Hi folks, long time no blog eh?

There's been lots going on with me lately, most of which essentially revolves around me waiting for it to be Spring now pleeeaaaase! There is so much we want to accomplish this year, and so much waiting still before it all can be done.

The photo above is what our backyard basically looked like as of this week. As I type this, a crew of arborists are at Laurel, removing the remainder of our large trees and stumps in the back yard (I hope! Why don't I have a webcam installed, again!?!) to make room for our brand new fence! We removed everything we could handle, including the existing (ancient) chain link fence, which had grown into all of the trees along the perimeter of the yard (reason numero uno why they needed to be removed - not so structurally sound anymore). And actually, that part went pretty smoothly, I have to say. Sawzalls are SO FUN, you guys!

Hopefully tomorrow (more on that in a bit), our new modern, horizontal cedar fence will be installed (yay!) I can barely contain my excitement! Yes, MORE exclamation points!! Last I talked to the fence guy, there was an issue with getting the height variance we requested, so we may have to wait on an inspector to come out and re-address the issue, but I seriously hope not.

More on that when I've got pictures, promise. Other things on the list for spring / summer include:

• Rehang string lights near patio (directly on the new fence? install poles?)
• Plant two or more new trees (and lilac bushes along back?)
• Transplant ferns and rose bushes from mom's garden, compost and mulch gardens beds
• Strip paint from front porch concrete steps
• Repaint front porch railings (part two; part one completed last summer)
• Replace front porch sectional cushions
• Hang string lights in front porch
• Patch attic pine floors where needed
• Sand and seal attic pine floors
• Paint attic white (walls, trim, doors, windows, stair treads)!

Hey all, are you feeling completely done with winter where you are? I definitely am. I started working on a few projects in 2015 that I just cant wait to complete once spring comes around, but until that time, I've just been vegging out, and not accomplishing much of anything. For that matter, I haven't done much of anything for awhile now.

I worry that I've hit that point in homeownership where all of those things you had dreams of changing, are all just that now, a dream. I feel complacent in our space, now that 90% of the aesthetic changes we wanted to make are done. They are all done "for-now" but not done "the-way-I-inevitably-want-them" you know? I would still love to totally-overhaul the upstairs bathroom someday, and restore the exterior of the house (that is a whole nother story, my friends), but a little refresh to all things in the meantime makes it feel just fine, you know what I mean?

Every single wall in our house now (except for the attic, but I'll get to that in a minute) has received new coats of paint, virtually all of the fixtures have been replaced, and every room has almost all of the furnishings we need for them purchased and installed: beds, tables, rugs, etc. It all just feels like we're waaaiting to upgrade at this point. Like: We have a rug that functions for now, but eventually we'd like to upgrade to this one...

Do you ever feel like that, home / apartment owners? How do I keep my vision alive and well in my brain, and stay motivated until such time that I have the time and money to take on these projects? I dont want to stall out now and remain like this forever, dreams-deferred.

But at the same time, I realize that I am so fortunate to have come this far, to have done as much as I have. I try to remind myself what it all looked like when we first moved in, and the leaps-and-bounds better everything has become (and not just aesthetically, but functionally too!).

In the meantime, as we continue to putter away these last few weeks of winter, I'll leave you with some photos of the house as it is today, and will remind myself to enjoy them! Hope you are all safe and warm and well, friends. And here's to spring!

Alex and I crave burgers awhile back (we often do). It is a Sunday. We crave Football. And cheese fries. The weather is warm, balmy even. I get to wear my favorite J. Crew rain parka. And low and behold we park right in front of a house with a really nice, new, modern horizontal fence. Eeeeerily similar to one I want to build in the spring. Except I really think they should have used cedar, not pine... It's a sign, no?

Ignore my less than stellar facial expression. I am legitimately pumped, you guys. I swear.

