What’s next with the house projects

Cardigan: Lilly Pulitzer c/o also comes in blue / Jeans: Mother / Tank: Anthropologie (old) / Name necklace: Etsy / See tiger print stool project here

am telling you after this, we will be really close to done with our home, like the big renovations. Because I don’t see any further plans beyond this – though Benjamin keeps saying he wants to build me a new bigger closet but um, that would require expanding again and I’m not quite ready for that!

So keeping that in mind, our last BIG project in the foreseeable future is our backyard renovation. I’ll share those plans soon but we do have a few smaller projects I am working on I’d like to share –

• Painting the dining room white – Sherwin-Williams Alabaster white to match the rest of the house. After a big long debate over paint, wallpaper, I just got so confused. Then I submitted my question to Ballard Designs Podcast, “How to Decorate” one of my favorite podcasts and they answered it! I was sooo happy to get answers! The designer recommended no wallpaper, just white walls since it’s in the middle of our home and possibly doing something on the ceiling instead. I’ll wait on the ceiling as that’s complicated because there’s no stop, but it was just the push I needed to paint. It’s happening this week – I’m the painter. Yuck but it has to be done.
• Building a harmon hinge door – What is a harmon hinge door you ask? Oh well thanks to my Veranda magazine subscription, I discovered what it was and decided that’s what I needed to block off our dining room and entertaining parts of the house from the hallway – my bathroom and our bedrooms. I just never liked seeing the hallway! So this will be worked on soon, hopefully, as in our contractor is already booked.
• Adding trim to the arches – We are working on adding a thin piece of wood along the arches just 1/8″ or more from the edge to make them pop. I think it’ll be a nice detail.
• Backyard Renovation – This is the big one and we have already started! We will also need a few things removed and reinstalled like fencing and building it so I’m a bit worried about the timeline (my November milestone birthday party) but we think this is going to work out perfectly, the quotes are coming in quick and we are so thankful to Kami for working on the plans so quickly – (post coming soon). Then I will have to fill the trunk of my car and make multiple trips to the nursery every day and plant. But I’ll be happy to do that of course! :)
• Landscaping lighting – hard wired and solar – Something we’ve wanted and had a hard time achieving with the front yard was lighting. The electrical digging was not easy to figure out but we did our front lights all the way to the street, we just wish we knew how to do more – remember we were the project managers. But I just discovered Volt lighting and they have kits for solar and hard wired. There are so many wonderful things to choose from I can’t wait to take time to look! Here’s a kit, and here’s a solar kit I’m looking at. I am tired of buying cheaper solar lights and things eventually break sooner it’s just a waste of money. This company has some great reviews! It looks like you can do it yourself too and I’m always up for that.

I’m super excited for it and also ready for some fall weather any time now… my cardigan from Lilly Pulitzer also comes in blue. I have another older version in black and white. I love fringe and a fun lightweight top for fall and color of course.

Well, back to fun outside content coming up. I have so much going on in my mind and I want to share so I’m hoping I make the time to properly sit down and share them with you. Thanks for being along for the ride, as always I appreciate you being here. xx

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Diana Elizabeth is ready for estate sales again – though she prefers the private ones. She wants more outdoor furniture now that patios are being built so she’ll be on the hunt soon!