Home Improvement

This is going to be a picture heavy post. So I hope you like pictures. 

I do. Especially a bunch of good ol' before and afters.

If you know me, you may have suspected there was no way I could sit quarantined in our house for months on end without changing a few things. The major project we undertook--before there was any mention of  quarantine--was our backyard fence. This has been years in the making. It was no small feat. It took months of paperwork, phone calls, and, ultimately, haggling over inches to get this thing in. Don't get me started.

The wonderful, amazing, hard working guys over at Fence SC had the whole thing done, perfectly, in less than 48 hours. We were blown away. And they thought of every. little. thing. They left space for the grass to grow and the weed whacker to fit, they leveled the posts and the boards, they installed the most beautiful gate and hardware I've ever seen. They even used screws instead of nails in places we may need to deconstruct the fence to reach utilities. And they could not have been kinder. I don't think a single worker stopped by without giggling with Maggie. 

This was our very plain, very open yard before beginning any work.

Posts and Quickcrete went in the first afternoon.

Early on day two, 2 guys showed up and got straight to work framing out the fence.

By sundown on day two, the fence was complete!

Next, Michael and I had to get to work on the landscaping.

This tiny little palm grass had been watered by the dripping of our hot water heater for years and grew into a full on bulb. It took hours to dig this sucker up--and the tiny maple trying to grow next to it--between the AC unit and the house.

After removing those trees and relaying the pavers, we planted a beautiful Stormy Weather rose (purple with a yellow center) that should start blooming within the next month or so.

I also decided to plant a very small selection of mosquito and house fly repelling and pollinator attracting plants in this small patch. From left to right, I planted Lemon grass, Lemon balm, and Marigolds. We call them Maggie Marigolds, to attract the Maggie Monarchs (which migrate in early November when Maggie was born).

In addition to our Maggie Marigolds, my mother always, always had red Geraniums on our back porch, and now we do the same.

We added a makeshift grilling station outside center, and plan to add yellow Lantana (another butterfly bush) on either side of these Boxwoods, which are thriving. 

Our kind neighbors have been gardening like crazy along with us, and brought us this gorgeous Hibiscus! It has been thriving since we planted it and it's absolutely beautiful.

Michael planted a 4x4x8 firmly in this corner and put up a birdhouse his late grandfather made that he's always wanted to display. I also thought it would be a good idea to hang some flowers from it for now. I've planted Zinnias and Snapdragons at the base of the birdhouse, and plan to get a hummingbird feeder to hang in the flower's stead once (if) those grow. Along with red Petunias, they are supposed to be some of the best flowers for attracting the fun little birds.

Of course, no backyard oasis is complete without a hammock, so I found this one for under $100 on Amazon and we have literally spent every day in it since! Maggie loves the hammock almost as much as Michael does and I have to wrestle my way in there if I want to join.

As if we didn't have enough going on already, we've been binge watching Good Bones and Hometown on Hulu and I decided our living room wall needed to be a deeper shade of green one night. So we made it happen.

It's probably been a year or two since I consulted Modsy on this room. I could not figure out the best layout or furniture to make the most use of the space and I finally caved and consulted the professionals. You simply send them pics and specs and for a fee (you choose which package you want, I went minimal) they will get back to you with two design options and you can work with them to trouble shoot or accept their first offerings. They will link furniture (you provide a budget/price range) available for purchase, or you can do what we did and collect cast offs and FB marketplace finds for a whopping total of $280.



 These are the design photos we liked best and attempted to recreate on our own:

We chose Sherwin Williams Riverway for the accent wall, and the other walls were already painted Sherwin Williams Silvermist--pretty much our all time favorite interior paint color.

The room has some brass fixtures in the fireplace and ceiling fan that I don't mind at all, along with some beautiful gold frames we were gifted or have collected over the years, so I found an old mirror we had and decided to spray paint the frame gold with some leftover paint I had on hand from a previous project. We spent a total of 20 bucks on this DIY project for a quart of paint, with a coupon.

Of course, I did have to buy some new throw pillows from Target to match, so tack on another $40. But these are seriously the best throw pillows we've ever had. And the first on which we've ever agreed. And trust me, we've had a lot of throw pillows in our four homes together. 

That's it! Well, it's quite a lot. And we're tired. But we have learned we really enjoy house projects together (the fun ones, anyway) and love to work outside in the yard. Do you enjoy a good DIY or would you rather bite your own toenails? Have you done any fun projects during your time at home together or have you just enjoyed a slower pace? We have been enjoying cooking meals, watching movies, and doing puzzles, too. Quality time is my love language, and I am soaking it up while I can.

Best,

Emily