' difference this made from the inside here.
2) More of a whole house prob than a patio prob, but new windows were in order. The original ones were drafty as all get out. Most of the storm windows were missing, and half of them wouldn't open. Actually, all of them were nailed shut when got the place. It would have been great to have these done before the winter we just had, but we decided to knock it out before the hot hot heat of summer rolls around.
3) Although the house is mostly brick, some stucco repair and a serious paint job was needed on the parts that aren't. The difference isn't huge around back, but boy oh boy, it has made a ginormous difference in the front, which I hope to share soon.
4) In this little spot, there was about a 4-foot paver walkway to nowhere...and from nowhere, because this deck had no step. Not even one.
5) There was a cute little flower bed right at this corner full of super tall zinnias. The frame of the bed, however, was just a few boards that were rotting and falling apart. Also, true story: When zinnias aren't in bloom, they just sort of look like big weeds. So, yeah, I wasn't wed to this bed, its contents, or even its placement.
6) I hate lattice, and I hate it even more when half of it is missing.
7) The deck was atrociously dirty, so this bad boy was going to need a good power-washing and sealing to get up to par.
See...that's a lot of prep work for styling a few pieces of furniture, no? Be sure to come back tomorrow to see the transformation! It has easily become one of my favorite spots in (around?) (about?) our whole house!
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