The Next Project in our Fixer-Upper

Published: Mon, 04/15/19

It's been awhile since I shared an update on some house projects and I thought you might like hearing what we've been working on, and what we've decided to ignore.

Ignoring, and choosing not do focus on things is JUST as important as doing things when you have a lot of projects looming ahead.

After living in this fixer-upper for five and a half years, we are finally focusing some effort on the front of the house. I hate that we haven't been able to make the exterior a priority until now.

But the kitchen, bathrooms (upstairs and downstairs) ceilings, barn, basement and pool all needed more attention and the front exterior didn't have any emergencies other than looking neglected, so we chose to let it sit.

Here's a little crazy mockup of where we might be headed thanks to my mad skillz on Keynote (lazy-girl's photoshop). I even made myself into a master gardener while I was at it. Why not?

We are hoping to

replace the door and sidelights with a pair of wood doors
remove a column and widen and rebulid the steps
landscape the front
replace lattice under the house with wood slats
pull off vinyl siding to expose the painted cedar siding underneath
possibly add wood shutters
build a new path to the front door
create a dedicated parking place so people know where to park so they can come to our front door

This past week we checked the first thing off our list.

I hired our friend Jesse from JH Craftsman to custom build our front doors. And they turned out spectacular.

Here's the interior view.

Look at all that light streaming in!

I had Jesse put a light stain on the outside and a black stain on the inside. I think they look great with our windows I painted black when we first moved in.

I couldn't find a photo of the same view of the door from when we moved in, but here's one that shows the original door, wall color and other things.

Here's our exterior as of yesterday.

It always looks worse before it looks better.

Chad already tore down part of the lattice and poured a footer to hold the new brick pillar which will hold the new white column about 18 inches to the left of where the current column is (the one on left part of the steps).

The new steps will be about twice as wide, and you won't be able to see through them.

Above is the house the day we moved in.

Below is a few months in when we took a few hours to "quiet the exterior".

If you are hating on something in your house but you can't spend much money or time or maybe don't know yet what you want to do, one thing that can help is just removing things you know you don't love.

We removed the country screen door, the plastic shutters, and the knockout roses that drove us crazy.

Then we lived with this clean slate for years, YEARS while we focused on other things.

Of course, that didn't stop us from hosting three Nest Fests (that's 3000 people) having all sorts of parties and gatherings, inviting my publishers to the house and having our kitchen photographed by Better Homes and Gardens.

Our house wasn't done and we still used it all the time and no one died!

We are paying cash for everything as we go, which slows us down a lot, but ultimately is the best choice for us.

I've found that I'd rather focus on one project and only that project and get it completed instead of doing a little bit of work all over to make everything look a little bit better.

You have to be willing to live with a lot of ugly and undone, and your mom and friends asking why you don't just go ahead and do {insert part of a project that you aren't ready to focus on yet} but this is the most rewarding way to approach a fixer-upper for us.

We worked on the pool and backyard for about 18 months.

My husband, Chad owns a company with a friend and they build pools, patios, fireplaces and such so he could do most of the work himself with his friends and our boys. But, since we paid cash and didn't hire a bunch of help, it took about six times longer than it would take a normal pool to be built.

While we did that--we didn't work on any other home projects which can make for a boring DIY blog--thank God I'm not trying to be a DIY blog.

I might have bought sheets for the bed and bought grocery store flowers--but we aren't the kind of people who can do mulitiple projects at once. We can barely complete one thing at a time. We focused on the pool and nothing else in the house got attention other than people and animals.

If you want to see more before and afters (more likely durings) here's a link to some posts all about the projects we've done in the house. They are in reverse chronological order because #blog.

Two more links you might enjoy:

One month after moving in

Two months after moving in

This house is a long term project (most homes are) and we are hoping after 10 years, to be in upkeep mode. Hopefully, by then most of the big projects will be done. I'm sure we'll think of other things to do, but it's nice to look back and remember where we started, it makes us feel great about working slow and with intention.

PS, Maybe you can't do a big huge project right now but you still want some simple changes in your home to help it feel fresh and spacious for spring. I've learned how to create a relaxing seasonal home in the midst of all sorts of projects and I created the Cozy Minimalist Spring Class for people like us who want a seasonal home without buying bins of plastic decor. The class closes tonight and won't be back until next year. Once you're in, you have unlmited access. Find out more here.

tell me more about that spring class