Let the Tour Begin

Okay, so we are going to start our little tour enjoying the great out doors today. On Tuesday we talked about The House 175 + years ago - and now we are going to talk about The House today.

Not much as changed huh? Okay, so the trees are bigger and there is now a porch but other than that things are pretty much how they once were. As you can see from the right (north) side of the house, it used to be yellow. We don't have plans to paint it again since we really like the exposed brick but we would also like to seal the brick but can't really do that until all the old yellow paint is gone. Our theory is that the brick may be too brittle to power wash the house so we will have to explore our options. What I do know is that all that dull brown trim will someday be white!! The Husband wants to paint it himself but this is actually something I may be okay with contracting out:)

From the front of the house, to the back of the house. There is not much to talk about here but we are lucky enough to have a fairly large back yard. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but if you look close enough you can see were two windows on the right side of the house were bricked over. It makes me sad to see that but the window downstairs is in our kitchen and the window upstairs is in our Master Bathroom so I guess it had to be done.

According to Google Earth there used to be a very large tree in our back yard but, sadly, it is not longer there. My hope is that by this time next year we will have purchased a slightly more mature tree to plant in its place.

Wondering what the back yard looked like when we moved in? Well, here it is! Can you say Queen Anne's Lace????

Oh, and how can we leave out The Shed. The only thing that makes it okay that we don't have a garage:) This thing is chalk full of lawn equipment, toys, and tools. Earlier this summer it got a much needed coat of paint. Now all we need are a few more plants.

See what I mean about the much needed coat of paint?

Okay, so here we are back to the house. The front yard area is one of my favorite parts of this house. I am not sure if you can see it but we now have a swing hanging from the tree:) And I am looking forward to some cooler nights were The Husband and I can enjoy some time sitting after The Girls are in bed.

Although The Husband and I both feel a little weird eating outside on such a busy street, we do have an area available should the mood hit us. This area was pieced together using a Craigslist table, four second-hand chairs and a tablecloth left over from The Oldest's 5th birthday party. In the center of the table is a great jar I found at Goodwill (I wish you could see it better) with a candle inside. The candle has since melted in the summer heat so I now have no idea how I am going to get it out of there. One of my favorite things about this area can be seen hanging in the background. This a wind chime that I bought on vacation this summer and I love it. I love it because it doesn't look like your typical wind chime and I love it because it actually sounds like at ocean buoy. So I can sit outside and feel like I am sitting somewhere on the coast listening to the sounds of the buoy's rocking on the ocean:)

The other side of our porch gets much more use - the seating area! Perfect for parades and post-lacrosse game beverages:) Not soon after we got The House, The Husband's aunt and uncle offered us this wicker set. A few dozen cans of spray paint later and some new cushions really brought it back to life.

I also couldn't resist adding these pillows from Reiter8 that I had been obsessing over for the past year. I loved them but could not come up with a place in our home where they fit - enter outdoor wicker furniture to solve my problem.

These pillows are made from reclaimed sailcloth so they are perfect for the outdoors.

And, of course, who could forget the bistro set we got from the Blog Fairy. Yet another example of something I knew I wanted before I knew where I was going to put it. I think it fits perfectly right where it is.

Ummm, what is this picture doing in here? Well, I thought I would include it because our new mailbox is still sitting in a box in the basement and I am secretly hoping that The Husband will read this and get motivated to hang it.

Our last stop on this tour is the door - into which you will enter The House. The door has received a slight face lift with a new coat of paint (used to be black), some new hardware, a doorbell, and a new porch light.

If I can get my act together, you should be able to tune in tomorrow where we will take a look at The Dining Room:)