Well, let me clarify. We bought a different house. Built in 1992. With alllll the finishes that 1992 deemed fabulous.
Enjoy these exterior photos from a previous real estate listing.
We love the Southern cottage style of the exterior and the big front porch. The color scheme? Not so much.
And this is the back side of the house. We love the deck that’s overlooking a very private, mostly wooded back yard. Apparently the gardens out back were quite spectacular! Over the past few years the weeds have prevailed and we’re doing battle with some very prolific English ivy. It may take a few years to get the gardens renovated.
How cute is the x detail on the deck railing? And this gives you a better idea of how wooded and private the back yard is.
We love the covered area on the back deck too! it’s a good depth for an outdoor lounge and eating area. The siding color and the deck stain are not at all sympatico. This is a good example of why you don’t combine clean pastel colors with muddy neutrals.
For the exterior colors, I’m leaning toward something in a classic white with either the darkest green bordering on black shutters - or possibly black shutters . The front door color is open for debate.
What a charmer
This one feels really classic old South to me. Which I love.
A yellow front door is a strong contender. And I love that it would be a subtle nod the home’s previous exterior color palette.
For the back yard gardens, I’m envisioning a southern style shade garden, with lots of hydrangeas and azaleas woven through the existing hardwoods.
Azaleas would provide some spring color and the filtered light from the hardwood trees would give them the perfect growing environment. And they shouldn’t require much maintenance, which is important to us.
I would also weave some hydrangeas throughout the back yard since they like the filtered light too. The combination of azaleas and hydrangeas would give us a long season of blooms - from early spring through mid summer. Fall interest would be provided by the leaves on the existing hardwoods.
Here’s a photo of the leaves in the fall. We get beautiful shades of gold, russet and buff. It’s so beautiful!
So there you have it! We’ve moved in and we’re making good progress, but there is still tons of work ahead. I’ll keep the blog updated with plans and progress as we move forward with the renovation.
Hope you’ll check in for updates - it should be lots of fun!
