Halloween Mantel 2016

Hurricane Matthew got in the way of my exterior Halloween decorating, so here is a look at my fireplace mantel. Almost everything is from thrift stores, the Dollar Tree, or was lying around my house. 

The skull mirrors, spiders, black roses, and tombstones are all from the Dollar Tree. I love that place for filling in the gaps of my decorations. The purple vase and flowers, along with the candle sticks and holders are things I gathered while wandering around my house looking for stuff in the color scheme. The skulls are from thrifted, the chain is from Home Depot, and the silver skeleton hands on the edges of the mantel are a gift from Melinda. The fabric is from Joanns - use a coupon!

I have a timer set so that the purple lights come on in the evening, which makes everything glow. We still haven't renovated the fireplace so for now I have to be content with purple light rather than a fire. 

House Exterior Update

It is about time for an update on my house. A lot of our to do list has been accomplished, but we still have a ways to go!

I took this picture in the middle of my landscaping installation. As you can see, we are almost done with the exterior painting and the concrete work is finally complete. We have made even more progress since this picture, but I am still waiting on sod. Until the grass is in place, the house won't look much different than it does here.

And here is the guest house right after the landscapers were done. I am really happy with how everything is turning out. And now for some before pictures so you can see the difference.

This is a screenshot from Google Street view, which shows basically what the buildings and property looked like when we closed. So much concrete!

This is a close up of the house after we had spent some time working on it. As you can see, the windows on the right have been replaced. I decided to install new wood windows wherever there were metal awning windows. We also opened up the front porch, which really changed the look of the exterior. You would not believe how much more light we get in the front room now as a result. Obviously, both buildings have been entirely repainted and the all concrete removed and replaced with a new driveway and sidewalk design. I finally have a front yard. Now if it would just stop raining, I would be able to get some sod!

Who Knew Driveways Required So Much Thought

You may have noticed from last week's post that my driveway is in rough shape. You may have also noticed that my front yard is primarily concrete.

As our focus turned to the exterior appearance, it became obvious that we need a new driveway. We also need an irrigation system in order to grow grass instead of weeds. Efficiency dictates that we tackle both projects at once so that the irrigation crew has as little concrete to go under as possible. Here are a few inspiration pictures for my new driveway, keeping in mind that it will go from the street to the carport. Instead of having extra parking in front of the house, I am extending the driveway to the left (according to this picture) into the side yard so that we can have something more attractive than a parking lot for a front yard.

Houzz

Houzz

Curb Appeal, Stage 1

Now that we are relatively settled inside the house, I have turned my attentions outward. Here is the facade of my house, or at least it was until recently. Many of the old houses in my neighborhood have front porches that were closed in with awning windows a few decades after being built. I prefer a more original look, so J and I did a bit of demo.

Much better, right? There is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but I am saving that for my carpenter. I wasn't interested in watching J take a sledgehammer any closer to the columns than he already did. And in the pursuit of efficiency and good timing, we did all the work the day after Halloween. Why remove the Halloween construction paper bats when you can just yank out all the windows?

Halloween 2015

Here are a few pictures of my Halloween decorations this year. It was my first Halloween decorating my own house and I was super excited.  The branches were pilfered from the side of the road and the signs were made from old pallet wood behind my paint store. Side note: paint is typically delivered on pallets, so paint stores should have some should you ever need a pallet. The bats are just construction paper and I borrowed the monster from my mom.