So here's the thing: I've been playing around with an exterior color scheme generator, lately. I know I know, woa slow it down a touch Allison, this is a dream big kind project, a several thousands of dollars project, a you-cannot-do-this-for-like-forever project. But a girl's gotta dream, right? And right now, I'm dreaming pretty big! Since we bought the house, I've hated the new vinyl siding and aluminum soffits / gutters installed on the house, it's such a shame! Originally, there would have cedar shakes under there, with clapboard! and maybe even some corbels! Oh my.. Someday, mark my words, I will restore the exterior to its former glory. And when I do, it will have a color scheme something like this I think. Please, ignore the crappy masking job I did, I was just so impatient to see what it would like like on my house!

Shakes and clapboard in Flagstone grey, and all of the other trim in Pepper Shaker, a shade slightly darker, with black storm windows and detailing on the porch! (only shown on the top stock photo, could get that detailed with my photo. But MMmmmmmm, amiright guys?

For reference, here is what it looks like now:

Ew.

Continuing with the house updates, I am very proud to (finally) show you all my finished kitchen remodel! A good, solid month was taken up by my big fat kitchen project, back in February/March (that was allotta tile hey!). Since then, I've been dragging my feet on tiresome little projects, finishing up caulking, replacing hardware, fixing broken things, and various miscellany. I still havent gotten around to changing out all of the doorknobs with period antique hardware in the house. And I still havent decided if I really want an electrician to come in and install another box for a pendant light over the kitchen table (thoughts?) But it's pretty much there! Phew.

Above is one set of comparable before and after pictures for comparison on how far its come since our inspection in July 2012. For more before pictures of the kitchen (and the whole house), you can visit my Flickr album, here!

Especially during this big project, I was getting all kinds of comments and questions on products and techniques I was using. You can always follow my progress on instagram, for those of you who follow me there, where I always try to respond to questions. I update there at least once a day, if not multiple times. Thank you all so much for the love and encouragement during this project you guys, it meant so much! This really has been one of the biggest projects I've undertaken to date (well, aside from the physical labor of installing the patio last year, of course! *shudder*). I am so proud of it and I still get that feeling of awe that I cant believe this is my own kitchen, every time I step foot in it, even now.

Sorry for the extra large photo dump, guys! I just had way too much fun fiddling with a nice camera for once, I made it way too hard to edit down. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post for product information and etc!

You'll notice that I did actually forget to grout this column under the counter top (above), so I have to finish that too! Oh, how things stack up... *sigh*

wall paint: Ace Clark & Kensington in Whisper // subway tile: Daltile from Home Depot // sanded grout and caulk in Charcoal from Home Depot // kitchen island pendants: Ranarp pendant lights from IKEA // drawer cup pulls: Martha Stewart collection from Home Depot // vintage table: Craigslist // eamsey vintage swivel chairs: from a friend who was moving! // brass herb drying rack over the sink: made out of brass tubing, s-hooks, and twine from the hardware store // red stripe hand towels: Ikea // b&w chevron hand towels: Target // rug: Nate Berkus for Target // magnetic knife strip, towel bar and utensil racks (spray painted black): IKEA // vintage Kodak darkroom timer: antique store // cutting boards, macrame plant hanger, miscellaneous utensils: thrifted // framed hot dog print by artist Michael Aberman // framed scribble drawing: found (artist unknown)

Okay, so I've made so much progress on the house since my last post, and I've just been so busy enjoying each one of them, the small things and the big changes! But sharing them here on the ole blog is wayyy past due dont you think? So let's get started playing catch up.

First up, the mini-makeover I gave the first floor bathroom (see before pictures in this post). It was put in when the previous owners flipped the house, in an existing hallway to the kitchen. And luckily the fixtures (decent pedestal sink, toilet with traditional styling) aren't too horrendous (though not what I would have chosen), but it really was sort of basic in there, and I wanted to bring it up to the level of character that the rest of our house has. So all I really had to do was paint, change out the light fixture, add period door hardware, repaint some existing things, add accessories and VOILA! I really want to add just one more small detail that will add a little bit of character to the otherwise pretty new-construction-looking space: a simple painted white pine beadboard ceiling and crown moldings to match the simple details of our house. I'll add a photo of that as soon as I can!

