house numbers, sconces & porch stuff....

Our front porch is one of the reasons we bought our house.  It's large, wraps around the side of the house, and is concrete which I didn't think at first I would like but it's really smooth, and feels nice when you walk on it in your bare feet.  I also like that it doesn't have a railing around it which makes it feel so open.  The kids were into skateboarding a lot last summer and before we had any furniture they loved just going back and forth across the front.. and then they realized they could jump off the end of the porch on their board and onto the lawn so that became the skateboard trick of the summer.

OK.. anyway we needed to buy some porch furniture so we started with a nice sectional set that we purchased at Costco online (it's called the hampton).  It's really comfortable and fits well on the porch.  We may buy another one for the other side of the porch.. I also would like to get a table for the side porch but haven't found one I like yet.

On the driveway side of the house we put up a temporary piece of lattice just to give us a bit of privacy from our neighbor but mainly to support the climbing rose that is growing there.. by end of summer it was pretty well covered with the rose bush.  I found this nice wood lattice from latticestix.com that I would like to use... but still figuring out what we want there.

Part of the plan to spruce up the front of the house entailed getting some new house numbers to replace the colonial 1970's looking ones that were there and also replacing the crazy giant sconces with something that had cleaner lines. The house numbers are basic pin mounted bronze numbers - they do the job and look better than the old ones.. the sconces are from restoration hardware (braxton sconce).   We still want to replace the door bell, mail slot and either get a new storm door or at least update the hardware.  That's where we are with the front of the house for now... 

ok..here goes.. another attempt at this blogging thing

ok.. so obviously we still have more work to do on the house, but we also didn't stop doing work back in april.. i just couldn't find the time to write about it... so i figured maybe just do an update on where we are with things.. and then i'll try to blog maybe once a month or so.

some of what we've been working on hasn't been fun stuff.. mostly mechanical systems and landscaping (that part is fun)

• the boiler install was completed without any issue.. and seems to working just fine.
• we broke down and had central air installed.. all it took was one day in April that was over 90 degrees and we started shopping around for contractors.  seriously, i don't know why i would even entertain the idea of living without AC.. 
• there has been major landscaping going on around here of which I can take ZERO credit.. Glenn is like edward scissorhands chopping things down, moving plants around and planting new grass both in the back yard and front yard...  I will post some photos of his progress later.
• we re-tiled the front vestibule.. this is one that i'm pretty proud of and i'll do a separate post on soon.
• we put up some new house numbers, exterior wall sconces and purchased some really great porch furniture.. it's looking pretty good.
• we have completely cleared out the third floor of all the stuff that migrated up there after we moved and have begun to work on the space.  we had a few extra outlets installed and are now beginning to skim coat the walls.. more to come!
• we still HATE our kitchen!  although i have come up with numerous schemes for what i want to do with the space and hopefully we'll get the funds together soon so that i can actually put together a meal without having to balance things on my head while cooking.  the lack of counter space is ridiculous.. and it's hideous... and did i mention i HATE it?