Oh my goodness, this school year is doing me in. I’m only homeschooling one of my kids again this year and only part-time, but it’s such a hectic schedule and lots of driving. I feel like a stereotype and have resorted to highlighting my calendar so I don’t forget where I’m supposed to be during … More Exterior Paint Progress
Great news over here: we are having the exterior of our house painted. As in, HIRING THE WORK OUT! I was planning to spend the fall doing the job myself, but after such a stressful and overwhelming first month of school/homeschool for me, we were curious what it would cost. When the quote came back … More Exterior White Paint: How I Picked a Color
*I gotta preface this. I’ve been sitting on my posts for the past few weeks because I don’t at all want to contribute to a “business as usual” vibe and be all “yay for my house!” while children sit in detention centers alone in fear and their asylum seeking parents live out a nightmare. It’s … More Front Yard Landscaping
Excuse my brief blog hiatus while end of school year crazies and A KITCHEN PLUMBING/LAUNDRY FLOODING SITUATION took over our life! Ugh. We have put our laundry room back together, our new dishwasher is taking its maiden voyage as I type (!!!), The Beach Boys are filling my ears, and it’s officially summer break! I am back … More Mailbox
Totally unintentionally, the patio has been all switched up! It all started with a hosing off and snowballed into a full rearrange where furniture was pulled from inside, impulse rugs were purchased, and plants planted. I have so many other things I should be working on, but once I got started I couldn’t stop. I caught … More Patio Shenanigans
Somehow this has turned into a saga. Two years ago I bought some replacement covers (actually two different kinds ugh) for our backyard vintage butterfly chair frames and wrote this long post on places to find them. I have detailed info there, but to summarize: if you want replacement canvas covers for your (non folding) … More Circa50 Butterfly Chair Covers
It happened. I can pretty much retire from life because having an orange front door = I’ve made it. The ornate and scrolly front door that came with our house was obviously a more recent update from the wrong decade that didn’t fit in with the style of the house or its owners. We have … More Orange Front Door!
Last summer/fall, not unlike this summer/fall, was a time of big yard work. But instead of front yard redoes, it was backyard redoes, and it was the first yard we ever really landscaped, if you can call our very minimal application landscaping. We did a lot of winging it when it came to our plants and hoped for the best. … More The Backyard Turns One
Things are moving along in the front yard slow and steady. Our most recent project is an exterior decorative wood screen inspired by the pages of a 1961 Sunset book, Entryways and Front Gardens, a photo that has haunted me for years! Obviously adding non structural architectural details can completely change the feel of a … More DIY Mid Century Screen / Divider
Hi everybody! It’s been insane here lately so sorry for my absence on my own blog! School started back up abruptly and I’ve been scrambling to switch gears, gather supplies, and make sure everyone is emotionally stable through all the newness. All of that means that summer is officially over for us and our front … More Border Wall
I’ve wanted a screen door on our bedroom/backyard door since we moved in. It’s been one of those little projects that we just never get to. I’m not a screen door fan. They totally scream Southern/country to me and I would usually steer way clear of them. But in this instance it seemed like the … More Modern Screen Door
Any self-respecting suburb lover enjoys a good backyard, myself obviously included. And any respectable backyard has fire. A favorite addition to our backyard was a simple, low fire pit. Even when it’s not fired up, it serves as a gathering spot, as places where fire happens often do.I purchased ours after a pretty exhaustive search and … More Modern Fire Pit Roundup
Hey there!! I shared the pretty-much-all-finished-and-so-colorful-backyard a few months ago (with an additional post all about plants and another on that crazy painted wall), but the patio was shielded from your eyes for your own protection. It spent a few months last year looking respectable until we decided to bring that tulip table into the family room. Since … More Mid-Century Inspired Patio
Update: See the backyard 1 year in here. Following up on my long backyard post from a couple weeks ago, I’m here today with another too long post on the specifics of what we planted and why. Ripping out a fine enough yard and starting over from scratch, and doing it all yourself on a budget without any landscape experience, sounds … More Drought Tolerant Plants in the Backyard
Update: See the backyard 1 year in here. Ridiculously long post alert! Yes, I know it’s time for Christmas trees not yucca trees. But I wanted to slip some backyard progress in before the new year arrives and our slow crawl becomes massively pathetic! We still have some small tweaks to make out here, but the gist of everything … More Backyard Progress
Heeey! Here with some porch freshness today: a new door color (same old door), a new doorbell button, a fresh coat of exterior paint on the wood and eaves, and the removal of a handrail. It all adds up to a much cleaner look! Why am I painting the same weird scrolly old door again when … More Porch Freshess
Highlight of my summer right here everybody! One super simple paint job and the backyard is now my kind of crazy. You can get a good idea of how blah this retaining wall used to look like in this post. And now, excusing the millions of fence spider webs, get a load of it! *Update: See the whole backyard here … More Painted Mosaic Cinderblock Wall!
*2018 update: I’ve written a new post on this same subject with some updated information! I know butterfly chairs are a contentious issue but I am a shameless super fan. Some people say they look too dorm, but loads of Julius Schulman photos say otherwise. Plus, The Parker. Who you gonna believe? I nabbed these rusty and pitted vintage butterfly … More Vintage Butterfly Chair Covers
Hi guys! Question: will you still read this blog if I say ‘balls deep’ right now? I know it verges on vulgar, but in the interest of transparency I feel like we should go there. That’s how I talk to myself in my head, and outloud too, and it’s really the only accurate way to express … More DIY Yard Curbs
Fair warning, this is a monster post filled with locksets, handlesets, knobs, escutcheons, trimplates, backsets and more galore! I could go on and on, so I’m probably gonna.I casually mentioned before what a struggle it was to find mid-century leaning door hardware for the front door. As if just finding something cute and mid-century compatible in a sea … More Mid Century Front Door Hardware Sources