For now, please enjoy these awful iPhone photos that I took for you ;)

I'll be installing that same set of antique door hardware on all the doors in my house, eventually. I lucked out, usually old backplates dont fit over the pre-bored holes of new doors, but these were a perfect fit! Also, what do we think about this rug, versus the old rug? I wanted one that fit better, but am worried that this one is almost too small for the space. Though I do love the colors, pattern and most of all the texture!

the deets:

lighter grey and darker grey wall paint: Ace Kensington & Clark color-matched to Benjamin Moore // vanity light fixture: Industrial Loft Double Wire Guard pendant from Barn Light Electric // hand towels: Turkish bath towels, souvenirs from our trip to Istanbul last summer // handmade ceramic vase: vintage, thrifted // wool and jute rug: thrifted // antique black porcelain knob set and lock: Northwest Architectural Salvage // towel bar (existing) painted with: Krylon matte black finish

Thanks for bearing with me, guys. This whole homeownership thing has taken over my life, and I am enjoying every minute of it:) Coming up next on my house-project tour, the studio upstairs! This one's also an oldie, but a goodie :)

Now, let's be completely honest here and let me just say that I am not. A gardener. I did not get those genes. I do not have the green thumb skillz, no I realllyyy have more of a black thumb, and have been known to kill a cactus or two in my time (yep).

But our poor house really had no landscaping to speak of when we moved in (except one giant bed of bright red mulch under the front window?), and it was looking a little sad. We do have two ornamental trees (not matching, though?) and two nice big hardy barberry bushes in the front. ALL of that was covered in creeping vines and various giant weeds, including the front porch, when we bought the place. So we really havent done much planting of new plants, just weeding out old vines, trimming trees, removing dead branches and repairing the porch and gutters that have been damaged by all the over-growth thus far. But this summer, when our neighbors mentioned that they plan to rip out a nice sized-chunk of their (gorgeous!) garden to make way for sod and small playset for their grandchildren, we jumped! at the chance to take some free plants off their hands.

So I got to work ripping out the front lawn (above are the before photos from a few weeks back), and installing a modest landscaped garden bed instead (woohoo, no more mowing those awkward triangle-shaped spaces!). We opted for a cedar-esque looking plastic and wood-fiber flexible landscape edging that would match the actual cedar edging we put in the back around the brick patio (more about that in a minute), and free wood mulch from the compost site.

Voila! We ended up with a few different types of hosta, purple stevia, yellow flowering creeping jenny, another type of purple-pink flowering ground cover that I dont know the name of, and small sedum bushes (autumn pink flowering, I think?). The piece-de-restitance are three (!!!) lovely peony bushes that they were so generous to offer us, and that we took and put under the front window. They are looking really sad right now, as you are not supposed to move them in the summer, but we did wait until after they flowered and are hoping they'll get their roots nice and established before they go dormant in the fall. You can see one of the peony bushes in the neighbors yard that had just flowered though (top left of the picture), so beautiful! (That area still needs new edging and mulch, so I havent photographed it yet). In back, around the patio, we added real cedar edging, which will keep the mulch from falling out of the beds every time it rains. And, will allow for some other low flowering bushes to creep over the edge. I cant wait!

To the right of the patio we added some european ground ginger and some more of that pink flowering cover we discovered in our neighbor's yard, though I dont know what it's called. The hostas we planted last year, and were given to me by an aunt. The ferns were transplanted from my mother-in-law's garden, and are perfect for that space. It's super shady back there, and they add a lof of softness to the base of the house and around the brick patio. I think the patio garden beds are coming along nicely, though I have plans to add something low and flowering in with the ferns, and a large bush of some kind at the corner, to give us a little color and privacy from the neighbors (hydrangea? dogwood? recommendations? It would get pretty much full shade and would need to be pretty hardy as the wind picks up in that spot during storms, and kind of tears up my hostas that are there now.)

We'll also finish tearing out the chain-link fence (which, turns out, is not so easy to do when it's all grown into all of yer trees and such! As evidenced but the photo below, which is all we've managed to get out so far!) and replace it with a nice horizontal wood fence (next year, I'm hoping!!) and then possibly some additional landscaping along the fence.

SO MUCH PROGRESS and SO MUCH WORK.